Bolton Business Finance is not Monzo
This page is published by Bolton Business Finance Ltd, an independent commercial finance broker in Bolton, England. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Monzo Bank Limited in any way. We do not offer Monzo business loans or Monzo overdrafts, we cannot apply for them on your behalf, and we have no access to your Monzo account or to Monzo’s lending decisions. Monzo is a bank authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. We are not a bank and we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. Monzo is named on this page only to identify the bank a business uses. If you want Monzo’s own product, go to Monzo directly.
Bolton Business Finance arranges business loans and other commercial finance for UK limited companies and LLPs that bank with Monzo. The funding comes from independent lenders on our panel, not from Monzo. It suits companies that have hit the ceiling on Monzo’s own lending, been turned down by it, or want to see what the wider market will do before accepting an in-app offer.
Monzo Business offers its own loans and overdrafts to eligible customers. This page is not about those products. It is about what a Monzo Business customer can do when Monzo’s own lending does not fit, whether that is because the amount is too small, the product is wrong, or the answer was no. Banking with Monzo makes no difference to whether an independent lender will fund you.
Written by Marcus Wright, owner and founder of Bolton Business Finance Ltd, in financial services since 2008 and a commercial finance broker since March 2019. Monzo’s published figures on this page were checked on 20 September 2026. Last reviewed September 2026.
On this page
- What Monzo Business lends
- Sole traders and small partnerships, read this first
- Where an independent broker fits
- Who banks with Monzo
- What Monzo does not offer
- Worked example
- Declined by Monzo, or offered too little
- Eligibility
- How to apply
- Questions from Monzo Business customers
- Trade marks and non-affiliation
The short version
- We are an independent broker with no connection to Monzo. The funding described here comes from third party lenders on a panel of 135+.
- Monzo publishes a ceiling of £35,000 on its limited company loans and £25,000 on its sole trader loans. Lenders on our panel go from £10,000 to £10 million.
- Monzo’s published representative APR on limited company loans is 33.1%. Unsecured lending through our panel starts at around 6.9% per annum for strong, established companies, and considerably higher where the risk is greater.
- Monzo lends only to Monzo Business customers. We do not care who you bank with, and nothing changes on your Monzo account.
- If you are a sole trader or a partnership of two or three people borrowing £25,000 or less for business purposes, that is a regulated credit agreement and we cannot arrange it. Monzo can, because Monzo is FCA authorised. We are not.
- Monzo does not offer asset finance, invoice finance, commercial mortgages, bridging or development finance. We arrange all of those.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Provider | Third party lenders arranged by Bolton Business Finance. Not Monzo |
| Who we can act for | UK limited companies and LLPs. Sole traders and small partnerships only where the credit exceeds £25,000 and is wholly or predominantly for business purposes |
| Amount | £10,000 to £10 million unsecured, up to £10 million secured |
| Rates from | Around 6.9% per annum unsecured, around 4% per annum secured. Higher where the risk is greater |
| Term | 3 months to 7 years unsecured, up to 10 years secured |
| Speed | Offers back in as little as 24 hours on unsecured. Secured lending takes 2 to 6 weeks |
| Security | Usually a director’s personal guarantee on unsecured. A charge over property on secured. No change to your Monzo account |
| Minimum criteria | Six months of trading, twelve months of filed accounts for most of the market |
| Broker fee | None on unsecured business loans. £495 upfront plus 1% on completion where the facility is secured on property |
What Monzo Business lends
Monzo Business offers loans and arranged overdrafts to eligible customers through its app. Eligibility, amounts, rates and terms are decided by Monzo alone. The figures below are Monzo’s own published representative figures, taken from Monzo’s business banking pages and checked on 20 September 2026. They are given in outline only to explain where an independent broker does and does not add anything. Monzo’s own website is the only source for current terms, and you should check it before relying on anything here.
| Product | Amount | Representative rate |
|---|---|---|
| Limited company loan | £500 to £35,000 | 33.1% APR |
| Limited company overdraft | £500 to £5,000 | Set by Monzo |
| Sole trader loan, up to £10,000 | £200 to £10,000 | 29.3% APR |
| Sole trader loan, over £10,000 | Over £10,000 to £25,000 | 19.9% APR |
| Sole trader overdraft | Up to £3,000 | 39.0% EAR variable |
Three conditions Monzo publishes are worth knowing before you compare. Lending is offered only to Monzo Business customers. A limited company must have held a Monzo Business account for at least 30 days and must give a personal guarantee. And Monzo will only provide one loan across a customer’s business and personal Monzo accounts, so a personal Monzo loan uses up the business one.
