Bolton Business Finance is not Starling
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 Starling Bank Limited in any way. We do not offer Starling business loans or Starling overdrafts, we cannot apply for them on your behalf, and we have no access to your Starling account or to Starling’s lending decisions. Starling is a fully licensed UK 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. Starling is named on this page only to identify the bank a business uses.
Bolton Business Finance arranges business loans and other commercial finance for UK limited companies and LLPs that bank with Starling. The funding comes from independent lenders on our panel, not from Starling. It matters right now because Starling’s own help centre states that Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
That single fact is why most Starling Business customers end up talking to a broker. If you bank with Starling and need to borrow, there is at present no in-house route to apply for. Your account is unaffected, your deposits are still protected, and you do not need to move anywhere. You simply have to source the funding from a lender other than your bank, which is what a broker is for.
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. Starling’s published position on this page was checked on 20 September 2026. Last reviewed September 2026.
On this page
The short version
- We are an independent broker with no connection to Starling. The funding described here comes from third party lenders on a panel of 135+.
- Starling’s own help centre states that it is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans, and that it will update its website if that changes. Check Starling directly before assuming either way.
- Banking with Starling is neither a help nor a hindrance to an application elsewhere. No lender on our panel requires you to move your account.
- We arrange from £10,000 to £10 million, from around 6.9% per annum unsecured for strong established companies and considerably higher where the risk is greater.
- 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. An FCA authorised lender or broker can.
- Starling remains a fully licensed bank with FSCS protection on eligible deposits. Nothing here suggests otherwise, and nothing here is a reason to move your account.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Provider | Third party lenders arranged by Bolton Business Finance. Not Starling |
| 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 Starling 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 |
Starling’s current lending position
Starling’s help centre states, on its business overdrafts and loans pages, that Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans, and that it will update its website in the future if that changes. That wording was checked on 20 September 2026. It describes a pause rather than a permanent withdrawal, and Starling is the only authoritative source for its own position, so check Starling’s help centre before you rely on anything written here.
Starling has offered business loans and overdrafts to limited companies and limited liability partnerships in the past, and may do so again. We are not going to quote historic rates and limits, because a figure from a closed product is worse than no figure at all.
What this is not. A pause on new lending applications says nothing about the safety of your account. Starling Bank Limited holds a full UK banking licence, is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, and eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Banks open and close lending lines regularly for reasons of appetite and capital. There is nothing on this page that is a reason to move your business account.
What it does mean, practically, is that a Starling Business customer who needs to borrow has to look outside their own bank. That is not unusual. Plenty of businesses bank in one place and borrow in another, and no lender on our panel will ask you to change bank as a condition of funding.
Sole traders and small partnerships, read this first
Starling’s business accounts are used heavily by sole traders, so this needs saying near the top rather than buried at the bottom.
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.
An FCA authorised lender or an FCA authorised credit broker can. If that is your situation, that is the route, and we would rather tell you now than waste your time.
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.
- Asset finance and invoice finance. Different agreements with their own rules. Tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you straight away whether we can act.
What a Starling customer can still do
Your bank not lending does not shut you out of borrowing. It just means the lender and the bank are two different companies, which is the normal position for most commercial finance in the UK anyway.
- Export three months of Starling statements. PDF or CSV from the app or the web portal. This is what an underwriter reads first.
- Pull your most recent filed accounts. Plus management figures if those accounts are more than nine months old.
- Decide the amount and the purpose. Lenders ask what the money is for and they do check. A specific purpose with the return it generates beats a vague request for working capital.
- Let us check criteria before anything is submitted. We match the case against funders whose criteria it actually fits, so you are not collecting credit searches to find out.
- Compare the offers on total cost, not headline rate. Check the arrangement fee and the early repayment terms. Both move the real number more than a percentage point on the rate.
Nothing changes on your Starling account. Repayments are collected by direct debit from whichever business account you nominate, which can be your Starling account. Starling is not involved in the facility and is not notified of it.
Who banks with Starling
Starling Business skews slightly older and more established than the other app-based accounts. It has been a licensed bank since 2016 and won a large share of the accounts that moved out of the high street during and after the Covid support schemes, so a good number of Starling business customers are companies with five or ten years of trading behind them rather than recent incorporations.
That matters to an underwriter, and it works in your favour. A company with three or more years of filed accounts and a clean Starling statement history is the profile the cheapest end of our panel is built for. Where a young company banking somewhere digital is fighting to clear a six month trading floor, an established Starling customer is usually choosing between offers rather than hoping for one.
