Before You SignWhat business finance actually costs, in the UK and the US

What has changed on this site

A site that quotes regulators and lenders gets things wrong when they change and sometimes when they do not. Everything corrected since publication is listed here.

What has changed on this site, newest first, each entry marked with which kind of change it was. A correction is a figure or a regulatory statement here that was wrong. New is a page, a source read for the first time, or a tool that answers a question it could not answer before. Your data is a change in what the site does with what you type into it. Address is a URL that moved, because a link you saved has to keep working. Editorial tidying and typography are not recorded.

The same list is available as an Atom feed, and the method behind the figures is set out in the methodology.

30 September 2026 — A clearer path from financing choice to cost and lender guides

The home page now separates product structure, cash cost and eligibility, then offers prominent US and UK guide routes. US program descriptions were checked against SBA and CFPB sources; the repayment illustration is explicitly hypothetical.

27 September 2026 — Twenty-seven questions, answered from the source

Twenty-seven new pages on US business finance, each titled with the question a borrower asks and each opening with a short answer. They cover SBA loans, how much a lender will advance, business credit, equipment and vehicles, buying a business, investors, business cards, revenue-based financing and loans for veterans. Their figures are quoted from the SBA, the Federal Reserve Banks' Small Business Credit Survey, the CFPB, the SEC, the IRS and the statutes and regulations concerned, and each page lists its sources.

8 September 2026 — The exemptions we had not read, read — and four answers that changed

The review kit carried eight open questions. Five of them were open because nobody had opened the source. Reading them changed four answers the checkers were already giving: one in the UK perimeter checker and three in the state checker.

7 September 2026 — A new address, a UK checker, and a cost tool that asks how often you pay

Five changes in one day. This entry was first published at midday, when the move was the only one of them that had happened; the rest were added as the day's work went out.

6 September 2026 — Regulatory corrections, source re-reads, and a change log

Every regulatory statement on the site was checked against the primary document rather than against a summary. Five of them were wrong or incomplete.

20 August 2026 — Published

Seven guides, the cost breakdown and the cost tool.

By page

What each page has been corrected on and what has been added to it, for readers returning to one they have read before.

"Government-backed" means the lender is covered, not you

6 September 2026 Correction — The Growth Guarantee Scheme now carries its end date, and a clear line between the terms operating today and the expansion announced on 12 July 2026, which has not yet reached the scheme rules.

Are business loans regulated? UK FCA, FOS and US disclosure rules

8 September 2026 Correction — The UK checker used to put a sole trader borrowing £25,000 or less against commercial premises inside the consumer-credit perimeter. Article 60D exempts that agreement: where the borrowing is secured by a mortgage on land and less than 40% of the land is a dwelling for the borrower or a related person, the agreement is exempt, and the article carries no money threshold at all. So the £25,000 line in article 60C(3) is never reached in that case. The checker now says so, and says which article does it.

7 September 2026 New — A UK perimeter checker was added. Six articles of the Regulated Activities Order were read in the original rather than in a summary: 60B(3) and 60L, under which a partnership of four or more members, an LLP or a company is not a borrower under a credit agreement at all; 60C(3), under which a business-purpose facility falls outside only when it exceeds £25,000, so a facility of exactly £25,000 is inside; 60C(5) and (6), under which a declaration of business purpose creates a presumption; and 61(3)(a) with 61A on mortgages. The checker answers whether the FCA perimeter reaches a facility, and answers separately whether the Financial Ombudsman Service could look at a complaint about it, because those are two questions with two different tests.

6 September 2026 Correction — California's annualized-rate requirement is now cited to the statute itself rather than only to the Legislative Counsel's Digest. Financial Code section 22802(b)(6) lists the total cost expressed as an annualized rate among the six required disclosures and carries no end date. The DFPI's own summary page still describes that requirement as running only until 1 January 2024, which is the position SB 33 changed.

6 September 2026 New — A state disclosure checker was added. Six state statutes were read in the original - California, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Virginia - and the checker answers, for a state, a product and a size, whether the regime reaches the deal and whether what it makes the provider hand you includes a rate. Size limits are now recorded where the statute states one: over $500,000 is outside Florida and Virginia, over $1,000,000 is outside Utah, and New York covers up to $2,500,000.

6 September 2026 Correction — The site no longer says that two US states regulate commercial-financing disclosure. Six were confirmed against their own statutes, and the guides now separate the two that require an annualized rate (California, New York) from the four that require itemized dollar amounts only (Florida, Louisiana, Utah, Virginia). The question that matters to a borrower is not how many states have a rule, but whether the rule produces a rate you can hold against a bank quote.

6 September 2026 Correction — California's annualized-rate disclosure was described as expiring. SB 33 removed that sunset, so the requirement continues indefinitely, and SB 362 has required the words annual percentage rate in specified circumstances since 1 January 2026.