None of this is a criticism. An app-based decision in minutes on a small facility is a genuinely useful product, and most digital business accounts do not lend at all. It is simply a different shape of lending from what a broker arranges, and the two do not compete for the same cases as often as people assume.
Sole traders and small partnerships, read this first
Most of Monzo’s business lending is aimed at sole traders, and this is the one place where we have to send you back to Monzo or to another authorised firm rather than help.
Why we cannot arrange a sole trader loan of £25,000 or less
Under article 60C(3) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, a credit agreement is exempt from regulation only where the credit exceeds £25,000 and the agreement is entered into wholly or predominantly for business purposes.
That means a business loan of £25,000 or less to a sole trader, or to a partnership of two or three people not all of which are companies, is a regulated credit agreement. Arranging one is a regulated activity. Bolton Business Finance Ltd is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, so we cannot do it and we will not try.
Monzo can, because Monzo is an FCA authorised bank. So can other authorised lenders and brokers. If that is your situation, Monzo’s own product is a legitimate route and we would point you at it.
Where the position changes:
- Limited companies and LLPs. A company is a body corporate, so its borrowing is never a regulated credit agreement whatever the amount. We can act at any facility size.
- Sole traders borrowing more than £25,000 for business purposes. The agreement falls outside regulation and we can act.
- Partnerships of four or more people. Treated differently again, and usually outside the consumer credit regime. Tell us the structure and we will confirm before doing anything.
- Thinking of incorporating anyway. Plenty of sole traders do, for reasons that have nothing to do with borrowing. If that is already on your list, it changes what is available to you. That is a conversation for your accountant, not for us.
We would rather tell you this at the top of the page than take an enquiry we cannot act on. If you are a sole trader after a few thousand pounds, Monzo’s in-app product, another authorised lender, or an FCA authorised broker is the right route, and we are not it.
Where an independent broker fits
For a limited company, the honest comparison is not better against worse. It is small, fast and expensive against larger, slower and cheaper. Where a cell below says “set by Monzo”, that is because only Monzo can state its own terms.
| Feature | Monzo Business loan | Independent facility via us |
|---|---|---|
| Who lends | Monzo | A third party lender from a panel of 135+ |
| Maximum | £35,000 published | £10 million |
| Representative rate | 33.1% APR published | From around 6.9% per annum unsecured, higher where risk is greater |
| Who can apply | Monzo Business customers only, account held 30 days | Any UK company or LLP, whoever you bank with |
| Trading history | Set by Monzo | Six months minimum, twelve months of filed accounts opens most of the market |
| Speed | In app, decided quickly | Offers in as little as 24 hours, funds within days |
| Personal guarantee | Required on company lending | Usually required on unsecured lending |
| Other products | Loans and overdrafts | Also asset finance, invoice finance, commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance |
| Effect on your Monzo account | Set by Monzo | None. Your Monzo account is untouched and Monzo is not notified |
Read the top two rows together. If you need £8,000 by Friday and you already bank with Monzo, Monzo’s in-app product will very likely beat anything we can do on speed and effort, even at 33.1%. If you need £150,000 to buy stock for a contract, Monzo cannot help at all, because the ceiling is £35,000. The two products do not overlap as much as the rate comparison suggests.
Who banks with Monzo
Monzo Business skews young, digital and owner-managed. The businesses we see with a Monzo Business account are mostly companies incorporated in the last three or four years whose founders already used Monzo personally, and who opened the business account in an afternoon rather than sitting through a branch appointment. Agencies, consultancies, e-commerce sellers, trades and food businesses are all common.
That profile matters to a lender in one specific way. A company that has banked with Monzo since incorporation has a clean, complete and easily exported statement history from day one, which is exactly what an underwriter wants and is often better than the patchy records a longer established business hands over. Monzo statements export cleanly to PDF and CSV from the app, so the paperwork side of an application is usually quick.
The one thing worth flagging is age of company. A business that opened a Monzo account the week it incorporated is, by definition, new. Most of our panel wants six months of trading as an absolute floor and twelve months of filed accounts to open up properly, so the very newest companies will find Monzo’s own product is the only realistic option for a while.
