A company that is currently dormant — not yet trading — is generally too early to apply, because there is no trading activity to assess. The moment that changes is when genuine trading begins and money starts moving through the business account.
Trading is the threshold, not incorporation
Our minimum-trading requirement runs from when a company actually starts trading, not from its incorporation date. A dormant company has not crossed that line yet, so there is nothing for the affordability assessment to read. The full picture is in does a dormant or newly active company qualify and how soon after incorporation you can borrow.
Plans to start soon do not yet give us evidence. Once real customers, sales and bank activity appear and a short run of history builds, the position changes — see how much trading history we look at.
Getting application-ready
Open the business bank account, begin trading genuinely, and let a few months of real activity build. That is exactly what makes a later application strong — what strengthens an application. New and early-stage companies are covered in whether a newly formed company can apply. When you are trading and want to plan ahead, the guides at Credicorp Learn help.
Once you are genuinely trading, apply.
We lend only to UK limited companies and LLPs, the loan is to the company with no director personal guarantee, and this is business finance outside the consumer-credit regime — as an exempt lender under Article 60B of the Regulated Activities Order we sit outside FCA consumer-credit regulation, so the Financial Ombudsman Service and FSCS do not apply.
See also: Does a dormant or newly active company qualify, How soon after incorporation you can borrow?, How much trading history we look at?.