6 September 2026 Correction — Whether the FCA regulates a facility and whether the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at a complaint are now treated as two separate questions with two separate tests. The site previously implied that a company borrower outside the perimeter had no ombudsman route. Eligible small businesses can complain, and so can personal guarantors where the guarantee was given on or after 1 April 2019.

Business Financing Options, Costs and Requirements

30 September 2026 New — Added financing type, total repayment and requirements sections. Put US and UK guide buttons near the top, removed the disclosure banner from the home page, and updated the title and description to match these search intents.

Business finance in the United Kingdom

7 September 2026 New — A UK perimeter checker was added. Six articles of the Regulated Activities Order were read in the original rather than in a summary: 60B(3) and 60L, under which a partnership of four or more members, an LLP or a company is not a borrower under a credit agreement at all; 60C(3), under which a business-purpose facility falls outside only when it exceeds £25,000, so a facility of exactly £25,000 is inside; 60C(5) and (6), under which a declaration of business purpose creates a presumption; and 61(3)(a) with 61A on mortgages. The checker answers whether the FCA perimeter reaches a facility, and answers separately whether the Financial Ombudsman Service could look at a complaint about it, because those are two questions with two different tests.

7 September 2026 New — The guides now have a UK page and a US page, and the navigation carries them instead of the two checkers, which are one click from either. Neither page states anything that is not already stated, quoted and dated on the page it links to.

Business finance in the United States

7 September 2026 New — The guides now have a UK page and a US page, and the navigation carries them instead of the two checkers, which are one click from either. Neither page states anything that is not already stated, quoted and dated on the page it links to.

Cost tool

7 September 2026 New — The cost tool now asks how often you pay - monthly, weekly or every business day - takes a factor rate directly, and separates a fee deducted from the advance from the amount that reaches your account. How often you pay turned out not to be a detail: the same advance, repaid every business day rather than monthly, does not cost a penny more in cash and returns a materially higher estimated annualized cost, because the money goes back to the lender sooner. Daily and weekly collection is the normal shape of an advance, so the figure the tool gave before was the gentler of the two.

7 September 2026 Your data — The cost tool can now keep up to four offers so it can put them side by side, and can produce a link that carries the figures you typed. Saved offers are written to your own browser on the device you are using; they are not sent anywhere and we never see them. A shared link carries the numbers in the part of the URL a browser does not send to a server. The pages that used to say nothing you type is stored now say what is kept and where, and the privacy page sets out three ways to delete it.

6 September 2026 New — A state disclosure checker was added. Six state statutes were read in the original - California, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Virginia - and the checker answers, for a state, a product and a size, whether the regime reaches the deal and whether what it makes the provider hand you includes a rate. Size limits are now recorded where the statute states one: over $500,000 is outside Florida and Virginia, over $1,000,000 is outside Utah, and New York covers up to $2,500,000.

6 September 2026 Correction — The site no longer says that two US states regulate commercial-financing disclosure. Six were confirmed against their own statutes, and the guides now separate the two that require an annualized rate (California, New York) from the four that require itemized dollar amounts only (Florida, Louisiana, Utah, Virginia). The question that matters to a borrower is not how many states have a rule, but whether the rule produces a rate you can hold against a bank quote.

6 September 2026 Correction — The cost tool reports an estimated effective annualized cost, not an effective annual rate. It is this site's own arithmetic, not a statutory APR, and the page now says where a statutory figure has to come from instead.

How the figures on this site are produced

7 September 2026 New — The cost tool now asks how often you pay - monthly, weekly or every business day - takes a factor rate directly, and separates a fee deducted from the advance from the amount that reaches your account. How often you pay turned out not to be a detail: the same advance, repaid every business day rather than monthly, does not cost a penny more in cash and returns a materially higher estimated annualized cost, because the money goes back to the lender sooner. Daily and weekly collection is the normal shape of an advance, so the figure the tool gave before was the gentler of the two.

7 September 2026 Your data — The cost tool can now keep up to four offers so it can put them side by side, and can produce a link that carries the figures you typed. Saved offers are written to your own browser on the device you are using; they are not sent anywhere and we never see them. A shared link carries the numbers in the part of the URL a browser does not send to a server. The pages that used to say nothing you type is stored now say what is kept and where, and the privacy page sets out three ways to delete it.

Privacy

7 September 2026 Your data — The cost tool can now keep up to four offers so it can put them side by side, and can produce a link that carries the figures you typed. Saved offers are written to your own browser on the device you are using; they are not sent anywhere and we never see them. A shared link carries the numbers in the part of the URL a browser does not send to a server. The pages that used to say nothing you type is stored now say what is kept and where, and the privacy page sets out three ways to delete it.

