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Payroll can’t wait for the invoice.
Guarding, CCTV and monitoring firms pay their people week by week, then wait a month or three to be paid. These plain-English notes look at how short-term finance fits a UK security company, and on every one, the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Few trades carry as relentless a weekly wage bill as security. Officers are on shift — and on the payroll — from the first night of a contract, long before the client’s first invoice is raised, let alone paid. The cover never stops, so the cash going out never pauses either.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. It does one thing: short-term working capital for incorporated UK businesses. This page is a guide, not an application — when you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director who signs. No personal guarantee, no charge over a home, no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance.
Where the cash-flow gaps come from
Security money goes out on a strict weekly clock and comes back on the client’s terms. Four pressure points show up again and again.
Payroll before the invoice clears
This is the defining squeeze of the sector. A manned-guarding firm pays officers weekly or fortnightly, but the client is on 30, 60 or even 90-day terms. Every week you fund a wage run for shifts that won’t turn into cash for a month or more — and the bigger the guarding book, the wider that gap gets. Lose a single large payment to a slow payer and the whole rota’s wages are suddenly under strain.
Kit for an installation
CCTV cameras and recorders, alarm panels, access-control hardware, cabling, body-worn cameras and radios all have to be bought and fitted up front. On an install or upgrade contract you’re out of pocket for the equipment and the engineers’ time well before the job signs off and the final payment lands.
Contract ramp-ups and mobilisation
Winning a bigger contract is good news that costs money first. New sites mean recruiting, SIA-checking and vetting officers, training and uniforming them, kitting out patrols and running several weeks of wages — all of it spent during mobilisation, before a single invoice for the new work has even been raised.
Vehicles, bonds and the cost of cover
A mobile-patrol or keyholding firm lives or dies by its vehicles; a monitoring station needs resilient kit and connectivity. Add insurance, public-liability cover and the bonds some clients demand, and a chunk of working capital is tied up just in being ready to respond — quietly, every day, whether or not the phone rings.
Which kind of finance fits a security firm
Three shapes of short-term working capital, and how each tends to land in security. 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 cost
A single lump sum, repaid over a short fixed term. It fits the security jobs you can put a figure on: the kit and labour for an install, mobilising a single new contract, or covering one big payroll stretch while you wait on a named slow-paying client. More on the Bridging Loan →
Credicorp Flex — for the every-payroll rhythm
A revolving facility the company can draw on, repay and draw again. This suits the natural shape of guarding — drawing to cover each wage run, paying down as client invoices clear, then drawing again on the next cycle — without arranging fresh finance every single payroll. More on Credicorp Flex →
Credicorp Slice — for a single supplier or kit bill
Spread one supplier invoice over a few weeks while the supplier is paid in full today. Handy when a bulk camera or hardware order, a fleet bill or a uniform run lands at an awkward moment and you’d rather smooth it across the weeks the contract pays you back. More on Credicorp Slice →
The company borrows — not you
Plenty of security business owners have already put their own name on the line — a fleet lease, an insurance or performance bond, a supplier account. The Credicorp model is the other way round: the agreement is between Credicorp Limited and your company, so the finance itself doesn’t add to what’s pinned to you personally.
- No personal guarantee — the company is the borrower, full stop.
- No charge over your home — your house isn’t security for the wage run or the kit.
- 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 regulatory position — and the company and trade-mark detail behind the group — is set out on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
A worked example
An illustration, not a real customer — just to show the shape of it in security.
A manned-guarding company trading as a UK limited company wins a contract to cover a new distribution site: officers on the gate around the clock, plus a mobile patrol overnight. The win is welcome, but it lands the firm with weeks of cost before any income — recruiting and vetting the extra officers, uniforming and kitting them out, and running the first month of wages — while the client sits on 60-day payment terms. At the same time, the contract calls for a handful of new CCTV cameras and a recorder to be installed at the entrance.
Because the new wage runs repeat every fortnight and then unwind as the client invoices clear, a Credicorp Flex facility to the company fits the mobilisation neatly: draw to cover each payroll, pay down when the money comes in, draw again on the next cycle. The one-off camera install — a known sum with a clear sign-off — could instead sit on a fixed-term Business Bridging Loan. The agreement is with the company throughout, so the owner gives no personal guarantee and puts no charge over their home.
Security funding questions
The questions security firm owners ask most. For anything specific to your business, the lender’s team are at credicorp.co.uk.
Can my security company borrow to cover payroll before client invoices clear?
Yes — payroll is the single most common reason a guarding firm reaches for short-term finance. Officers are paid weekly or fortnightly, but clients on 30, 60 or 90-day terms pay long after the shifts are worked. Bridging that lag is exactly what working capital is for. Credicorp Flex suits the every-payroll rhythm; a Business Bridging Loan suits a one-off stretch. The detail sits with the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Will I have to give a personal guarantee or a charge over my home?
No. Credicorp lends to the company — your UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to you as a director. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. For a security business owner who has already signed personal guarantees for a fleet lease or an insurance bond, keeping the funding itself off your own name is a real difference.
Can I use it to buy kit — cameras, NVRs, body-worn, vehicles?
Yes. CCTV cameras and recorders, alarm panels, access-control hardware, body-worn cameras, radios, uniforms and a marked patrol vehicle are all working-capital uses. On an install contract the kit is bought and fitted up front, but you are not paid in full until the job signs off — a fixed-term Bridging Loan often spans that gap cleanly. The lender confirms what suits your case.
We have just won a bigger contract — can funding help us ramp up?
That is one of the sharpest cash squeezes in security. A new site or a larger guarding contract means recruiting, vetting, training, uniforming and kitting out officers — and running several weeks of payroll — before the first invoice is even raised. A facility you can draw on as the contract ramps, like Credicorp Flex, is built for exactly that drip of cost ahead of revenue. Talk it through at credicorp.co.uk.
Is this a consumer loan or a payday loan?
Neither. This is business credit to a body corporate, not consumer credit, and it is not for sole traders or anyone borrowing in their own name. Under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, lending to a UK company sits outside the consumer-credit regime. The full position is on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
How quickly can funds reach my business account?
That sits with the operating lender, but business loans are typically released to your company bank account on the same working day once the agreement is signed. When a payroll run is days away or a contract needs officers on site by Monday, that speed is usually the whole point. Apply or check timing at credicorp.co.uk.
More general questions are answered on the FAQ, and the whole journey is on the how-it-works overview.
Related sectors
Security shares its payroll-ahead-of-payment shape with other people-led and contract-led trades.
- Construction & trades — materials and labour out before the first valuation lands, bridging a slow-paying main contractor.
- Professional services — the same lag between work delivered and invoices paid across a billing cycle.
- Logistics & transport — wages and fuel on long client terms, with a fleet to keep on the road.
Or browse the whole set on the industries hub. Company and legal detail for the group lives on creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Ready when you are
Whatever your security business needs funding for, applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.