Limited company loans: what borrowing through the company actually changes
By the CapExpand team
Reviewed by Alex Beardsley, Founder · UK commercial finance broker
The short version
- Lending to a limited company for business purposes is not regulated consumer credit, so the contract rather than the conduct rules is your protection.
- A personal guarantee is how a lender steps around limited liability, and 39 of our 55 unsecured lenders will take one from a director who does not own a home.
- 21 unsecured lenders look at a company trading under a year; invoice finance reaches 14 even for start-ups, because it underwrites your customers.
Most guides treat incorporation as a formality that unlocks better borrowing. It does open more doors, but it also moves you outside the regime that protects individual borrowers, and it does not put your own assets beyond reach in the way people assume. This page covers both halves of that, with counts from our own panel of 200+ lenders. CapExpand is a broker; the lender makes every credit decision.
What incorporation changes
Three things, in descending order of how much they matter. The company becomes the borrower, so the debt sits on its balance sheet and not on your personal credit file. The agreement falls outside consumer credit regulation, which widens the market considerably because lenders who will not write regulated business will write this. And the company builds a credit history of its own, which is what makes the second facility easier to arrange than the first.
What does not change is who the lender ultimately looks at. On unsecured lending to a small company, the director's personal file is read alongside the company's, and a guarantee ties the two together deliberately.
The protection you give up
Worth being blunt about, because it is the part that is usually left out. A regulated consumer credit agreement carries pre-contract disclosure, cancellation rights, treatment rules if you fall behind and access to the Financial Ombudsman Service. A business loan to a limited company carries none of that as of right. If the lender behaves badly, your route is the contract and, if it comes to it, the courts.
The practical consequence is that the terms are the product. Read the default provisions, the events that let a lender demand repayment early, and the guarantee schedule, and read them before the money is needed rather than on the day it arrives. Our guide to personal guarantees goes through the clauses that matter.
The guarantee, and the homeowner question
Limited liability protects shareholders from company debts. A personal guarantee is the mechanism a lender uses to set that aside for its own debt, which is why it is standard on unsecured corporate lending and common on secured lending too. Incorporating and then signing a guarantee leaves you closer to where you started than the company structure suggests.
Lenders treat homeownership as evidence a guarantee has substance behind it, so a director who rents narrows the list rather than closing it: 39 unsecured lenders and 17 invoice finance lenders on our panel proceed without one at September 2026. Where a guarantee is unavoidable, the negotiable parts are the cap, whether it is joint and several, and whether a charge is taken.
What the panel actually opens
Incorporation is the entry ticket for the property side of the panel in particular. For property-secured lending we work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes. It also widens the unsecured market: at £25,000, 36 lenders have a product covering the amount at a median published floor of 19.2%, and at £100,000 it is 45 lenders at 15.3%, with ceilings across those products reaching 70.8%, checked September 2026.
Those are spans across panel products on a stated date rather than offers, and the gap between floor and ceiling is the honest answer to what a company will pay. Anyone quoting a single figure before an underwriter has read your accounts is quoting the best case.
New companies and old directors
A company incorporated last month with a director who has run a similar business for a decade is a different proposition from a first venture, and lenders read it that way even though Companies House does not. 21 unsecured lenders will consider a company trading under a year and 5 a genuine start-up, against 14 on invoice finance, where the assessment runs on your customers' ability to pay rather than your record.
If the company is new because an established trade was restructured into it, say so at the first conversation and have the previous accounts ready. It is the single piece of context most likely to move a case from the short list to the long one.
Every unsecured business loan lender on our panel
55 lenders, 135 live unsecured business loan products. Most brokers say “100+ lenders” and name none. These are ours, so you can check them. One enquiry is checked against the criteria of all of them before anything is submitted.
| Lender | Products | Size range | Rate span |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investec | 10 | £25,001 to £500,000 | 11.45% to 19.25% |
| Kingsway Finance | 10 | £25,000 to £350,000 | 15.2% to 36.5% |
| Admiral Leasing and Loans | 8 | £10,000 to £100,000 | 15.17% to 32.5% |
| Rivers Leasing | 8 | £5,000 to £50,000 | 21.2% to 32.5% |
| White Oak | 6 | £5,000 to £250,000 | 18% to 27.5% |
| Braemar Finance | 5 | £5,000 to £500,000 | 11.17% to 18.5% |
| Paragon Bank | 5 | — | 15.45% to 19.25% |
| Funding Circle | 4 | £10,000 to £750,000 | 6.9% to 25% |
| Oxbury Bank | 4 | £15,000 to £150,000 | 8.17% to 9.5% |
| Cubefunder | 3 | £5,000 to £50,000 | 30% to 48% |
| Fleximize | 3 | £10,000 to £250,000 | 10.8% to 46.8% |
| iwoca | 3 | £1,000 to £1m | 12% |
| Kingsley Asset Finance | 3 | £10,000 to £75,000 | 14.78% to 18.95% |
| Nucleus Commercial Finance | 3 | £5,000 to £500,000 | 14.5% to 53.88% |
| Playter | 3 | £30,000 to £500,000 | 15.96% to 36% |
| Swishfund | 3 | £15,000 to £100,000 | 13.2% to 35.04% |
| 365 Finance | 2 | £10,000 to £500,000 | 22% to 35% |
| Allica Bank | 2 | £25,001 to £150,000 | 9.9% to 13.75% |
| Bizcap | 2 | £5,000 to £1m | 27% to 49% |
| Capify | 2 | £5,000 to £500,000 | 20% to 44% |
Plus 35 further unsecured business loan lenders on the panel. The full roster is published on our lender directory.