Six questions to put to a lender in writing

6 September 2026 Correction — Whether the FCA regulates a facility and whether the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at a complaint are now treated as two separate questions with two separate tests. The site previously implied that a company borrower outside the perimeter had no ombudsman route. Eligible small businesses can complain, and so can personal guarantors where the guarantee was given on or after 1 April 2019.

The Start Up Loan at 7.5% fixed, and what it is really lending to

8 September 2026 New — The page used to say it could not confirm whether a Start Up Loan needs security or a guarantee. The official product page answers it: "The loan is unsecured, so there's no need to put forward any assets or guarantors to support an application." That does not change the more important point on the page, which is that the borrower is you.

UK FCA perimeter checker

8 September 2026 Correction — The UK checker used to put a sole trader borrowing £25,000 or less against commercial premises inside the consumer-credit perimeter. Article 60D exempts that agreement: where the borrowing is secured by a mortgage on land and less than 40% of the land is a dwelling for the borrower or a related person, the agreement is exempt, and the article carries no money threshold at all. So the £25,000 line in article 60C(3) is never reached in that case. The checker now says so, and says which article does it.

8 September 2026 New — Articles 60D to 60H of the Regulated Activities Order, and the qualifying article 60HA, have been read in the original and are now set out under the checker's result: the land exemption, the exemptions turning on who the lender is, the exemption for supplier credit repayable in twelve payments or fewer within a year without interest, the 42.6 percent credit union ceiling, and the high net worth declaration for an individual borrowing more than £60,260. The page used to say it had not read them.

7 September 2026 New — A UK perimeter checker was added. Six articles of the Regulated Activities Order were read in the original rather than in a summary: 60B(3) and 60L, under which a partnership of four or more members, an LLP or a company is not a borrower under a credit agreement at all; 60C(3), under which a business-purpose facility falls outside only when it exceeds £25,000, so a facility of exactly £25,000 is inside; 60C(5) and (6), under which a declaration of business purpose creates a presumption; and 61(3)(a) with 61A on mortgages. The checker answers whether the FCA perimeter reaches a facility, and answers separately whether the Financial Ombudsman Service could look at a complaint about it, because those are two questions with two different tests.

7 September 2026 New — The phrase large business customer now carries the figure behind it. MCOB applies to a regulated mortgage contract unless the customer is a large business customer, and the FCA Handbook Glossary defines that as a borrower whose business has a group annual turnover of £1 million or more. MCOB 1.2.6G says a firm looks at the turnover in your annual report and accounts or business plan, and may rely on what you tell it unless it has reason to doubt it. It is a turnover test on the group, and it is not the same test as the ombudsman's size limits.

US state disclosure checker

8 September 2026 Correction — The state checker used to say New York's disclosure regime reaches equipment lease financing. Financial Services Law section 802(e) puts "a lease as defined in section 2-A-103 of the uniform commercial code" outside the article, while 23 NYCRR Part 600 still carries a disclosure format for lease financing. The honest answer is that it depends on whether your agreement is a true lease or a security interest written as one, and that is what the checker now says.

8 September 2026 Correction — The state checker used to say California sets no ceiling on the size of a covered transaction, and said so while admitting it had not re-read the definitions. It does set one, and it is $500,000: section 22800(n) defines a recipient as a person presented an offer of $500,000 or less, so an offer above that has no recipient and the division does not reach it. The figure is in the definitions rather than in the exemptions at section 22801, which is why the earlier reading missed it.

8 September 2026 Correction — The same checker used to say California's regime reaches equipment lease financing outright. Section 22800(j)(1) reaches a lease only where it includes a purchase option that creates a security interest in the goods leased, so a true lease is outside it. The answer is now the same shape as New York's: it depends on the document.

8 September 2026 New — Two states are no longer partly unread. New York: section 802 lists eight exemptions, so a bank, trust company, savings institution or credit union is outside the regime, as are real-property-secured transactions, providers doing five or fewer transactions in a year, and single transactions over $2,500,000. Louisiana: R.S. 9:3137.10 was read end to end and exempts nobody and sets no threshold, which makes it the only one of the six states here where a depository institution owes the disclosure.

8 September 2026 New — The Louisiana answer carried one hedge: R.S. 9:3137.10 had been read, but the sections numbered just before it had not, and they are a different Act. They have now been read. R.S. 9:3137.1 to 9:3137.9 are the Louisiana Exchange Sale of Receivables Act of 2010, and the scope section at 9:3137.4 applies that Part to receivables sold over an exchange located in the state. Nothing there sets a threshold for the disclosure section or takes anybody out of it, so the answer is unchanged and is now sourced rather than hedged.

