{"id":12922,"date":"2026-08-21T15:28:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/?p=12922"},"modified":"2026-08-21T16:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:02:16","slug":"what-it-takes-to-offer-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/what-it-takes-to-offer-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"What It Takes to Offer Finance in Your Clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A client<\/mark><\/a> agrees the plan in the consultation. Three sessions, six weeks apart, priced as a course. Then the total is said out loud, and the reply is that she will have a think about it. She books the first session, gets a third of the result the protocol was designed to produce, and does not rebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most practitioners recognise that sequence without needing the figures attached to it. It is the specific problem finance<\/mark><\/a> for clinics exists to solve, and it explains why instalments have moved from a niche offering to a standard option at the point of booking across UK aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What stops practitioners is rarely the argument for it. It is the practical side. Whether permission is required. How a provider is chosen. What the setup actually involves, and what can be said about it once it is live. Those questions have concrete answers, and they are worth taking in order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alt<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Three ways to spread the cost, and why most clinics choose one<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are three routes, and they carry very different obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is in-house. The clinic<\/mark><\/a> takes a deposit, delivers the treatment, and chases the balance itself. It looks free because no third party takes a cut. It is not. The clinic carries the default risk, absorbs the administrative hours, and waits on money it has already spent stock and chair time to earn. Depending on how the arrangement is structured, it can also amount to providing credit in its own right, which brings its own regulatory questions. For a sole trader ordering product ahead of a busy month, the cash timing alone usually decides against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second is a third-party lender integrated at the point of sale. The lender pays the treatment value to the clinic, then holds the repayment relationship and the default risk with the client. This is the standard model, and the rest of this guide deals with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third is the client arranging their own credit independently. The clinic is not party to it and has no obligations, but also has no influence over whether it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason route two dominates is not convenience. It is risk transfer. Patient finance through an authorised lender moves collection, affordability assessment and bad debt off the clinic’s books entirely, which is what the merchant fee is buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Does your clinic need FCA permission?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the question that stalls most clinics, and the answer changed recently enough that a lot of circulating advice is out of date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changed on 15 July 2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The FCA began regulating Deferred Payment Credit on that date. DPC is the regulator’s term for interest free finance repayable in twelve or fewer instalments within twelve months, provided by a lender who is not the business supplying the goods or services. Agreements are regulated where the lender and the supplier of goods or services are not the same person. Lenders now need authorisation or temporary permission, must carry out creditworthiness and affordability assessments, and clients gain the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The regime is set out in the FCA’s guidance on regulating buy now pay later<\/mark><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that product specifically, a clinic introducing clients does not need its own permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the exemption stops<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The exemption attaches to the product, not to the business, and this is where clinics get caught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interest-bearing agreements, and agreements running beyond twelve months, are ordinary regulated consumer credit and always have been. The DPC merchant exemption does not reach them. Introducing a client to one of those is credit broking under article 36A, and it needs either the clinic’s own FCA authorisation or cover under an authorised firm’s permissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That distinction is not academic. Most lenders in this sector offer both. If a clinic offers a short interest-free option alongside longer monthly payment plans, it needs cover for the second even though the first sits outside the requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How most clinics get covered<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The usual route is Introducer Appointed Representative status. The clinic operates under the lender’s permissions, and the principal firm carries accountability for the regulated activity its IARs perform. Payl8r<\/mark><\/a>, the lender behind Faces Finance, is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 675283 and onboards businesses as IARs under its own permissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IAR status is cover, not a blank cheque. It brings training requirements, restrictions on how and where finance can be promoted, and ongoing monitoring by the principal. Any lender’s permissions can be checked directly on the FCA Financial Services Register<\/mark><\/a>, and they should be, before anything is signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The permissions question is covered in more depth, including the misconceptions that cluster around it, in 5 Common Myths About Offering Finance in Aesthetic Clinics<\/mark><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alt<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Choosing a provider<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once permissions are understood, provider selection comes down to four things that are easy to compare and frequently overlooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Product range and term length<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A lender offering only a three-instalment product will not help with a \u00a32,000 course. One offering only twenty-four-month terms is overkill on a \u00a3300 treatment. Payl8r publishes a range of \u00a350 to \u00a32,500 over three to twelve months, with interest-free or interest-bearing plans depending on the merchant’s setup. Match the product range to your actual price list, not to your top-end package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merchant fee and payout timing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The fee is unavoidable and comes off every financed transaction, including bookings you would have won anyway. Rates vary by lender, sector and volume, so the only figure worth planning against is the current one in your own agreement. Check the live rate in your dashboard before repricing anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payout timing deserves equal weight and gets far less. Ask specifically how many working days pass between treatment completion and funds landing, because that number is what makes customer finance plans viable for a business ordering stock against forward bookings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acceptance rates and second-line lending<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A high advertised approval rate means little if the declines cluster in your client demographic. Ask whether the lender operates second-line finance, which routes applicants declined by the primary lender to an alternative rather than ending the conversation. Ask whether applications run on a soft search, which leaves no hard footprint on the client’s credit file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integration with how you already work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If treatment finance options sit in a separate portal from your booking system, staff will forget to mention them. Where finance is built into the platform already handling bookings, consent forms<\/mark><\/a> and records, the application becomes part of the existing flow rather than an extra task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Registration, step by step<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What to have ready<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Finance provider registration is generally quicker than practitioners expect, and delays almost always come from missing documents rather than from assessment. Have these to hand before you start:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current professional indemnity insurance, in date. Your training certificate for the treatments you deliver. Photo ID. Business details including trading structure, whether sole trader, limited company or partnership. Bank details for payouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the registration works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For clinics already on the Faces platform, finance registration runs from the dashboard: open Finance Hub<\/mark><\/a>, select Register, and upload the documents above. Approval typically takes 24 to 48 business hours. Where the lender needs to onboard you as an IAR, that runs behind the scenes and the compliance side sits with the lender rather than the clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens after approval<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You will receive the lender’s advertising guidelines and approved promotional wording, along with training on the limits of your permissions. Read both before publishing anything. Practitioners who treat approval as the finishing line tend to meet difficulty at the advertising stage, which is the next section for good reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the whole of how to start offering finance in practical terms. The barrier is administrative, not conceptual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How the application runs in the consultation room<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The order of the conversation matters more than the script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clinical indication first. Price second. Payment method third, and only after the plan has been agreed on clinical grounds. Presenting finance for treatments as a way to fund a clinically appropriate plan is legitimate. Using the monthly figure to move a client toward a larger plan than was indicated is not, and it fails the advertising rules alongside the clinical ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finance application process itself is short. The client applies directly with the lender, usually on their own phone, and receives a real-time decision in most cases. The clinic does not assess affordability, cannot influence the outcome, and should not attempt to. Decisions rest solely with the lender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treat a decline as an answer rather than an obstacle. A client can reasonably reapply with a larger deposit or a smaller order value, which converts a dead end into a smaller booking. What it must not become is a hunt for a route around an assessment that has done exactly what it exists to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One point clinics routinely miss: agreements made after 15 July 2026 for amounts over \u00a3100 and under \u00a330,000 fall under Section 75 protection, making the lender jointly liable with the merchant if something goes wrong. Most published guidance on buy now pay later for services was written for retail, where a return closes the matter. In a clinical setting there is nothing to return, which makes consent records, aftercare forms<\/mark><\/a> and complaint handling part of your finance risk profile rather than separate from it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What you can say once you are live<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two rulebooks apply to the same Instagram post, and this is where clinics most often go wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A communication inviting someone to take credit is a financial promotion. An unauthorised business cannot issue one unless an authorised firm approves it or an exemption applies. IARs are generally permitted to promote in non-real time only, meaning social posts, website banners, email campaigns and in-clinic posters, using wording that follows the lender’s guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cost information triggers the extra requirements. Under CONC 3.5<\/mark><\/a>, a promotion stating a rate of interest or an amount relating to the cost of credit must carry a representative example given no less prominence than the figure that triggered it. A monthly repayment figure counts. A neutral statement that payment plans for treatments are available at booking generally sits outside the trigger. “From \u00a324 a month” does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second layer is the CAP Code. Advertising for cosmetic interventions must not trivialise the procedure, exploit insecurities or apply undue pressure, as the ASA<\/mark><\/a> sets out in its guidance on social responsibility in cosmetic interventions.