What Monzo does not offer
A fair amount of what a growing company needs is not a term loan at all, and Monzo’s business lending is loans and overdrafts. These are the products we arrange that Monzo does not publish as available to its business customers.
| If you need | The product |
|---|---|
| A vehicle, machine or piece of equipment | Asset finance, spread against the asset rather than drawn from working capital |
| Cash tied up in unpaid invoices | Invoice finance, releasing most of an invoice’s value the day you raise it |
| To buy premises | A commercial mortgage |
| To move fast on a property purchase | A bridging loan for business purposes |
| To build or convert | Development finance |
| A facility you draw and repay as you go | A revolving credit facility, larger than a £5,000 overdraft |
| Funding sized on card takings | A merchant cash advance, repaid as a share of daily sales |
| Cover for a dated VAT or tax bill | A short term business loan over 3 to 12 months |
Worked example
A design agency, a limited company, two directors, banking with Monzo Business since it incorporated in 2023. It has won a retained contract and needs £120,000 to hire three people ahead of the revenue landing.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Amount needed | £120,000 |
| Available from Monzo | Nil at this size. Monzo’s published company ceiling is £35,000 |
| Arranged through our panel | £120,000 unsecured over 5 years |
| Illustrative rate | 9.9% per annum |
| Monthly repayment | About £2,542 |
| Total interest | About £32,500 |
| Broker fee | None |
The figures are illustrative and were reviewed in September 2026. They are not an offer or a quotation, and your rate will depend on trading history, sector, financial performance and credit profile. Run your own numbers on our business loan calculator.
Reverse the example and the answer reverses with it. The same agency wanting £6,000 for a software renewal, next week, would be better served tapping the app. A broker adds nothing to a £6,000 decision that a bank will make in minutes, and we would tell you so.
Declined by Monzo, or offered too little
Monzo’s decision is Monzo’s, made under Monzo’s criteria on Monzo’s data. We have no visibility of it and no ability to appeal it or change it. What we can do is put the same company in front of lenders who use different criteria and different data.
Why the outcome is often different elsewhere
- A decline from one lender is not a verdict on the business. Funders price risk differently, weight sectors differently, and set entirely different minimums on trading history.
- Monzo assesses what it can see. An independent lender reads filed accounts, management figures and every revenue channel, including income that never passes through the Monzo account.
- Director credit is a secondary factor for a good part of our panel. Defaults and county court judgments are considered where trading is steady, and we have a page on bad credit lending setting out how.
- A large part of the UK specialist lending market is intermediary only and will not take an application direct from a business at all, so those funders were never in the picture.
Monzo publishes that where it cannot help with a loan it refers customers to a lending partner. That is one further lender. We go to a panel of 135 plus, and we check criteria before an application is made rather than after, so you are not collecting credit searches to find out.
Eligibility
Minimum criteria across our panel
- A UK limited company or LLP. Sole traders and partnerships of two or three people only where the credit exceeds £25,000 and is wholly or predominantly for business purposes.
- Six months of trading is the practical floor and only a handful of funders will look at it. Twelve months of filed accounts opens up most of the market. Two to three years gets the best rates and the largest facilities.
- Any legitimate business purpose: stock, hiring, equipment, premises, a tax bill, marketing, expansion, or clearing a more expensive facility.
- Poor personal or business credit considered. Undischarged bankruptcy and live insolvency proceedings are not.
- Most unsecured lenders will ask at least one director for a personal guarantee. That makes the director personally liable if the company cannot repay.
- Banking with Monzo is neither a help nor a hindrance. No lender on our panel requires you to move your account.
What we need to look at it: your last three months of business bank statements, exported from the Monzo app as PDF or CSV, your most recent filed accounts with management figures if those accounts are more than nine months old, the amount you need and what it is for, and directors’ names, dates of birth and home addresses for the last three years.
We do not need, and will never ask for, your Monzo login or read only access to your Monzo account. Nobody legitimate needs it. Everything a lender requires comes from statements you export yourself.
How to apply
Tell us the company name, what you need and what it is for, and we will come back the same day with the lenders that are realistic and roughly what each is likely to cost. There is no broker fee on unsecured business loan applications, the lender pays us, and there is no obligation to proceed. This is not an application to Monzo, and Monzo is not told about it.
Tell us what you need
Send the figures and we will search the market and come back with the options realistically available to your company. If the honest answer is that Monzo’s own product beats what we can arrange, we will say so.
Prefer to speak to someone? Call 0161 546 9128, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Or read the main business loan broker page for the full range of what we arrange.
Questions from Monzo Business customers
Are you part of Monzo or working with Monzo?
No. Bolton Business Finance Ltd is an independent commercial finance broker in Bolton with no affiliation, partnership, endorsement or commercial relationship with Monzo Bank Limited. We do not offer Monzo business loans or overdrafts and cannot apply for them, appeal a decision or alter an offer on your behalf. Monzo is an FCA and PRA regulated bank. We are not a bank and we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. Monzo is named on this page only to identify the bank a business uses.
I am a sole trader. Can you arrange a business loan for me?
