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(Loan Applications started on or after 1st April 2021)
This is the agreement forming the basis of the relationship between you and us. It explains what you can expect from us and what we expect from you if you use our products and services.
You are the limited company, partnership, unincorporated association or sole trader that is registering with Funding Circle and/or applying for a product with us. The person who registers with Funding Circle on your behalf must be properly authorised to represent you in entering into this agreement with us.
We/us/Funding Circle are Funding Circle Ltd.
By registering with Funding Circle, you agree to this agreement with us.
This agreement comprises a set of general terms and conditions, our fees and charges tariff, and supplemental conditions that apply to individual services or products that you have, or apply for, with us.
The general terms and conditions are below and you can find all of the supplemental conditions at the end of the general terms and conditions. If any supplemental conditions conflict with the general terms and conditions, the supplemental conditions apply.
All terms and conditions and our tariff of charges are always available on our website. Funding Circle's Website Terms of Use and Privacy Policy also apply to you.
Yes. We may make changes to any part of this agreement from time to time. We will let you know if we are doing so either through the website or by contacting you directly. If any changes might impact you negatively we will let you know in advance of making them.
If you have a FlexiPay Account and/or a Business Card: We can change any part of your agreement including any fees and charges that apply and we can introduce new fees and charges or change the circumstances in which they are applied and the services we provide to you, from time to time. We will give you at least 1 months’ notice in advance of any changes to our fees and charges or the circumstances in which they apply. If you do not wish to accept the changes we notify to you, you can end your agreement without charge by giving us notice and paying your balance in full before the changes take effect.
When you register with us, you will create a username and password. You will also have to give us some personal information, including ways we can contact you and details for your nominated bank account. Your nominated bank account will be the account into which we transfer any funds payable to you in connection with a term loan product. You must keep all of the information that you give to us up to date. For payments made through FlexiPay or your Business Card, see: Supplemental conditions which apply to FlexiPay.
You must keep your Funding Circle username and password secure at all times. You must not transfer your Funding Circle registration to another person or permit another person to use it without our prior consent. We will assume that all activity by your username is by you.
We may de-register you if you breach this agreement (or any other terms that apply to your relationship with us or a member of the Funding Circle corporate group), or if we think that you might have been involved in fraudulent, suspicious or otherwise inappropriate activity (including misusing the Funding Circle platform and/or website, app and/or our services in any way).
If we de-register you while you have a product with us, we will continue to allow you to access your Funding Circle account but we may restrict the services you can use.
If you don't have a product with us, you can de-register at any time. If you have a product with us, you will not be able to de-register until you have terminated all products and, if you have any outstanding debt under those products, paid it off in full.
You must be registered with Funding Circle before you can apply for a product.
If you are a third party applying for a product on behalf of your client, we will assume that you have the full authority of your client and that your client has read and accepted this agreement.
If you successfully apply for a product with us, we will match you with a lender who will enter into a contract with you. We may perform the following services on behalf of the lender in relation to that contract:
Neither we nor any other Funding Circle group company will be liable to you for any loss or damage sustained by you in connection with the proper performance of these services by us, or arising from circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
If you have a product with us, you must give us any information that we ask for (which we may do at any time) about your financial condition, business and affairs, and compliance with any contract with a lender or other contract you may have concluded with a third party using our services.
You permit us, our agents or any other third party business advisory or audit professionals, on reasonable notice and during business hours to attend and inspect your premises, any secured assets and any of your books, accounts and records and to make copies of these. You also agree to meet with any such person to answer their reasonable queries within 21 days of our request.
From time to time, we may incur third party fees and charges in providing our services to you, such as disputed transaction fees, bank fees or payment processing charges. We will tell you about these fees or charges, and you authorise us to set-off or collect them from any payments due to you.
We might be able to meet your finance needs through our Marketplace, either because we are not able to offer finance to you directly or because we can find additional offers from other lenders via our Marketplace.
By applying for one of our products, you agree that, subject to the terms of our privacy policy (a copy of which is available here), we may share your data (including personal data and financial information) with our Marketplace partners to help you to obtain finance. A list of our marketplace partners can be found here.
If you wish to make a complaint, you should contact us (using the details below) and we will do our best to fix the problem.
