Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What should you be asking your finance provider before you decide who you’ll be committing to?

Raising finance for your business, property or home is one of the most important decisions you can make. Consequently here at Acorn.finance and Acorn.mortgage we take our responsibilities very seriously.

Here’s our list of questions you should be discussing with your providers along with our answers.

• How wide is your panel of lenders?
  • Our lending panel covers most of the UK market, enough to say that we are whole of market brokers, that means that we have access to the majority of lenders active in the UK funding market although some lenders work privately or through very limited introductory sources. We also make decisions to remove lenders from our panel when we do not believe working with them is in the best interests of our customers.
• How do you decide on your fee structure?
  • Our fees are balanced between our customer’s and providers. It is our belief that “commission only” brokers are unable to provide best advice in every case as lender commissions would form too much of the decision making process.
• How long have you been in the finance brokerage business?
  • We established Acorn.finance (previously Acorn Commercial Finance) in 1997. At the present time we’re in our 26th year of funding the UK’s business owners and investors.
• Are you authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)?
  • Acorn.finance is directly authorised by the FCA. Our registered number is 660207. Because many of the products we arrange are not regulated by the FCA so we are also full members of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers, the UK’s main association for brokers in the business finance and professional property investment market.
• What types of loans and financial products do you specialise in?
  • Acorn.finance & Acorn.mortgage have a number of experts working in different parts of the financial markets. We have specialisations in;
    • Commercial Mortgages for owner occupied businesses.
    • Property investment mortgages for buy to let (residential) investments and commercial investment property.
    • Bridging finance for auction purchases, chain breaking and fast purchases.
    • Refurbishment finance for property conversions or upgrades.
    • Development loans.
    • Unsecured business growth and equipment finance.
    • Home mortgages and bridging for purchases, remortgages and capital raising.
    • Equity release mortgages for the over 55s looking for an alternative to mortgage payments or to withdraw capital from their properties.
• Can you provide references or testimonials from previous clients?
  • We have 5 star feedback from our Google reviews, see the banner below.
• How do you assess the financial needs of investors or business owners?
  • The FUNDED system we use at Acorn.finance gives us a great understanding of your immediate needs and future goals, as a result your funding recommendations will be the very best we can arrange.
• What are the typical interest rates and repayment terms offered by the lenders you work with?
  • It’s impossible to give interest rates in this general page, nonetheless your advisor will provide indicative loan terms before you have to commit. So you always know you’re getting the right finance option.
• How do you handle the application and approval process?
  • Your Acorn.finance advisor will work throughout the process with you, completing our application form and providing certain background documents to demonstrate income, outgoings etc. will allow us to manage applications on your behalf. We’ll then get you to sign documents and forms as requested from the provider selected for you.
• What additional services or advice do you offer to support investors or business owners?
  • Beyond arranging funding for our customers we also arrange insurance and life assurance products and will help our customers with introductions to a wide range of services and professionals.