™
Working capital for
the test room and dispensary.
An optician practice pays for frames, lenses, lab work and test equipment long before an insurer or an NHS payment run settles. Short-term finance bridges that gap, and on every product the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. For an incorporated optician practice, it does one thing: short-term working capital to keep the test room, the dispensary and the cash flow around them moving.
Few practices feel the gap between money out and money in as sharply as an optician. You stock frames and lens ranges, pay the lab for the glazing, run a fortnight of clinic time and dispense to the patient — and the money for the General Ophthalmic Services work, or the patient’s insurer settlement, lands weeks after the job is done. This page looks at how a Business Bridging Loan, Credicorp Flex or Credicorp Slice tends to be used to bridge those gaps, so you can picture the fit before you apply.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director or optometrist who signs. That means no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance. When you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Where an optician’s cash-flow gaps come from
It is rarely about whether the practice is busy. It is about the timing of money in and money out — and in optics, that timing pulls in several directions at once.
Frame and lens stock goes out first
A dispensing display only works if it is full, and a fresh season of frames means committing to ranges before a single pair is sold. On top of the frames sit the lens stock and the lab’s glazing bills — the coatings, the high-index and the varifocals that turn a prescription into a finished pair. The supplier wants paying on their terms; the patient collects, and pays, on theirs.
Test equipment is a real capital outlay
A slit lamp, a phoropter, an auto-refractor, a visual-field analyser or an OCT scanner are not cheap, and when one needs replacing or you want to add a clinical service, the bill lands all at once. The kit earns its keep over years of testing, but you have to find the money to put it in the room first.
A fit-out closes the doors while it costs you
A new test room, a re-laid dispensing area, fresh display walls, seating, signage and a contact-lens bay are a one-off cost with a clear payback: a practice that looks the part and tests more patients. But the work often wants doing in a quiet spell, which is exactly when takings are at their lowest.
Insurer and NHS money arrives late
General Ophthalmic Services payments and voucher reimbursements come through on the payment run, not on the day of the test, and private insurer settlements take their own time. You have already paid the lab, the frames supplier and the staff by the time that money reaches the account — a gap the practice carries on every cycle.
The kinds of funding that fit a practice
Three plain-English shapes of short-term credit, and how each tends to land in an optician practice. The detail — amounts, pricing, terms — lives on the products page and with the lender; we won’t quote figures here.
A Business Bridging Loan — for a known, one-off buy
A single lump sum into the company account, repaid over a short, fixed term. It suits the optics jobs you can put a figure on: a new OCT scanner, a slit lamp, a deposit on a fit-out, or a big seasonal frame order. You know the cost, and you can see the testing and dispensing that will clear it. More on the Bridging Loan →
Credicorp Flex — for the year-round restock rhythm
A revolving facility the company can draw on, repay and draw again. This suits an optician’s natural pattern — topping up frames and lens stock in waves, covering each lab bill as it lands, and bridging the wait on a payment run — without arranging fresh finance every time. You pay only for what you draw, not the whole limit. More on Credicorp Flex →
Credicorp Slice — for a single supplier or lab bill
Spread one frame-supplier or glazing-lab invoice over a few weeks while the supplier is paid in full today. Handy when a chunky stock order or a quarter’s lab account lands at an awkward moment and you’d rather smooth it across the dispensing weeks that follow. More on Credicorp Slice →
We don’t publish rates or terms on this page on purpose — they live with the lender so you always see the current figures. Run the numbers on the funding tools, read up on the basics in the learn hub, and check the live product pages on credicorp.co.uk before you apply.
The company borrows — not you
In a practice where the lead optometrist often is the business, this is the part worth slowing down on.
Plenty of practice owners have already been asked, by a bank or a broker, to put their home behind a working-capital facility. A personal guarantee or a charge over the family house turns a business cash-flow gap into a personal risk — and in a sector where one slow payment run can swing a quarter’s numbers, that is a heavy thing to sign.
Credicorp is built differently. The agreement is between Credicorp and your company — the Ltd, LLP or PLC that holds the lease, the equipment and the bank account.
