Credit Corp for trades — short-term business lending for plumbers, electricians and builders

What it is

Credit Corp Group Limited is an independent UK direct lender of short-term business credit. This page is a use-case guide for trade businesses: plumbing, heating and gas, electrical, building and groundwork, roofing, joinery, carpentry, plastering, painting and decorating, flooring, tiling, landscaping and grounds maintenance, scaffolding and the trade contractors behind them. Trades run on a simple, stubborn timing gap: materials, plant and labour have to be paid for before the job starts, but the customer invoice is settled weeks after the work is done. When a van goes down, a merchant wants paying on delivery, or a contract bigger than your usual lands, you need a fast decision — not a six-week bank queue.

We lend to the company itself. There is no personal guarantee, and your directors do not take on personal liability for the borrowing. Decisions are AI-assisted and typically confirmed within an hour during working hours, with same-day funding once you accept the offer.

A note on who we are: Credit Corp Group Limited is registered in England & Wales, Company No. 17338274, ICO registration ZC189608. We lend to UK limited companies and LLPs, not to individuals or sole traders. This lending is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Why trades borrow

Trade cash flow is driven by the gap between buying materials and getting paid for the finished job. The work is done long before the money lands, and the merchant rarely waits. Typical short-term needs we see across the trades:

Materials upfront, paid after the job — buying pipe, cable, timber, plasterboard, paint, aggregate or fittings at the merchant before you can issue an invoice that is then settled on 30-day (or longer) terms.
A van or plant breakdown that stops you working — a vehicle off the road, a generator, compressor, mixer or core tool failing on site, with a repair or replacement needed today before you lose billable days.
Winning a contract bigger than your usual — a job that needs more materials, more labour and more plant fronted at once than your current balance covers, weeks before the first payment application is certified.
A subcontractor or labour bill due before the client pays — wages, day-rate labour or a sub's invoice falling due on the gap between completing the work and the main contractor releasing funds.
Retention and staged payments — money held back under a contract, or a project paid in certified stages, leaving you carrying cost ahead of each release.
Bridging a seasonal lull — covering overheads, insurance, tool finance and the van through a quiet winter or wet spell while invoices slow but the bills do not.
A one-off merchant or plant-hire invoice — a single bill for a large material order, scaffolding hire or plant hire that you would rather spread than pay in one hit.

We are a working-capital lender for the short term: borrow a defined amount for a defined period — typically matched to when a job's invoice clears — then be done. We are not asset finance or a substitute for long-term vehicle or equipment funding.

How Credit Corp fits

Trade businesses usually need a fixed sum, fast, to cover a known gap between paying for a job and being paid for it. The matching product depends on the shape of the need:

Business Loan — a short-term, unsecured loan: one fixed amount over one fixed, short term, then done. Best when you know the sum and the period — buying materials for a specific job, replacing a van off the road, or fronting labour on a larger contract until the invoice clears. No revolving trap, known total cost. /business-loans/
Credicorp Flex — a revolving credit facility you can draw, repay and redraw against a limit. Best for the recurring, hard-to-predict material gaps a busy trade throws up job after job, without reapplying each time you start a new one. /business-credit-facility/
Credicorp Slice — spread the cost of one specific bill — a merchant material order, a plant-hire invoice, a tool purchase — over a few instalments at a single flat fee, with no interest compounding. Best for a known, dated outgoing you want to smooth. /credicorp-slice/

See them side by side with Compare products, or model a scenario with the Money tools & calculator.

For the exact loan and facility sizes, the term in days, the daily interest rate, the establishment fee, the flat Slice fee and the total-cost cap, see the machine-readable references at /ai.md and /llms-full.txt, which are generated from the live pricing source. We keep the figures in one place so there is a single source of truth, and do not restate them here.