6 September 2026 New — A state disclosure checker was added. Six state statutes were read in the original - California, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Virginia - and the checker answers, for a state, a product and a size, whether the regime reaches the deal and whether what it makes the provider hand you includes a rate. Size limits are now recorded where the statute states one: over $500,000 is outside Florida and Virginia, over $1,000,000 is outside Utah, and New York covers up to $2,500,000.

What a personal guarantee actually does

6 September 2026 Correction — Whether the FCA regulates a facility and whether the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at a complaint are now treated as two separate questions with two separate tests. The site previously implied that a company borrower outside the perimeter had no ombudsman route. Eligible small businesses can complain, and so can personal guarantors where the guarantee was given on or after 1 April 2019.

Where the money goes

30 September 2026 Correction — Replaced inactive lender buttons with working links to the UK and US editorial guides, and clarified that these are guides rather than lender shortlists.

7 September 2026 New — The cost tool now asks how often you pay - monthly, weekly or every business day - takes a factor rate directly, and separates a fee deducted from the advance from the amount that reaches your account. How often you pay turned out not to be a detail: the same advance, repaid every business day rather than monthly, does not cost a penny more in cash and returns a materially higher estimated annualized cost, because the money goes back to the lender sooner. Daily and weekly collection is the normal shape of an advance, so the figure the tool gave before was the gentler of the two.

7 September 2026 Your data — The cost tool can now keep up to four offers so it can put them side by side, and can produce a link that carries the figures you typed. Saved offers are written to your own browser on the device you are using; they are not sent anywhere and we never see them. A shared link carries the numbers in the part of the URL a browser does not send to a server. The pages that used to say nothing you type is stored now say what is kept and where, and the privacy page sets out three ways to delete it.

6 September 2026 Correction — The site no longer says that two US states regulate commercial-financing disclosure. Six were confirmed against their own statutes, and the guides now separate the two that require an annualized rate (California, New York) from the four that require itemized dollar amounts only (Florida, Louisiana, Utah, Virginia). The question that matters to a borrower is not how many states have a rule, but whether the rule produces a rate you can hold against a bank quote.

6 September 2026 Correction — California's annualized-rate disclosure was described as expiring. SB 33 removed that sunset, so the requirement continues indefinitely, and SB 362 has required the words annual percentage rate in specified circumstances since 1 January 2026.

6 September 2026 Correction — Whether the FCA regulates a facility and whether the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at a complaint are now treated as two separate questions with two separate tests. The site previously implied that a company borrower outside the perimeter had no ombudsman route. Eligible small businesses can complain, and so can personal guarantors where the guarantee was given on or after 1 April 2019.

6 September 2026 Correction — The SBA fee notice for the 2026 fiscal year was described as unobtainable. It is Information Notice 5000-872051, issued 28 August 2025, and it is now cited by number.

Why a smaller SBA 7(a) loan can cost more: the spread is capped by size

8 September 2026 New — The page now says where SBA's maximum fixed rates are published rather than only that they are published elsewhere. SBA's own 7(a) terms page points at its Fiscal Transfer Agent wiki, which posts them as a monthly spreadsheet. We still do not re-key the figure, because it is replaced every month.

6 September 2026 Correction — The SBA fee notice for the 2026 fiscal year was described as unobtainable. It is Information Notice 5000-872051, issued 28 August 2025, and it is now cited by number.

You cannot compare a factor rate to an interest rate. Here is the arithmetic

7 September 2026 New — The cost tool now asks how often you pay - monthly, weekly or every business day - takes a factor rate directly, and separates a fee deducted from the advance from the amount that reaches your account. How often you pay turned out not to be a detail: the same advance, repaid every business day rather than monthly, does not cost a penny more in cash and returns a materially higher estimated annualized cost, because the money goes back to the lender sooner. Daily and weekly collection is the normal shape of an advance, so the figure the tool gave before was the gentler of the two.

6 September 2026 New — A state disclosure checker was added. Six state statutes were read in the original - California, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Virginia - and the checker answers, for a state, a product and a size, whether the regime reaches the deal and whether what it makes the provider hand you includes a rate. Size limits are now recorded where the statute states one: over $500,000 is outside Florida and Virginia, over $1,000,000 is outside Utah, and New York covers up to $2,500,000.

6 September 2026 Correction — The site no longer says that two US states regulate commercial-financing disclosure. Six were confirmed against their own statutes, and the guides now separate the two that require an annualized rate (California, New York) from the four that require itemized dollar amounts only (Florida, Louisiana, Utah, Virginia). The question that matters to a borrower is not how many states have a rule, but whether the rule produces a rate you can hold against a bank quote.

6 September 2026 Correction — The cost tool reports an estimated effective annualized cost, not an effective annual rate. It is this site's own arithmetic, not a statutory APR, and the page now says where a statutory figure has to come from instead.