If you're not satisfied with our efforts to resolve the complaint, and you are an eligible small business, you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. For more details, or to check your eligibility, you can visit their website at sme.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.
If you have any questions or queries, you should contact us by email at contactus@fundingcircle.com or by telephone on 020 7401 9111. If you have FlexiPay, you should contact us by email at flexipay@fundingcircle.com or by telephone on 0203 308 9693.
We will contact you in any way that feels appropriate to us, including via the Funding Circle website or by email or by writing to you using the details you have given us. We might also send you email prompts from time to time to remind you to log into and check your Funding Circle account.
The person applying for a loan must be properly authorised to represent you in doing so.
We do not guarantee that your application for a loan made through us will be successful. When you apply for a loan, we will assess you against any eligibility criteria that apply. These eligibility criteria may change from time to time. If you no longer meet the eligibility criteria for your loan, we may decide to restrict the Funding Circle services you can use.
When you apply:
If your application is successful, you will enter into a loan contract with a lender, and we will have certain rights under that agreement (as a third party) to enable us to properly perform our role as ‘servicer’ of your loan contract. If there is any conflict between this agreement and your loan contract with a lender, your loan contract will take precedence.
You must ensure that all documents we ask you to sign in relation to your loan (and any security) are validly executed by or on behalf of the borrower, or any guarantee is validly executed by the guarantor. We will only release your funds once all of our checks have been completed and all requirements satisfied. We may withdraw a lender's loan offer if our checks and requirements are not satisfied.
If you have a loan through us, you must not, without our prior written consent, take out a loan, borrow any monies, or enter into any arrangement that has the effect of borrowing (other than asset-specific financing or invoice purchasing arrangements) from your directors, officers, members, partners, shareholders or any other third party in the following circumstances:
We will collect your monthly loan repayments on behalf of your lender and we will do so by direct debit unless we agree to collect it by other means (which may incur a fee). We will take your payment up to five days before the payment due date shown in your loan repayment schedule so that we can distribute it to the relevant lender.
If you think that you may not be able to make a repayment due under your loan contract, you should contact us immediately.
If any monthly loan repayment has not been made seven days or more after the payment due date, we may charge you a fee which will be payable immediately by you on demand. We may also charge you other costs associated with collection and enforcement. See ‘Are there any extra fees and charges that you should know about in relation to the loan?’ below and our fees and charges tariff for details.
If you are behind on your payments or in default in respect of more than one loan, we will allocate payments received (including by way of realised security) in accordance with our internal policies and applicable law, which will always reflect the rules of any applicable government scheme.
We may work with third party debt collection agencies in seeking to recover any outstanding debts and/or we may take other steps including (but not limited to) taking the following steps on behalf of your lender:
Yes. One or more shareholders may need to give a personal guarantee to secure your obligations under your loan contract. You will need to ensure that the shareholder(s) in question have read, understood and signed the terms of our personal guarantee before we release funds.
Different rules apply for personal guarantees for loans entered into under the government's Recovery Loan Scheme – click here for more details.
Yes. In certain circumstances you may be required to provide security (for example a debenture, mortgage or charge) to secure your obligations under your loan contract, for example if you breach any terms of your loan contract or wish to take out further lending with a third party.
Any security taken in respect of your loan will be held by a company within the Funding Circle corporate group on behalf of the lender. The Funding Circle company holding the security will usually act through Funding Circle, but it may appoint an alternative agent to act on its behalf.
The duties of Funding Circle and/or any Funding Circle company that holds your security are solely administrative in nature and Section 1 of the Trustee Act 2000 (which relates to the duty of care owed by trustees) will not apply. This agreement takes precedence over any legal provisions that might otherwise apply.
Different rules apply for providing security for loans entered into under the government's Recovery Loan Scheme – click here for more details.
If you fail to make a repayment when due or a default event occurs under your loan contract, Funding Circle is entitled to terminate your loan contract on the lender's behalf and:
The fees and charges associated with your loan are set out in your loan contract.
If you do not comply with the terms of your loan contract, we will incur costs when carrying on collections and/or enforcement activities on behalf of the lender; and these will be charged to you. These can be found on our fees and charges tariff.
We reserve the right to change any of the costs set out in our fees and charges tariff from time to time on notice to you.