The other thing we see regularly is cash-light businesses. Starling suits companies that take money electronically and pay suppliers the same way, because paying cash in means a trip to the Post Office. Agencies, consultancies, contractors, online retailers and professional services firms are all common, and all of them are sectors our panel lends to comfortably.
Products we arrange
A term loan is not always the right answer, and it is worth knowing what else exists before you fix on one.
| If you need | The product |
|---|---|
| A lump sum repaid monthly | An unsecured business loan, £10,000 to £10 million |
| A facility you draw and repay as you go | A revolving credit facility, which is the closest replacement for a business overdraft |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Government backed support | The Growth Guarantee Scheme, through accredited lenders |
The revolving credit facility line is the one most Starling customers are actually after. If what you have lost is the ability to apply for an overdraft, a revolving facility does the same job: you draw what you need, repay it, draw again, and pay only for what you use. The facilities we arrange run well above a typical small business overdraft.
Worked example
A recruitment company, a limited company, four years trading, banking with Starling. It needs £75,000 to cover contractor payroll while client invoices sit on 45 day terms.
| Route | Shape | Illustrative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Term loan over 5 years | £75,000, capital and interest, about £1,564 a month | About £18,850 total interest at 9.4% per annum |
| Invoice finance | Up to 90% of each invoice released on the day it is raised, facility grows with sales | A service fee plus a discount charge on funds drawn |
| Revolving credit facility | Draw and repay as payroll lands and invoices settle | Interest only on what is drawn, for the days it is drawn |
For this business the term loan is the worst of the three, because the gap is recurring rather than one-off and a five year loan funds a 45 day problem for 1,825 days. Invoice finance for recruitment is usually the answer, and it is the sort of thing a bank lending product would not have offered anyway. Figures are illustrative, reviewed September 2026, and are not an offer or a quotation. Run your own on the business loan calculator or the invoice finance calculator.
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 Starling is neither a help nor a hindrance, and 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 Starling 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 Starling login or read only access to your Starling 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 Starling, and Starling 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 you should wait and try your own bank again, 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 Starling Business customers
Are you part of Starling or working with Starling?
No. Bolton Business Finance Ltd is an independent commercial finance broker in Bolton with no affiliation, partnership, endorsement or commercial relationship with Starling Bank Limited. We do not offer Starling business loans or overdrafts and cannot apply for them, appeal a decision or alter an offer on your behalf. Starling is a fully licensed UK bank 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. Starling is named on this page only to identify the bank a business uses.
Does Starling offer business loans and overdrafts?
Starling’s own help centre states that it is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans, and that it will update its website in the future if that changes. That wording was checked on 20 September 2026. It describes a pause rather than a permanent withdrawal. Starling has offered both products to limited companies and limited liability partnerships in the past. Starling is the only authoritative source for its own position, so check the Starling help centre before relying on anything written here.
Should I move my business account because Starling is not lending?
Not on that basis alone. A pause on new lending applications says nothing about the safety of your account or the quality of the banking. Starling holds a full UK banking licence and eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Banks open and close lending lines regularly for reasons of appetite and capital. Plenty of businesses bank in one place and borrow in another, and no lender on our panel will ask you to change bank as a condition of funding.
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. An FCA authorised lender or credit broker can. Limited companies and LLPs are not affected by this at any facility size.
What replaces a business overdraft if I cannot apply for one?
A revolving credit facility does the same job. You draw what you need up to an agreed limit, repay it, draw again, and pay interest only on what is actually drawn for the days it is drawn. The facilities we arrange run well above a typical small business overdraft. Where the gap is caused by customers paying on 30 to 90 day terms rather than by general cash flow, invoice finance is usually a better and cheaper fit than either an overdraft or a loan.
Do I have to move my business account away from Starling to borrow?
No. No lender on our panel requires you to change bank, and nothing changes on your Starling account. Repayments are collected by direct debit from whichever business account you nominate, which can be your Starling account. Starling is not involved in the facility and is not notified of it.
Will you need my Starling login?
No, and you should not give it to anyone who asks. Lenders assess a company from the statements you export yourself from Starling, together with filed accounts and management figures. No legitimate broker or lender needs access to your bank account, and we will never request it.
Will I have to give a personal guarantee?
On unsecured company lending, usually yes. 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
Starling and Starling Bank are trade marks of Starling Bank Limited. Monzo, Tide, Revolut 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 services a business may use. 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 Starling or on Starling’s behalf.
Starling 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.
Starling’s lending position is described in outline only and was taken from Starling’s published help centre and checked on 20 September 2026. Positions change. Starling is the only authoritative source for its own products and eligibility, and the statements on this page should be verified against Starling’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.