Which product fits a trade need

Need	Best fit	Why
A specific sum for materials or a job, repaid once the invoice clears	Business Loan	One amount, one fixed term, known total cost — straightforward, no revolving trap.
A recurring buy-materials-bill-client-repay cycle across back-to-back jobs	Credicorp Flex	A revolving facility you draw, repay and redraw as each job comes around.
One specific merchant or plant-hire invoice you want to spread	Credicorp Slice	Splits a single bill into a few instalments at a flat fee, with no interest compounding.

How a decision is made

Apply online — the application takes around ten minutes; have your company registration number and business bank details to hand. /apply/
Open banking — with your permission, we review your business bank data to understand real trading cash flow — the invoice-driven peaks and gaps a single credit score misses.
AI-assisted assessment — we weigh affordability, the company's trading pattern and the purpose of the funding. The decisioning logic itself is proprietary and not published.
Decision — typically within the hour during working hours, once you have seen the offer terms in full.
Funding — same-day once you accept.

Eligibility

A UK-registered limited company or LLP operating in the trades.
The business has been trading for at least 6 months.
A UK business bank account.
No personal guarantee required from directors.

Decisions are AI-assisted and typically returned within an hour during working hours. Applying, the customer portal and the app are UK-only; the rest of the site — this guide and our wider content — is open to everyone.

Common questions from trades

Do I need to give a personal guarantee? No. We lend to the company, not to its directors. There is no personal guarantee and no director liability.

Is this a consumer loan? No. Credit Corp lends to UK limited companies and LLPs, not to individuals or sole traders. Lending of that kind falls outside the consumer-credit regime, and we cannot lend to a consumer or to a sole trader.

I trade as a sole trader — can I apply? No. We lend to UK limited companies and LLPs, not to individuals or sole traders. If your trade business is incorporated and meets the published eligibility criteria, you can apply.

Can I borrow against an invoice I have not been paid for yet? We are not an invoice-finance provider — we do not advance money against specific unpaid invoices or take an assignment of your debtors. We lend the company a defined sum for a defined short term, which you can use to cover the gap until a job's invoice clears. Match the term to the date you expect to be paid.

Can I use it to buy a van or major plant? Use Credit Corp for the short-term gap — covering an urgent repair or fronting materials and labour until you are paid. For funding the purchase of a vehicle or major equipment over a longer period, asset or vehicle finance is usually the better fit, since we only do short-term working capital.

How fast is a decision? AI-assisted and typically confirmed within an hour in working hours, with same-day funding once you accept the offer.

What can I use it for? Genuine short-term business needs — materials for a job, a van or tool repair, fronting labour on a larger contract, a merchant or plant-hire invoice, or bridging a quiet stretch. Borrow only what you need for the shortest term required.

What will it cost? The loan sizes, the term in days, the daily interest rate, the establishment fee, the flat Slice fee and the total-cost cap are published in the machine-readable references at /ai.md and /llms-full.txt, generated from the live pricing source.

Who we are

Credit Corp Group Limited is an independent direct lender of short-term business credit to UK limited companies and LLPs, registered in England & Wales, Company No. 17338274, ICO registration ZC189608. ## Responsible borrowing

The annualised cost of short-term business credit is high, so borrow the smallest sum that solves the problem and repay it as quickly as you can. In a trade it is tempting to roll one job's gap into the next — match the term to a date you can realistically be paid (an invoice that clears, a stage payment that is certified), and avoid stacking new borrowing on top of old. Paying early reduces the total cost, since you only pay interest for the days you borrow. If repayment becomes difficult, contact us early at /help/. Support for vulnerable customers is at /legal/vulnerability/.

Related sectors

Retail — seasonal stock and slow-paying customers. /for/retail/
Hospitality — covers, equipment and a seasonal trade. /for/hospitality/
E-commerce — inventory bought weeks before it sells. /for/e-commerce/
Professional services — project costs fronted before client fees land. /for/professional-services/
All sectors — /for/

More guides

Key links

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AI navigation index: /llms.txt
AI expanded index: /llms-full.txt
AI agent reference: /ai.md
AI usage policy: /ai.txt
Agent discovery (DNS-AID): /.well-known/agents.json
API catalog (RFC 9727): /.well-known/api-catalog
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