Different rules apply for providing security for loans entered into under the government's Recovery Loan Scheme – click here for more details.
From April 2021, UK businesses may be eligible to borrow through the Government’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). The RLS aims to help businesses across the UK affected by Covid-19, providing support for businesses to recover and grow following the disruption of the pandemic. More information on this scheme can be found here.
You can apply through the Funding Circle website for a loan under the RLS.
If you receive an offer for a Funding Circle Business Loan under the RLS, the supplemental conditions for Funding Circle Business Loans will apply to your RLS Loan except as modified below. If any of these supplemental conditions for RLS Loans conflict with the general terms and conditions or the supplemental conditions for Funding Circle Business Loans, these supplemental conditions for RLS Loans will take precedence.
If your RLS loan amount is greater than £250,000, Funding Circle's standard policy for requiring personal guarantees will apply.
If your RLS loan amount is £250,000 or below, you will not be required to provide a personal guarantee and no personal guarantee given under any other loan you have through us shall be used to recover any amounts you owe under your RLS loan.
If your RLS loan amount is greater than £250,000, Funding Circle's standard policy for requiring security will apply.
If your RLS loan amount is £250,000 or below, you will not be required to provide security under the loan at any time.
As with all Funding Circle loans, the fees and charges associated with your loan are set out in your loan contract.
If you do not comply with the terms of your loan contract, as with all Funding Circle loans, we will incur costs when carrying on collections and/or enforcement activities on behalf of the lender. These can be found on our fees and charges tariff.
These fees and charges may be charged to you as long as the total cost to you does not exceed what is permitted under the RLS rules.
As well as matching you with a Funding Circle lender directly, we might be able to arrange for the provision of finance through our network of third party finance partners.
We act independently and do not have an exclusive relationship with any specific finance partner. Should a partner offer finance to you, you should ensure you understand the terms of such finance. We have no authority or ability to negotiate or vary the financing terms of any finance partner, and we cannot enter into any finance agreement on behalf of any finance partner.
If you take a loan with a finance partner, we usually receive a fee from the partner. The fee may vary from partner to partner. We may also receive a fee from a finance partner if you obtain further finance from them either during the term of your initial finance or after your initial finance has terminated, or if you return to the same finance partner for finance within a fixed period of time following our introduction. The fee we receive will not usually affect the amount you will pay in relation to any finance you obtain from a partner. We are transparent about the fees we receive; you should feel free to request this information from your Funding Circle point of contact at any time.
All information you provide to us should be complete and accurate. We are not responsible for incomplete or inaccurate data or statements you make or provide. If you fail to disclose any material information to us or to our finance partners, this could invalidate our finance partners’ contractual terms.
Before entering into an agreement with any of our finance partners, you must disclose information about any and all other applications you have made for finance, whether with Funding Circle or any other provider of finance.
If you have a live Funding Circle Business Loan, you have committed not to take further finance exceeding the higher of £25,000 or 30% of the total amount of your Funding Circle loan. Should you accept a finance partner’s offer through our Marketplace, these terms will serve as our written consent that you will not be in breach of that commitment. This consent does not apply if a finance partner (or any other finance provider) offers you finance outside of our Marketplace. In this scenario, you should contact us. We will not be responsible should you breach any covenants given in a loan agreement with any third party by accepting a loan arranged by our Marketplace.
It may be necessary for us to conduct credit searches against your business and/or relevant shareholders and/or directors before we refer you to a finance partner.
You should read section 4 of our privacy policy (sharing and disclosing your information) (here) for information on our use of your personal data through our Marketplace.
We will act honestly, fairly and professionally when conducting business with you. We will let you know if, at any time while acting on your behalf, our interests conflict with your interests, and we will obtain your consent before continuing.
You are free to contact us at any time to discuss any further requirements for funding.
FlexiPay credit account (your FlexiPay Account or FlexiPay) is an interest free line of credit (transaction fees apply) provided by Funding Circle which helps you manage your cash flow and spread cost. You can use FlexiPay to pay as many invoices, bills or suppliers as you like up to your credit limit through your online FlexiPay account.
We may also offer you a business card with your FlexiPay Account. If we offer you a Business Card, you'll be given a separate credit line which you'll be able to use to make purchases for your business from any third party supplier that accepts Visa.
