Finance is offered routinely for cosmetic treatment and is frequently signed in the same appointment as the treatment is agreed. It is a separate contract with a separate counterparty and separate consequences, and it deserves its own five minutes.
What you are actually signing
A plan to pay over time is generally a credit agreement. There is a lender, who is usually not the clinic. The clinic is typically acting as a credit broker, introducing you to the lender. Both roles are regulated activities requiring the appropriate Financial Conduct Authority permissions.
The consequence people miss is that the credit agreement is with the lender. If you later stop the treatment, fall out with the clinic, or the clinic closes, the credit agreement does not simply evaporate. It has its own terms, and it is enforceable by a different company from the one that treated you.
- Open
- The Financial Services Register, maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority
register.fca.org.uk - Type in
- The exact name of the lender as it appears on the agreement. Then, separately, the name of the clinic or the company introducing the credit.
- A good result looks like
- Both firms found. The lender authorised with permissions covering consumer credit lending. The clinic either authorised for credit broking or shown as an appointed representative of an authorised firm, with the principal named.
- An ambiguous result looks like
- A clinic that does not appear at all while arranging credit for you. A lender whose entry shows a status other than authorised. A trading name that does not match the legal name on the agreement, with no explanation.
- What it does not prove
- That the agreement is good value, that the interest rate is competitive, or that the treatment is any good. The register records permissions to carry on regulated activities.
- Note
- Screenshot both entries with the date, and keep them with the agreement.
Using the Financial Services Register
The Financial Services Register is free and public. Search the firm name and read the entry. Look for whether the firm is authorised, what permissions it holds, whether it is authorised or is an appointed representative of another firm, its firm reference number, and its status.
Check both the lender and the clinic. A clinic introducing you to credit is likely to need permission for credit broking, either in its own right or as an appointed representative. If neither is present, ask why in writing before you sign anything.
Note also that being on the register is about permission to conduct regulated activity. It is not a comment on whether the deal is good.
What to read on the agreement
Six fields, and it takes about three minutes.
- The cash price, and whether it differs from the finance price.
- The total amount payable, which is the number you are agreeing to.
- The APR, and whether any promotional rate is time limited.
- The term, and the exact monthly amount and dates.
- What happens on a missed payment: fees, interest, loss of any promotional rate, and credit file consequences.
- What happens to the agreement if you do not complete the treatment, or the clinic closes.
The one people skip is the total amount payable. A monthly figure is designed to feel small. The total is the number you are agreeing to, and comparing it to the cash price tells you what the credit costs.
Also read what happens if you miss a payment. Late fees, default charges, interest and the effect on your credit file are consequences that outlast the treatment by years.
The one advantage credit can give you
There is a genuine protection worth knowing about, and it runs the other way. Where a purchase is made using certain kinds of credit, and the statutory conditions are met, the creditor can be jointly liable with the supplier for misrepresentation or breach of contract. That gives you a claim against a regulated financial firm rather than against a small business that may be difficult to pursue.
There are conditions, including monetary thresholds and the nature of the credit arrangement, and they matter. Read them at source or through the consumer advice services. But as a general proposition, paying by credit card or under a linked credit agreement can put you in a stronger position than paying cash or by bank transfer, which is worth a minute's thought at the counter.
| Payment method | What it gives you | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Credit card | Potential joint liability of the card issuer where conditions are met | The statutory thresholds and conditions |
| Debit card | Chargeback under card scheme rules, which is not a statutory right | Time limits set by the scheme |
| Linked credit agreement | Potential creditor liability, and a regulated counterparty | FCA permissions of lender and broker, and the total payable |
| Bank transfer | No card protection route | Whether you are content with that before paying |
| Cash | No card protection route, and a weaker evidence trail | Get a receipt naming the trader |
A framework written by this publication to organise the procedure. It is not a measurement, a guideline or a regulator's classification.
If something goes wrong with the finance
Complaints about a regulated financial firm go first to the firm. If you are not satisfied with its final response, or it does not respond in time, the Financial Ombudsman Service may be able to consider the complaint. That service is free to consumers.
This is a meaningful route and it is separate from any complaint about the treatment itself. It is entirely possible to have a clinical complaint with a regulator, a contractual claim against the clinic, and a finance complaint with the lender, all arising from the same appointment, each going to a different body. The map is in who you complain to.
Finance introduced at the moment of hesitation
One behavioural point. If finance appears at the exact moment you express doubt about the price, notice that it is being used to remove an objection rather than to solve a budgeting problem you raised.
That does not make the finance wrong. It makes it worth taking away and reading at home, which you are entitled to do. Any agreement that must be signed today is one to be more careful about, not less. The wider pattern is in what a sales pitch looks like instead.
Interest free, and what it costs
Zero percent finance is real and can be sensible. Read it as carefully as any other agreement, and check three things in particular: whether the zero rate applies for the whole term or an introductory period, what rate applies afterwards, and what happens if a payment is missed, which in some products ends the promotional rate.
Check also whether the cash price is the same as the finance price. Where a product is presented as interest free, look at what the treatment would cost paid outright, because that comparison is the only way to see the real cost of the arrangement.