High-value treatments and pay-monthly options go together: skin packages, laser courses, injectables, hair restoration. The moment your clinic helps a patient fund treatment through a lender, you've stepped from beauty into consumer credit — and that step is regulated. Here's where the line sits.
Aesthetics businesses already live with regulation — premises, practitioners, products. FCA authorisation is a separate layer that has nothing to do with clinical standards and everything to do with one question: are you involved in how patients borrow to pay you?
Offering patient finance is credit broking
If your clinic introduces patients to a finance provider — a link on your booking page, a tablet at reception, a “spread the cost” option through a lender — that introduction is credit broking, a regulated activity in its own right. It doesn't matter that the lender is the one providing the money, that the finance is interest-free to the patient, or that finance is a small sideline next to the treatments. The introduction itself is the regulated act, and doing it without authorisation is a criminal offence with unenforceable agreements attached.
The in-house payment plan question
Clinics often run their own instalment plans instead — pay the course off across the sessions. Whether that needs authorisation turns on the narrow interest-free exemption: the credit must be free of interest and every other charge, repaid within 12 months, in no more than 12 instalments. A six-session package paid over six months with no fees can sit inside it. An 18-month plan, or one with any admin charge, cannot. The precise test — and the traps — are in our guide to 0% finance without a licence.
Two arrangements that are not credit at all: taking a deposit, and taking payment session-by-session as treatment is delivered. Paying as you go isn't borrowing. The regulated territory begins when a patient owes you, or a lender, for treatment across time.
Which permission an aesthetics clinic needs
For a clinic whose business is treatments and whose finance is a way to help patients pay, the answer is almost always limited permission credit broking — the lighter-touch tier for firms broking as a secondary activity. It's the same analysis as for dental practices offering patient finance, and the application rests on the same components: a regulatory business plan describing the actual clinic, proportionate compliance policies, and a named SMF29 responsible person — usually the owner.
Two practical warnings
First, lenders check. Finance providers routinely require clinics to hold FCA authorisation before switching on a broking relationship — so the licence is often the gateway to offering finance at all, not just the legal cover for it. Second, watch your promotions: “0% finance available” on a treatment menu or an Instagram post is a financial promotion, and the FCA's advertising rules apply to it.
What it costs
The FCA's limited permission application fee is £560. Our fixed-price service prepares the complete application pack for £995, ready in three business days* once we have your details — the full cost picture is in the cost guide.
Frequently asked questions
- Does a clinic need FCA authorisation to offer finance through a lender?
Yes. Introducing patients to a finance provider is credit broking, a regulated activity, regardless of who lends the money or whether the finance is interest-free to the patient. Broking without authorisation is a criminal offence.
- Is an in-house treatment payment plan regulated?
It depends on the exemption: interest-free, no other charges of any kind, repaid within 12 months in no more than 12 instalments. Inside those limits an in-house plan can be exempt; outside them — longer terms or any fee — it's regulated credit.
- Are deposits and pay-per-session arrangements credit?
No. A deposit and paying for each session as it's delivered aren't borrowing. Credit arises when treatment is owed for over time — either to your clinic under an instalment plan or to a lender you introduced.
- Which FCA permission does an aesthetics clinic need?
Where finance is secondary to running the clinic, limited permission credit broking is usually the right tier — the same route as dental practices offering patient finance, with the owner typically holding the SMF29 function.
- How much does FCA authorisation cost for a clinic?
The FCA's limited permission application fee is £560. Our fixed-price service prepares the complete application pack for £995, ready in three business days* once we have your details, with the FCA's fee separate.
This article is general information to help you understand the process, and is not legal or regulatory advice. CreditLicence is a regulatory consultancy; nothing it provides is regulated advice, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the FCA. FCA rules can change; always check the FCA's website for the current position.