Only if the credit exceeds £25,000 and is wholly or predominantly for business purposes. Below that figure a loan to a sole trader, or to a partnership of two or three people not all of which are companies, is a regulated credit agreement under article 60C of the Regulated Activities Order, and arranging one is a regulated activity. We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, so we cannot act. Monzo can, because Monzo is an authorised bank, and so can other authorised lenders and brokers. Limited companies and LLPs are not affected by this at any facility size.
Can I get funding if Monzo declined my company?
Often, yes. Monzo’s decision is made under Monzo’s criteria on the data Monzo holds. Independent lenders read filed accounts, management figures and revenue that never passes through the Monzo account, and a good part of our panel treats director credit as a secondary factor. A company declined by one lender is frequently funded by another. Each case turns on the figures, and we will tell you the same day whether it is realistic.
Do I have to move my business account away from Monzo?
No. No lender on our panel requires you to change bank, and nothing changes on your Monzo account. Repayments are collected by direct debit from whichever business account you nominate, which can be your Monzo account. Monzo is not involved in the facility and is not notified of it.
Will you need my Monzo login?
No, and you should not give it to anyone who asks. Lenders assess a company from the statements you export yourself from the Monzo app, together with filed accounts and management figures. No legitimate broker or lender needs access to your bank account, and we will never request it.
How much can I borrow compared with Monzo?
Monzo publishes a ceiling of £35,000 on limited company loans and £25,000 on sole trader loans. Lenders on our panel arrange from £10,000 to £10 million unsecured, and up to £10 million secured on property. Above about £35,000 a broker is the only route. Below about £10,000, and particularly where speed matters more than rate, Monzo’s own in-app product will usually be quicker and simpler than anything we can arrange.
Is an independent loan cheaper than Monzo?
It depends on the company and the amount. Monzo publishes a representative APR of 33.1% on limited company loans. Unsecured lending through our panel starts at around 6.9% per annum for strong, established and profitable companies, and runs considerably higher where the risk is greater. A young company with thin accounts may well be priced above Monzo’s headline, or declined by our panel entirely. Compare the total cost over the term rather than the headline rate, and check the arrangement fee and the early repayment terms on any offer before signing.
Will I have to give a personal guarantee?
On unsecured company lending, usually yes, and Monzo publishes that it requires one on company borrowing too. A personal guarantee makes a director personally liable for the debt if the company cannot repay it. It is not a mortgage over your home and it does not give the lender an automatic charge over your property, but it is a real obligation that outlives the company. Establish whether it is capped, whether it is joint and several, and whether it covers future borrowing before you sign anything.
Trade marks and non-affiliation
Monzo and Monzo Business are trade marks of Monzo Bank Limited. Starling, Tide, Revolut, iwoca and any other company named on this page are trade marks of their respective owners. These names are used here solely to identify the banking and lending services a business may use and to describe the products those companies offer. Bolton Business Finance Ltd is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, appointed by or otherwise connected to any of them, and none of them has reviewed or approved this page. Nothing on this page should be read as a statement made by Monzo or on Monzo’s behalf.
Monzo Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Bolton Business Finance Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is not a bank.
Monzo’s products, amounts, rates and eligibility criteria are described in outline only and were taken from Monzo’s published business banking pages and checked on 20 September 2026. Rates and terms change. Monzo is the only authoritative source for its own products, and the figures on this page should be verified against Monzo’s website before you rely on them.
About the author
Marcus Wright is the owner and founder of Bolton Business Finance Ltd. He has worked in financial services since 2008, beginning his career at Santander, and has been a commercial finance broker since March 2019.
He founded Bolton Business Finance in 2020 to give businesses access to the whole lending market rather than one bank’s own product range. The firm is a member of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers and works with a panel of 135+ lenders.
Marcus arranges commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance, business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and merchant cash advances. Call 0161 546 9128.
Marcus is also the author of UK Commercial Finance (2026), a commercial finance book for UK business owners and property investors.
Bolton Business Finance Ltd is an independent commercial finance brokerage, not a lender and not a bank. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and can only complete non-regulated introductions for business purposes. We cannot arrange regulated credit agreements, which includes business lending of £25,000 or less to a sole trader or to a partnership of two or three people. Figures on this page are illustrative and are not an offer or a quotation. Rates, terms and facility limits are set by the lender and subject to underwriting and status. Where a personal guarantee is given, personal assets may be at risk if the loan is not repaid. We may receive a commission from the lender we introduce you to. Registered address: Westgate House, 1 Westgate Avenue, Bolton, Greater Manchester, BL1 4RF. Company number 12495909.