How Credicorp Flex helps companies smooth seasonal cashflow without paying for slow months

If your business genuinely needs a £20,000 cheque this Friday for a specific named purchase, a one-time loan is the right tool: predictable repayments, a clear end date, a single charge for the borrowing. But many small businesses don’t actually have that shape. They have a £3,000 wobble in February, a £1,500 wobble in May, a quiet July, and a strong autumn. For that shape, paying a lump-sum’s interest on a balance you don’t really need is a waste — and the wrong product for the job. Credicorp Flex is the answer to that shape.

What Flex actually is

Credicorp Flex is a revolving credit facility — essentially a business overdraft with explicit terms instead of bank discretion. We agree a credit limit with you up front (between £500 and £5,000 on the standard tier; more on the higher tier subject to trading history). Within that limit, you can draw, repay, and re-draw as your cashflow demands. Interest accrues daily, but only on the amount you are actually drawn. If you draw £1,200, pay it back in three weeks, and don’t draw again for six months — you pay interest on £1,200 for three weeks, and nothing else. The credit limit sits there, unused, until you need it.

The key difference vs a one-time loan

A one-time loan starts the interest meter on the full principal from drawdown day. If your real need was £1,200 for three weeks but the smallest available loan was £3,000 for 60 days, you would have been paying interest on £1,800 you didn’t need, for 39 days you didn’t need them. Flex eliminates that mismatch — your interest cost matches your actual usage, not the loan structure.

Concretely, at our headline daily rate, a £1,200 Flex drawing held for three weeks costs about £63 in interest. The same £1,200 of usage drawn as a £3,000 / 60-day one-time loan would cost about £450. Same business need; one product fits it, the other doesn’t.

Quiet months are genuinely quiet

One of the most under-appreciated features of a revolving facility is what happens during the months you don’t draw. There are no monthly fees, no minimum-draw obligations, no “facility maintenance” charges. The agreement sits idle. We do not penalise an inactive facility — in fact, an unused Flex line with a reliable repayment history is exactly the kind of customer we want, and we periodically offer credit-limit increases to those customers without asking.

The 100% per-drawing cap

The 100% total-cost cap on Flex applies per drawing, not across the whole facility. If you draw £800, the most you ever pay for that drawing is £1,600. If you then draw £400 separately, the cap on that second drawing is set fresh at £800. The mechanism makes the worst case on any single drawing predictable, even if you keep the facility open for years.

Minimum repayment that scales

The minimum monthly repayment is the greater of 10% of your drawn balance or £20. If your drawn balance falls, your minimum repayment falls with it; if you repay aggressively, you can clear a drawing in weeks rather than the indicative term. Early repayment carries no penalty — there’s no fee, no interest clawback, no friction.

What Flex is NOT for

Honesty about fit matters. Flex is not the right product if:

• You know the exact amount and the exact term you need — a one-time loan will cost you less because the interest-rate offering is slightly tighter at the longer terms.
• You will be drawn to the limit continuously for many months — at that point you are using Flex as a revolving line for a known, ongoing need, which is fine, but worth considering whether a structured loan with predictable monthly repayments would suit you better.
• You need more than the Flex tier ceiling — over the standard tier limit, a one-time loan is the route.

The business loans page has the calculator that compares both products against your specific need. Or, if you’d rather talk it through, drop us a line — we’d rather you take the product that fits than the product that’s bigger.