The person applying for FlexiPay must be a director of the borrower company (i.e. you).
We do not guarantee that your application for FlexiPay will be successful. When you apply, we will assess you against our eligibility criteria. These eligibility criteria may change from time to time. If you no longer meet the eligibility criteria for FlexiPay, we may decide to restrict the Funding Circle services you can use.
When you apply:
Yes. In certain circumstances, one or more directors / shareholders may need to give a personal guarantee to secure your obligations under your FlexiPay and/or Business Card agreement. You will need to ensure that the director(s) / shareholder(s) in question have read, understood and signed the terms of our personal guarantee before allow you to use FlexiPay and/or your Business Card.
Yes. In certain circumstances you may be required to provide security (for example a debenture, mortgage or charge) to secure your obligations under your FlexiPay and/or Business Card agreement, for example if you breach any terms or you wish to take out further lending with a third party.
Any security taken in respect of FlexiPay will be held by a company within the Funding Circle corporate group. The Funding Circle company holding the security will usually act through Funding Circle, but it may appoint an alternative agent to act on its behalf.
The duties of Funding Circle and/or any Funding Circle company that holds your security are solely administrative in nature and Section 1 of the Trustee Act 2000 (which relates to the duty of care owed by trustees) will not apply. This agreement takes precedence over any legal provisions that might otherwise apply.
If your application is successful, you will enter into an Agreement with us for a FlexiPay Account and (if applicable) a separate agreement for a Business Card credit line and any additional products you subscribe for through FlexiPay.
As part of the application journey, we will also require you to open a dedicated payment account with a third party provider called Modulr (your 'Payment Account') at the same time. Having a Payment Account means that, when you want to pay an invoice or expense using FlexiPay, you are able to log in to your FlexiPay Account, enter the details of the supplier and the amount to pay, and the supplier is paid in your company's name. You should allow 2 business days for transactions to be paid.
You must ensure that all documents we ask you to sign in relation to FlexiPay or any associated security are validly executed by or on behalf of the borrower, and that any guarantee, is validy executed by the guarantor. We will only allow you to use FlexiPay when we are satisfied that all of our checks have been completed and all our requirements have been satisfied. We may withdraw our FlexiPay offer if our checks and requirements are not satisfied.
We will only permit you to start (and continue) using FlexiPay if:
You can only start (and continue) using a Business Card if you have a FlexiPay Account.
If you fail to make a repayment when due or a default event occurs under your FlexiPay and/or Business Card credit line agreement, Funding Circle is entitled to terminate both agreements and:
You can use your FlexiPay Account for the purpose of requesting payment of business invoices, bills or suppliers allowing you to spread the cost with no interest and a flat fee per transaction. While we try to make payment instantly, you should allow up to 2 business days for transactions to be paid.
All payment requests made by you are your responsibility. Once you make a payment request, we may not be able to cancel that request before payment is made to the payee by Modulr. We accept no responsibility to cancel or withdraw your payment requests.
If applicable, Modulr will be the issuer of your Business Card. You must keep the security details for your Business Card safe at all times in accordance with your agreement with Modulr. If we think the security of your Business Card has been compromised (for example, because you've shared your PIN or other security details with someone else) or if Modulr tell us they think the security of your Business Card has been comprised, we will ask Modulr to suspend your ability to use it. We'll cancel the suspension only once we're satisfied your Business Card details are safe and secure. We may change the issuer of your Business Card at any time.
You can access up to date information about how you have used your FlexiPay Account and/or your Business Card by logging on to your FlexiPay Account at any time.
You are required to pay monthly instalments to Funding Circle over a set number of months by Direct Debit from the nominated bank account you notify to us when you apply. You must pay all instalments due in full and without set-off or deduction unless required by law, in which case you will pay such additional amounts as is necessary to ensure the full net amount received by Funding Circle is at least equal to the deduction.
Each time you initiate a payment from your FlexiPay Account, you will be required to authorise a Direct Debit mandate to pay the relevant instalments. We will take the instalments from your nominated bank account on the Due Dates specified. Credits and refunds to your FlexiPay Account will not be treated as repayments.
