CREDIT BUILDER

Credit Builder helps you build your business’ credit score, and therefore your creditworthiness to credit reference agencies - the people who compile and keep your credit report.

It’s a key component of your business as;

• A high credit score means lenders are more likely to give you access to a wider range of loans and other credit products with lower interest rates, saving you money.

• Unlike a personal credit score, your business credit score is available for anyone to view. Customers, suppliers and other companies can check it so this directly impacts your day-to-day business dealings – for example, when you’re negotiating contracts or tenders, or when you’re looking for insurance.

Credit Builder is structured as a loan with a credit limit of £240 and an annual interest rate of 24% (fixed). There are no hidden fees, penalties, late or early repayment fees.

The interest is included in the monthly repayments that we deduct from your Tide account. At the end of the 12-month period, you will get back your monthly payment and we will keep the interest.

A representative sample:

26.8% representative APR based on an assumed unsecured loan amount of £240 with 12 monthly payments of £22.69 at an annual interest rate of 24% (fixed). Total amount payable is £272.33.

Net cost £32.33*

*As £240 will be returned to you upon final instalment

Credit Builder is structured as a 12-month loan. This allows us to report your monthly payments to Experian as a repayment of a loan, which helps build your credit score. However, unlike a traditional loan, the principal payments are not made available to you when you activate the product but the principal payments are made available at the end of the 12-month period (or if you cancel earlier).

As a result of this structure, eligibility is not subject to your creditworthiness and almost every registered business incorporated less than 2 years ago is eligible (see Am I eligible for Credit Builder? For more details).

Credit Builder is a bit like a business loan, only you receive your principal payments at the end of the term (see Is Credit Builder a loan? for more details);

1. Make 12 monthly payments made up of principal and interest to us, which we will report to Experian as loan payments

2. We collect the payments every month and lock the principal in a dedicated sub-account. At the end of the 12 months, we will give you immediate access to the principal you paid and we keep the interest.

You should consider cancelling your Credit Builder to avoid missing a payment. Any missed payment is reported to Experian, which could impact your credit score.

Assuming you’ve not missed any payments when you cancel Credit Builder, we’ll report your loan as a settled debt. This means your credit report will show that you’ve paid the full loan amount and fulfilled your obligations, so there is no negative impact on your credit score for cancelling Credit Builder.

This product is subject to eligibility and only available to:

• Limited companies that have been incorporated for less than 2 years

• Limited companies that had no CCJ raised against them in the last 6 years