Talk to a human

What to have ready before you get in touch

Nothing at all, if you would rather just talk something through — plenty of the useful conversations start with “I am not sure what I need”. But if you want a concrete answer quickly, applications stall far more often than they are refused, and they stall because information arrives in pieces over three weeks. A file that goes cold frequently becomes a decline, not because the answer changed but because nobody picked it back up.

Having these to hand typically halves the elapsed time: your last two years of accounts if you have them; recent management figures, because filed accounts can be nine months out of date and a lender is pricing risk today; six to twelve months of business bank statements; details of any borrowing you already have, including anything secured; and a short, plain explanation of what the money is for and how it will be repaid.

If you are early stage there are no accounts to send, so it is your own credit position and a forecast that has been stress-tested rather than one that turns profitable in month three.

What we can tell you, and what we cannot

We can tell you which product fits the problem you are describing, what a lender is going to look at first, and what to check in an offer before you sign it — total repayable, early-repayment charges, and what is being personally guaranteed and by whom.

We cannot promise approval, and we would be wary of anyone who does: finance is always subject to status and the decision belongs to the lender. We are not a lender ourselves and we do not provide regulated financial advice. Where a question turns out to be an accounting or tax one — how a grant will be taxed, whether hire purchase or leasing suits your capital allowances position — we will say so, because those answers change the real cost and are much cheaper to get before you sign than after.

How quickly we reply

Within one working day, to an actual person rather than a ticket number. If your question is time-critical, say so in the first line and we will treat it that way. And if you would rather skip the conversation entirely, the funding search takes a few minutes and commits you to nothing — no hard credit search happens at the matching stage.