- No personal guarantee — the company is the borrower, full stop.
- No charge over your home — your house isn’t security for frame stock or a scanner.
- No personal credit check on a director — the lender looks at the business, not your own file.
- Bodies corporate only — UK Ltd, LLP or PLC, never a sole trader or an individual.
This is exempt business lending under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, not consumer credit. The full position is set out on our lending and regulation page, with the wider company and trade-mark detail on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
How it can play out — a worked example
A made-up, clearly anonymised practice — not a real customer — just to show the shape of the timing problem.
Picture an independent optician trading as a UK limited company with two test rooms and a small dispensing team. The practice wants to add an OCT scanner to widen what it can offer, and at the same time its older slit lamp is on its last legs and a new season of frames is due in. The equipment and the stock both need paying for up front, on the suppliers’ terms.
Meanwhile the money for last month’s sight tests is still working through the General Ophthalmic Services payment run, and a batch of private insurer claims is sitting unsettled. On paper the practice is comfortably busy and profitable; in the bank account, it is funding the scanner, the frames and the lab’s glazing bills several weeks before the matching income lands.
Because the scanner is a one-off, known cost with a clear payback, a fixed-term Business Bridging Loan to the company fits it cleanly — a set sum, repaid over the testing weeks that earn it back. The agreement is with the company, so the owner gives no personal guarantee and puts no charge over their home. If the seasonal frame top-ups then come in waves, a Credicorp Flex facility would let the practice draw again without starting over. The figures and the right product for a situation like this are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Opticians funding — common questions
The questions practice owners ask most. For anything beyond these, the lender’s team can help.
Can my optician practice borrow without a personal guarantee from the director?
Yes. Credicorp lends to the company — a UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to the director who signs. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The agreement sits between Credicorp and your practice, so the funding does not add to what is pinned to your own name.
We need to top up frame and lens stock before a payment run lands. Can funding cover that?
That is one of the most common reasons a practice looks at short-term finance. You buy frames and lens stock now and earn the money back as patients collect over the following weeks. A Business Bridging Loan suits a single, known stock order; Credicorp Flex suits a practice that restocks in waves. The detail is set by the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Can I use it for test equipment or a practice fit-out?
Yes. A new slit lamp, a phoropter, an OCT scanner, an auto-refractor or a full test-room and dispensing-area refit are all working-capital uses. Because the cost is known up front and the payback comes from the testing and dispensing that follow, a fixed-term Business Bridging Loan often fits a piece of equipment or a fit-out cleanly. The lender confirms what suits your case.
Insurer and NHS money arrives weeks after we have done the work. Does that matter?
That timing gap is exactly the kind of thing short-term working capital is built for. GOS payments and insurer settlements land well after the sight test and the dispense, while frames, lenses, lab work and staff are paid for in the meantime. Credicorp looks at the company as a whole rather than securing against any one payment run, so money owed but not yet received does not have to stall your next order.
Are you a bank, and is this regulated consumer credit?
No. Credicorp is an exempt business lender, not a bank and not a consumer-credit firm. It lends only to bodies corporate under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, so this is business credit, not a regulated consumer credit agreement. It is not for sole traders or for borrowing in a personal name.
Where do I actually apply?
This site is the Creditcorp brand front door and does not take applications. Applying, drawing down and managing the account all happen on the operating lender, credicorp.co.uk. You can compare the products and start an application there.
More general answers live on the Creditcorp FAQ, and the how-it-works overview walks through the whole journey from first look to funds in the bank.
Related sectors
Opticians share their clinical, stock-and-equipment cash-flow shape with their neighbours in healthcare.
- Dental practices — the same up-front equipment and lab bills, with NHS and insurer money arriving on its own timetable.
- Healthcare & clinics — clinical kit, consumable stock and the wait on insurer and NHS settlements.
- Veterinary practices — diagnostic equipment and a fit-out funded before the fees and pet-insurer claims come through.
Or browse the whole set on the industries hub. For company, trade-mark and legal detail, the group site is creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Keep the practice moving
Whatever you’re funding — stock, a scanner, a fit-out or the wait on a payment run — applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.