If you are unable to pay your instalments when they are due, Funding Circle may permit you to enter into a repayment plan and allow you to pay smaller amounts over a longer period.
You must agree to specific FlexiPay and/or Business Card credit line agreement terms and conditions before you are accepted for FlexiPay. These will confirm your credit limit and the details of all fees and charges which apply.
No interest is charged on the credit you use. Instead we charge a flat fee which is a percentage of each supplier payment you make using FlexiPay. If you have a Business Card, we will charge a monthly flat fee which is a percentage of the balance you have accrued using your Business Card.
We charge a late fee if you do not pay your instalments on time, and we require you to indemnify us against any costs we incur in seeking repaying from you. If you do not comply with the terms of your FlexiPay and/or Business Card credit line agreement, we will incur costs when carrying on collections and/or enforcement activities and these will be charged to you. These can be found on our fees and charges tariff.
We reserve the right to change any of the costs set out in our Fees and Charges Tariff from time to time on notice to you.
Yes. For so long as you have FlexiPay, you must not use your FlexiPay Account or Business Card to pay off any loan or other debt owed to us or anyone else.
You must also not use FlexiPay to pay any invoice raised by you, any holding company or any subsidiary of such holding company (and both 'holding company' and 'subsidiary' are as defined in section 1159, Companies Act 2006).
You must take all reasonable steps to keep the access credentials for your Payment Account, including login details to your online FlexiPay Account such as password(s) and any other security-related details confidential and safe at all times.
If you have FlexiPay, you must not, without our prior written consent, take out a loan, borrow any monies, or enter into any arrangement that has the effect of borrowing (other than asset-specific financing or invoice purchasing arrangements) from your directors, officers, members, partners, shareholders or any other third party in the following circumstances:
Funding Circle has a legitimate interest both in investing in its own in-house recoveries team, and in instructing third party specialists as necessary, in each case to recover outstanding amounts owed by borrowers and personal guarantors under the terms of its loan contract, personal guarantees and the Funding Circle Borrower Agreement. Funding Circle is also committed to giving borrowers and personal guarantors the fairest customer experience through this process. With this in mind, the Administration Fee and the Collections Charge referred to below are designed to reflect both a genuine pre-estimate of the costs to Funding Circle of conducting these debt collection and recovery activities (either in-house or through third party debt recovery specialists), and a commercially reasonable and proportionate charging framework for the enforcement on behalf of the lenders of the borrower's and personal guarantors' repayment obligations under a loan contract.
| Fee / Charge | Description | Amount | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late Fee | If you have FlexiPay, we will charge a Late Fee if you do not pay any Instalment on or by the applicable Due Date. Any Late Fee will be added to your outstanding balance and is payable immediately. | 1% of the overdue Instalment amount. | ||||||||||||||
| Administration Fee | A fee applied if a Borrower fails to make a Monthly Repayment when due under the loan contract and has not remedied that failure to pay within seven days. This Administration Fee applies to all delinquent loans up until the point of default. | 15% of the overdue Monthly Repayment amount. | ||||||||||||||
| Collections Charge | An amount we charge on all recovery payments made after default. | Per loan, the lower of (i) the fixed maximum cash amount set out in the Collections Charge Table below, or (ii) 15% of the total outstanding debt due at the time of default. The Collections Charge will be deducted from any recovery payments received and will be capped at 20% until the Collections Charge is repaid in full. | ||||||||||||||
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| Tracing Costs | Costs incurred locating you and/or a personal guarantor if you/they cannot be contacted by Funding Circle or a third party debt collection agency. | At cost | ||||||||||||||
| Field Agent Costs | All fees charged by a field agent that has been employed as part of the collections and/or recoveries process. | At cost | ||||||||||||||
| Legal Costs | All litigation, enforcement and recovery costs and expenses, including (but not limited to) legal fees and expenses on a full and unqualified indemnity basis to cover (i) litigation to recover all sums due by you under any loan contract, Funding Circle Borrower Agreement and/or this Fees and Charges Tariff; and/or (ii) enforcement of any security held on behalf of a Lender. | At cost | ||||||||||||||
All fees, costs, charges, expenses and other amounts payable as set out above will accrue interest at the Interest Rate from the date they are charged or incurred until payment.
