Website terms of use

Effective date: 1 October 2026.

These terms cover your use of asksterling.co.uk. By using the site you agree to them. They're written to be read, so they're short where they can be. If something here conflicts with what a funder tells you, the funder's own agreement governs your company's finance.

1. Who we are

The site is run by OPTIMAX AI LTD ("we", "us"), registered in England & Wales, company no. 16143914, 38 Sunnymede Avenue, Epsom KT19 9TJ, which runs Ask Sterling. Email: mike@optimax-ai.com.

2. What Ask Sterling is, and isn't

Ask Sterling is an introducer. With your consent, we pass your enquiry to one named funding partner. We are not a lender or a broker. We don't arrange, offer or provide finance, we don't negotiate on your behalf, and we don't make credit decisions. Sterling is an illustrated guide character, not a real person, and nothing on the site is a statement by a qualified individual.

We only make introductions for limited companies. Business finance for limited companies is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and merchant cash advances are not loans and are not FCA-regulated. Finance is for business purposes only, subject to status and the funder's checks, and a personal guarantee may be required.

3. Information, not advice

Everything on the site is general information about business finance. It is not financial, legal, tax or accounting advice, and it doesn't take your company's circumstances into account. Before you commit to any finance, consider advice from an accountant or solicitor who knows your company. We work to keep pages accurate and sourced (see our editorial policy), but rules and market practice change, and a page may be out of date when you read it.

4. Calculators give estimates

Our calculators run in your browser and show the method on each tool page. Their results are estimates based on the figures you enter and the assumptions stated (for example, 21 business days a month for daily repayments). A funder's actual figures may differ. An estimate is not an offer, a quote or a prediction of what you'll be offered.

5. No promise of finance

Sending an enquiry doesn't mean you'll be contacted within a set time, offered finance, or offered any particular amount, price or term. Our funding partner and the funders they work with decide whether to make an offer and on what terms. Any finance agreement is between your company and the funder, on their terms. We aren't a party to it and aren't responsible for it.

6. Our funding partner

Our partner is an independent business. We choose who we introduce to, but we don't control how they or the funders they work with run their business, what they offer, or how they treat your data once they have it (their own privacy notice covers that). If you have a complaint about them, tell them, and tell us too, so we can decide whether to keep working with them.

7. Using the site properly

You agree not to:

• submit false information, or someone else's details without their permission;
• submit an enquiry for a company you're not entitled to act for;
• copy the site's content in bulk, scrape it, or use automated tools to load it heavily;
• try to break, probe or overload the site or the form;
• use the site for anything unlawful or fraudulent.

8. Our content

The text, calculators, design and the Sterling character belong to OPTIMAX AI LTD or are used with permission. You may read, print and share pages for your own business use, and quote short extracts with a link back. Anything beyond that needs our written permission.

9. Links to other sites

We link to sources such as legislation.gov.uk and regulators' sites. We don't control them and aren't responsible for their content.

10. Liability

We provide the site and its content free of charge, "as is". You use it in the course of your business. To the extent the law allows, and subject to the requirement of reasonableness, we aren't liable for:

• decisions you or your company make, or finance taken or not taken, based on the site;
• the acts, offers or decisions of our funding partner or any funder;
• loss of profit, revenue, business or opportunity, or any indirect or consequential loss;
• the site being unavailable or containing errors.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, which the law doesn't allow, or for fraud, or any other liability that can't be limited by law. If you use the site as a consumer, nothing here affects your statutory rights.

11. Changes

We may update these terms. The version on this page, with its effective date, is the one that applies.

12. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute about them. If you have a problem, email us first: most things can be put right quickly.

13. Contact

OPTIMAX AI LTD, 38 Sunnymede Avenue, Epsom KT19 9TJ. mike@optimax-ai.com.