Spans across each lender's unsecured business loan products on our panel, checked September 2026. These are not offers, quotes or rates you will be given, and a dash means we hold no published figure for that field. Rates move and lender criteria change. All lending is subject to status and the lender's own checks. Being on the panel is a fact about the panel: it is not an endorsement of CapExpand by any lender named, and implies no affiliation. Panel composition changes.
What a lender will ask for
Company number and registered details, time trading, recent business bank statements or an open banking connection, the last filed accounts, management figures if the filed set is old, and what the money is for. For the guarantee, the director's identity, address history and consent to a personal credit search. Card-based products add processing statements.
Having the management figures ready is the part that moves quickest, because a filed set from eighteen months ago describes a company that may no longer exist. Enquiring does not affect your credit score.
See which lenders fit the company
Company age, turnover and what the money is for is enough for us to say which part of the panel is realistic before anything is submitted.
Check your optionsFinance arranged for UK limited companies, LLPs, sole traders and partnerships.
Sources and method
Lender counts and amount bands are ours, dated above. The references below are the primary ones for the regulatory half of this page: where the consumer credit perimeter sits, what the ombudsman will and will not consider, and what a director signs up to.
- FCA, consumer credit and the regulated perimeter
- Companies House: company records, charges and filings
- Financial Ombudsman Service, who it can consider a complaint from
- British Business Bank, business guidance
- GOV.UK, running a limited company: directors’ responsibilities
Related funding
Limited company borrowing questions
Is a limited company loan regulated by the FCA?▼
Generally not. Lending to a limited company for business purposes falls outside the consumer credit regime, so the conduct rules that protect an individual borrower do not apply, and the Financial Ombudsman Service will usually not consider a complaint about the agreement. That is the trade for the wider choice of lenders: your protection is the contract, which makes reading it the substantive step rather than a formality.
Will I still need a personal guarantee?▼
Usually. Limited liability protects the shareholders from the company's debts, and a personal guarantee is precisely the mechanism a lender uses to step around it, so incorporating does not by itself put your own assets out of reach. What is worth checking is the shape: whether the guarantee is capped, whether it is joint and several across several directors, and whether it is supported by a charge over property. Those three details vary far more between lenders than the interest rate does.
Do I need to own a home to borrow through my company?▼
No, though it narrows the list. At September 2026, 39 of our 55 unsecured lenders will proceed where the guaranteeing director is not a homeowner, and 17 invoice finance lenders will do the same. Homeownership matters to a lender as evidence that a guarantee is worth something, so where it is absent, expect more weight on trading history and on the strength of your debtor book.
How new can the company be?▼
21 unsecured lenders on our panel will look at a company trading under a year and 5 will look at a genuine start-up, checked September 2026. Invoice finance is more forgiving again at 14 for start-ups, because the credit being assessed belongs to your customers rather than to you. A newly incorporated company with an experienced director behind it reads very differently from a first venture, and it is worth saying which you are early.
Does the company or the director get credit checked?▼
Both, in almost every case. The company file drives the decision on the facility and the director's personal file drives the decision on the guarantee, so an adverse marking on either can change the outcome. On our panel at September 2026, 24 unsecured lenders accept defaults or judgments settled or older than 24 months, while 8 will consider repeated recent ones. Declare what is on either file at the outset: it is found in any event, and finding it late reads as concealment.
What can a limited company borrow?▼
At £25,000 unsecured, 36 lenders on our panel have a product covering the amount, with a median published floor of 19.2%. At £100,000 it is 45 lenders at 15.3%, with ceilings across those products reaching 70.8%, checked September 2026. Those are spans across panel products on a date, not offers. Secured and property-backed lending goes considerably higher, and is where an incorporated borrower has the clearest advantage.
Is CapExpand FCA regulated?▼
CapExpand Ltd is not directly authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. CapExpand Ltd (FRN 1060885) is an Appointed Representative of White Rose Finance Group Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630772). That appointment means White Rose Finance Group Limited is responsible for our credit broking, and both firms appear on the Financial Services Register at register.fca.org.uk. We are a credit broker, not a lender.