<\/mark> Attaching a countdown or limited-time frame to a buy now pay later offer combines a pressure tactic with a credit product, and can breach both rulebooks in a single graphic. Promote availability, never urgency. The wider position is set out in Advertising Botox in the UK: What You Can Say<\/mark><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alt<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pricing, records and briefing your team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Three operational points settle before launch rather than after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pricing consistency comes first. Most merchant agreements prohibit charging financed clients more than cash clients, and differential pricing by payment method carries consumer credit implications of its own. Check your agreement before building a surcharge into the price list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the arithmetic. The merchant fee is a cost with a break-even point, not a loss. Divide the contribution on a treatment by the fee on that treatment and you have the number of financed bookings needed before one genuinely new booking pays for all of them. The worked example is in The Revenue Maths Behind Buy Now, Pay Later<\/mark><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the team. Anyone in the clinic who might mention instalments needs to know what they are permitted to say, that they cannot promise approval, and that they cannot advise on suitability. How to offer payment plans compliantly is a staff training question as much as a systems one, and the training your lender supplies exists precisely for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, keep records of which approved wording was used where and when. If a promotion is ever queried, the file is the defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is changing next<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The rules that govern what clinics can say about credit are themselves under review. In April 2026 the FCA published CP26\/15<\/mark><\/a>, consulting on removing provisions in CONC 3 that may be overly prescriptive or outdated, and relying instead on firms delivering the Consumer Duty’s consumer understanding outcome. It also opened a discussion on how cost of credit information, including APR, is presented. Responses closed in June 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the proposals land as drafted, the prescriptive triggers loosen while the clear, fair and not misleading standard stays. That is more flexibility and more judgement, which for clinics means the lender’s approved wording becomes more valuable rather than less. Anyone setting up medical finance solutions this year should expect the promotional guidance they receive at onboarding to be reissued at least once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Getting set up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If the only thing between your clinic and instalments is not knowing what the process involves, that is a form to complete rather than a decision to postpone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To set up finance payments through Faces, open Finance Hub<\/mark><\/a> from your dashboard, select Register, and upload your current insurance, training certificate and photo ID. Approval typically takes 24 to 48 business hours, and IAR onboarding, approved promotional wording and the compliance side are handled by the lender. Before your next package goes on the price list, check the live merchant rate in Finance Hub and run the break-even calculation against your own contribution figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FAQs<\/h2>\n\n\n
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How long does it take to offer finance to customers once registration starts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Approval on the Faces platform typically takes 24 to 48 business hours where documents are complete and in date. IAR onboarding with the lender runs alongside it. The most common cause of delay is expired insurance or a missing training certificate, both of which are worth checking before starting rather than after.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When does the clinic actually get paid?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Under a third-party arrangement the lender pays the treatment value to the clinic, usually a small number of working days after treatment completion is confirmed, rather than as the client repays. The exact timing varies by lender and should be confirmed in writing before signing, because it determines whether the arrangement works for your cash cycle.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Is there a minimum or maximum treatment value?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Lenders set their own limits. Payl8r publishes a range of \u00a350 to \u00a32,500 over three to twelve months. Check the current range with your provider, since limits and terms are reviewed periodically.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What happens if a client is approved but does not go ahead?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Approval and drawdown are separate events. Agreement terms typically begin when treatment is completed and a confirmation code is entered, not at the point of approval, which leaves room to amend or cancel a plan beforehand. Confirm the exact sequence with your lender.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Can finance be offered on training courses and products as well as treatments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Yes. Treatment payment plans and course fee instalments sit under the same permissions structure, the same affordability assessment and the same advertising restrictions. Academies listed on Faces can offer instalments on training courses and online courses through the same route clinics use.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A client agrees the plan in the consultation. Three sessions, six weeks apart, priced as a course. Then the total is said out loud, and the reply is that she will have a think about it. She books the first session, gets a third of the result the protocol was designed to produce, and does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[726,430,90,804,33,1022,812],"class_list":["post-12922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-booking-platform","tag-booking-system","tag-consent-form","tag-faces-finance","tag-finance","tag-finance-for-aesthetic-treatments","tag-finance-options"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12960,"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12922\/revisions\/12960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesconsent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}