™
How a lending
decision is made.
What actually happens between sending an application and getting an answer? This guide walks the journey from application to outcome — the steps, what is weighed at each one, and the people behind the call. And throughout, the company is the borrower, never you personally.
A lending decision can feel like a black box — paperwork goes in, an answer comes out, and what happened in between is anyone's guess. It need not be a mystery. The path from application to outcome is a sequence of ordinary, sensible steps.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. This page explains, in plain English, how a decision is reached on its short-term business funding. It is a guide, not an application — the assessment and the outcome itself happen on the lender's own site, credicorp.co.uk.
The borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director who signs. The decision looks at the business, not a director's personal file: no personal credit check on a director, and no personal guarantee. This is not consumer lending, a payday loan or sole-trader finance.
The steps, from application to outcome
Every lender runs things its own way, but the shape of the journey is much the same. Here is the path in plain terms.
- You apply. The company tells the lender who it is and what it needs — the registered company, the amount and the purpose. This is the company introducing itself, not a director borrowing in a personal name.
- Identity and company checks. The basics are confirmed: the company exists and is active at Companies House, the people involved are who they say they are, and the application is genuine. This is housekeeping, not judgement.
- The business picture comes together. Recent business bank statements, Open Banking where you connect it, business credit-bureau information and the trading track record are pulled into one view of the company.
- Affordability is weighed. The question is whether the company can comfortably repay what it is asking for, on the terms offered — not the maximum it could just about manage. Comfortable is the word that matters.
- People review the call. Where the figures need context, a real person looks at the case rather than a rule deciding alone. They may come back with a question before settling on an answer.
- The outcome. An offer with clear terms, a request for a little more information, or a decline. If it is a yes and you accept, the funds reach your company account and repayment begins on the agreed schedule.
What is weighed — and what is not
A decision is only as fair as the things it rests on. Here is what counts, and what deliberately does not.
What goes into the decision
- How money moves through the company — what comes in, what goes out, and how steady the balance is, from business bank statements or Open Banking.
- The company's credit standing — business credit-bureau information on how the company itself manages credit.
- Trading track record — how long the company has traded and how consistently, which tells a fuller story than one month can.
- The purpose and the repayment — a clear use for the funding with a realistic source of repayment in sight.
What is not part of it
- A director's personal credit file — not checked for this lending; the assessment is of the company.
- A personal guarantee — none is taken, so the decision rests on the company's own position.
- A charge over a home or other personal security — this is unsecured business credit to a body corporate.
- One odd month in isolation — context, not a verdict, which is exactly what human review is for.
People, not just algorithms
Automated checks earn their keep. They confirm details against Companies House, draw the business credit picture together, and clear the straightforward cases quickly so nobody waits on a queue for no reason. Speed is genuinely useful, and software is good at it.
But a business is more than a row of figures, and a number on its own can miss the story behind it — a one-off lumpy month, a seasonal dip, a large invoice about to land. That is why real people are part of the decision. A human review can take account of the circumstances behind the numbers and reach a fairer answer than a threshold applied blindly — and it is why the lender may ask a question or two before deciding, rather than declining on a rule alone.
Your right to human review — UK GDPR Article 22
UK data-protection law gives you a clear safeguard around automated decisions. Under Article 22 of the UK GDPR, where a decision that produces legal effects or similarly significant effects would be based solely on automated processing, you have the right not to be subject to it in that form — and, where such processing is used, to obtain human intervention, to express your point of view, and to contest the decision.
In plain terms: you can ask for a person to be involved, put your side of things, and challenge an outcome you believe is wrong. That right matters most when an answer goes against you — it means a decline need not be the final word without a human looking at it. The lender sets out how it handles personal data and these rights in its own privacy information, and you can ask about a decision at credicorp.co.uk.
If the answer is no
A decline is a decision about one request at one moment, not a permanent judgement on the company. There are sensible next moves. You can ask the lender about the outcome and put context the figures may not have shown. Where automated processing played a part, you can ask for a person to review it. And you can take a fair look at whether the timing or the amount was simply ahead of where the company is right now.
It is also worth a step back: short-term borrowing is not always the right tool, and an honest answer to is short-term borrowing right for you? can save money. A profitable company can still run short of cash for ordinary reasons — the cash-flow gap, explained sets out why, and where a short bridge does and does not fit.
Decision questions
The questions directors ask most. For anything specific to your business, the lender's team are at credicorp.co.uk.
How long does a decision take?
It depends on how quickly the company information comes together — connecting Open Banking or having recent business bank statements to hand tends to be the quickest route. The lender publishes its current timings and process; check the live detail at credicorp.co.uk before you rely on a particular timescale.
Is the decision made by a computer?
Automated checks help speed the early stages along, but real people are part of the process and review decisions. Where a decision that significantly affects you would be based solely on automated processing, UK GDPR Article 22 gives you the right to ask for human involvement, to express your point of view and to contest the decision.
What is actually weighed in the decision?
The company. In practice that means recent business bank statements, the picture from Open Banking where you connect it, business credit-bureau information and the company's trading track record — put together into one view of whether the business can comfortably repay. A director's personal credit file is not checked for this lending.
If the answer is no, is that the end of it?
Not necessarily. A decline on one application is a decision about that request at that time, not a permanent verdict on the company. You can ask the lender about the outcome, put your side of it, and — where the decision involved automated processing — ask for a person to review it. Circumstances change, and so can a future application.
Where is the decision actually made?
On the operating lender, credicorp.co.uk. This site is the Creditcorp brand front door and does not take applications or make decisions — applying, the assessment and the outcome all happen on the lender's own site.
One thing about who can borrow
Credicorp lends only to bodies corporate — UK limited companies and LLPs. Under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, lending to a body corporate is not a regulated consumer-credit agreement, so this is business credit rather than consumer credit, and it is not for sole traders or for borrowing in a personal name. The full position is set out on lending and regulation.
Where to go next
To go deeper on the part that does the heavy lifting, read how affordability is assessed. To prepare before you start, see what you need to apply and how funds reach your account once the answer is yes. The products themselves are explained in how business bridging loans work, with full terms on the products page, and the whole series sits on the Learn hub. The deeper group and legal story lives at creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Ready when you are
Applying, the decision and managing your account all happen on the lender's site, credicorp.co.uk.