Secured or unsecured?
The question is what you put on the line
Secured lending is cheaper because a lender can take a specific asset if it goes wrong. Unsecured is quicker and asks for no charge over property — but your own name is still on it, and on our panel that means a personal guarantee every time.
No credit check to enquire.
Both are a promise. One of them names the asset
- Unsecured: no charge over an asset
The lender takes no legal charge over property or equipment. Decisions are faster and the paperwork is lighter, because there is nothing to value and nothing to register.
- But almost always a personal guarantee
You are personally on the hook for the debt if the company cannot pay. Every unsecured lender on our panel asks for one. “Unsecured” describes the asset, not your exposure, and that is the part people miss.
- A debenture is a third thing again
A floating charge over the company’s assets as a class, rather than over one named asset. It turns up on plenty of facilities that are sold as unsecured. What a debenture actually does.
- Secured: cheaper, bigger, slower
A charge over property, land or equipment brings the rate down and the ceiling up, because the lender’s downside is covered. It costs you a valuation, a legal process and weeks rather than days.
What the security is worth, in pounds
£50,000 over 36 months. Illustrative annual rates on the reducing balance, to show the size of the gap rather than to quote anybody.
Illustrative rates, not an offer. Your own price turns on trading history, turnover and filed accounts rather than on the security alone, and a secured facility also carries valuation and legal costs that are not in this table.
- The gap buys speed and a smaller downside, not a free lunch. £4,207 over three years is roughly £117 a month for not registering a charge over an asset and for getting a decision in days.
- Neither column means your house is safe. A personal guarantee can be enforced against you, and most guarantors are homeowners. Where lending without one genuinely exists.
The unsecured panel
Flowzo arranges unsecured business lending. These are the lenders an unsecured enquiry goes to, and all of them take a personal guarantee.
- Funding CircleMarketplace lender
- iwocaIndependent lender
- ShawbrookSpecialist bank
- FleximizeIndependent lender
- Merchant MoneyIndependent lender
- YouLendRevenue-based funder
If you need secured lending we will say so rather than push you at the wrong product. Machinery and vehicles go to CW Asset Finance, our sister firm; farmland goes through Farmzo; a charge over commercial property is a commercial mortgage, which we do not arrange.
Common questions
Is an unsecured business loan really unsecured?
Unsecured means no legal charge over a named asset. It does not mean nobody can come after anything. On our panel an unsecured loan carries a personal guarantee every time, and many carry a debenture over the company as well. The asset is unencumbered; you are not.
Will I have to give a personal guarantee?
For an unsecured facility, almost certainly. It is the lender’s only recourse if the company cannot pay. A guarantee is capped at an amount and you should know that number before you sign, because it is negotiable far more often than people assume.
Is secured always cheaper?
On the rate, usually, and the gap can be several points. On the total it is closer than it looks, because a secured facility brings valuation fees, legal fees and weeks of delay. For a short-term working capital need the cheaper rate often loses to the slower process.
Can I borrow with no personal guarantee at all?
It exists, but it is narrow, and it generally wants a longer trading history and stronger filed accounts than a guaranteed facility would. Where it genuinely exists, and what it costs you instead.
Do you arrange secured loans?
Not against commercial property, no — that is a commercial mortgage and a different broker. We arrange unsecured business lending. Lending secured on farmland goes through Farmzo, and anything secured on machinery or vehicles goes to our sister firm CW Asset Finance.
Does a secured loan protect my credit file?
No. Both are credit agreements and both are searched and reported in the same way. Security changes what the lender can recover, not what the credit reference agencies see. What a search actually does.
Find out what you would be asked to put up
Tell us the amount, the term and what the money is for. We will tell you what the panel would offer and exactly what security comes with it.
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