A business loan as a self-employed professional: we refer you on

No. Our AFM licence covers general insurance; credit falls under a different category. We do not provide loans, do not advise on them and do not act as intermediaries for them. We do arrange the insurance a self-employed person needs: liability, business contents and tools, company vehicle, legal expenses and income during disability.

With a sole trader business or general partnership it can, because there is no separation between private and business. With a private limited company usually not, unless you co-sign or give a guarantee in a private capacity. Ask the provider in writing beforehand how it registers. A registration carries through into later applications for a mortgage or consumer credit.

Because a longer term lowers the instalment but raises the total interest, and because you run the risk of still repaying something that has already been written off. Choose a term that matches the useful life of the investment and ask whether early repayment is possible without penalty. With fluctuating turnover that flexibility is often decisive.

The repayment obligation continues while your turnover stops. As a self-employed person you have no employer continuing to pay wages, and health insurance does not pay an income. Disability insurance or a comparable arrangement absorbs that. Note the waiting period, the end age and the definition of incapacity applied. Those determine what you actually receive.