Freelancer Financials announces partnership with fintech app ANNA Money

ANNA Money and Freelancer Financials partner to tackle the mortgage barriers faced by company directors and sole traders

A quarter of UK freelancers struggle to get a mortgage and half of the UK’s self-employed have experienced mortgage application rejection*. Today ANNA Money, the AI-powered business account that also does your taxes, and Freelancer Financials, the leading specialist mortgage broker, announce a partnership to solve this problem and simplify access to mortgage finance for the UK’s growing flexible labour workforce.

The partnership combines ANNA’s financial management platform (used by over 100,000 small businesses), with Freelancer Financials’ two decades of expertise in securing mortgages for company directors, sole traders and independent professionals.

ANNA’s account holders will benefit from the in-depth market knowledge of the broking team at Freelancer Financials, while the clients of Freelancer Financials will be able to take advantage of the considerable benefits offered by the UK’s most feature-rich business account and tax app.

Traditional high-street lending often fails to recognise the true earning potential of self-employed workers, and this initiative directly addresses that challenge.

Why even company directors can struggle to get fair mortgages

For thousands of company directors, limited company contractors and sole traders across Britain, getting a good mortgage deal remains frustratingly out of reach, not because they can’t afford it, but because mortgage lenders (and their call centre staff) don’t understand how they earn their money – in short, “computer says no”.

Company directors may pay themselves modest salaries to keep their tax burden low on the advice of their accountants. The downside of this strategy is that they often get mortgage offers far below an amount they could actually afford, or on unfair terms in comparison to their PAYE counterparts. This is because conventional lenders typically focus on salary and dividends shown on tax returns, completely overlooking the healthy profits sitting in their companies.

Meanwhile, sole traders – from plumbers to photographers to programmers to process engineers – all face a “lottery” of lending criteria, with different banks and building societies applying wildly inconsistent rules about their trading history and how their incomes are assessed.

John Yerou, MD of Freelancer Financials and a pioneer of fair mortgages for the flexible labour workforce, feels that the self-employed can be unfairly disadvantaged when seeking a mortgage:

“Too many self-employed people are told they can’t afford the home their hard work deserves, when their business accounts tell a completely different story.

I am delighted to partner with a respected fintech business like ANNA to change this narrative, as our expert broking team is perfectly placed to give specialist advice to company directors and sole traders.

I’m also looking forward to developing specific tools for ANNA app users, so they have online access to the best deals to start their mortgage journey.”

How the partnership works

The partnership will provide ANNA account holders with a path to independent mortgage and protection advice, alongside financing that fairly reflects self-employed income. App users will gain direct access to Freelancer Financials’ specialist advisers, who work with over 30 lenders that actually understand self-employment.

For ANNA’s company director account holders, Freelancer Financials can present retained company profits to specialist underwriters, potentially unlocking significantly higher borrowing than traditional high-street banks would offer. Instead of just looking at what directors pay themselves, these lenders assess the company’s true financial health.

For sole traders with ANNA business accounts, the partnership opens doors to market-leading mortgages with as little as one year’s trading history, with Freelancer Financials presenting their fluctuating income in the best possible light, to its wide panel of lenders who understand the realities of self-employment.

Crucially, ANNA users already have much of the paperwork sorted. The app automatically handles bookkeeping, tax calculations and expense tracking – exactly the financial records mortgage lenders need to see. On top of this, all ANNA account holders will get an exclusive discount on the broking fee Freelancer Financials charges on the successful completion of a mortgage application.

ANNA’s Partnership Manager, Chris Thurgood, said of the recently agreed partnership:

“Our customers are savvy business owners who deserve mortgage and protection services from a provider that understands the reality of their incomes and, ultimately, their true worth.

Freelancer Financials knows that one size does not fit all. They will provide a bespoke service to our account holders, not the tick-box treatment they would get from a call centre.”

The scale of the problem

According to the latest ONS data** there are more than 4.2 million self-employed workers in the UK, so this partnership addresses a genuine market need. The collaboration between ANNA and Freelancer Financials is particularly timely as more professionals choose self-employment and flexible working arrangements, with the numbers steadily recovering from the lows of the pandemic era.

Rather than forcing these workers to jump through impossible hoops to achieve fair mortgage terms, the partnership provides a straightforward solution that recognises how a significant proportion of modern Britain actually earns a living.

About ANNA Money

ANNA (Absolutely No Nonsense Admin) Money is a leading business account and tax app serving over 100,000 sole traders, start-ups and limited companies across the UK.

The AI-powered platform combines a business account with automated tax filing, intelligent bookkeeping and professional invoicing. ANNA’s innovative functionality can handle VAT returns, Corporation Tax and expense tracking, all supported by 24/7 UK-based customer service. For more information, visit https://anna.money.

* Data source: The Mortgage Lender
** Data source: Office of National Statistics