Early warning for UK trade creditors
Know when a customer is heading for trouble, before they stop paying.
Kestrel Alert watches the UK companies you extend credit to and emails you a plain-English alert as soon as something significant reaches the public record: a new charge, overdue accounts, an insolvency or strike-off notice, a director walking out. The warning signs are on the public record; we make sure you actually see them.
Free account, no card needed. Add a company by name in about a minute.
Watch list
Latest alerts
New charge registered: Meridian Build Supplies Ltd
A lender has registered a new charge over the company's assets, ahead of unsecured suppliers. It's the second new charge in 60 days.
Accounts now overdue: Harbourline Logistics Ltd
Annual accounts were due 30 days ago and have not been filed.
Charge satisfied: Ashcombe Joinery Ltd
A lender's charge over the company's assets has been paid off and released. Generally good news.
Illustrative example (fictitious companies)
Built on official Companies House and Gazette records across England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
How it works
Up and running in about a minute
- 1
Add a company
Search the register by name, exactly as it appears at Companies House. Start with the customer who owes you the most.
- 2
We watch, daily
New charges, overdue accounts, insolvency and strike-off notices, director changes: watched across the whole UK register, so you don't have to remember to check.
- 3
You get an email that makes sense
No jargon. Each alert says what happened, what it can mean for you as a creditor, and links to the official record so you can verify it.
Your first three companies are free. No card, no trial clock.
Who it's for
Built for businesses that get paid after the work
Wholesalers, builders' merchants, manufacturers, recruiters, agencies, hauliers, freelancers with a handful of large clients. If you ship the goods or do the work before the money arrives, one bad debtor can undo a year of margin, and you almost certainly don't have a credit department watching for it. That is who this is for.
What we watch
The events we watch for you
New charges & debentures
Your customer pledging its assets to a lender. Often the first public sign of cash pressure.
Overdue accounts
Checked daily. One of the earliest and most reliable distress signals on the register.
Insolvency notices
Administrations, liquidations and winding-up notices from all three Gazette editions.
Strike-off proposals
From the Companies House record of the strike-off notice, so you can object before a debtor is dissolved still owing you money.
Director changes
Resignations and appointments that change who you're really trading with.
People, not just companies
Watch a person by name and month and year of birth, and hear the day they become a director of any UK company, or resign as one. When a customer fails, know where its directors turn up next before you give their new company credit.
This is not a rare event
More than 20,000 companies entered insolvency in England and Wales in the last 12 months, about 1 in every 200 on the register, according to the Insolvency Service's official statistics. Unsecured trade creditors are near the back of the queue and often recover little of what they are owed.
Almost none of these failures come from nowhere. Charges get registered, accounts go overdue, notices appear in The Gazette, weeks or months before the phones stop being answered. Hearing about it early is the difference between collecting and joining the creditors' queue.
The warning is public. The problem is that nobody in a small business has time to check the register every day. That is the whole job Kestrel Alert does.
Trust
Why trust Kestrel Alert?
Official sources only
Every alert comes from the official public record (Companies House and The Gazette), not scraped or second-hand data.
Verify everything yourself
Every alert links to the official record. You never have to take our word for it: check the source in one click.
Independent
We don't sell credit insurance, lending, or debt collection. Our only job is telling you what happened, clearly and early.
UK-based service
Built for UK trade creditors; your account and alert data are stored in the UK and encrypted in transit and at rest.
Pricing
Free to start, cheap to grow
Every account starts free: watch three companies, no card needed. When you want to watch your whole ledger, paid plans start at £9 a month, VAT included, cancel any time. Less than the cost of one hour spent chasing a debt that has already gone bad.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is Kestrel Alert?
Kestrel Alert is an early-warning service for UK businesses that extend credit to other businesses. You add the companies you invoice, supply, or depend on to a watch list, and we email you a plain-English alert when something financially significant is filed against one of them, such as a new charge, overdue accounts, an insolvency notice, a strike-off notice, or a director change.
What events do you alert on?
We alert on new charges and debentures (a company pledging its assets to a lender), accounts that become overdue at Companies House, insolvency events such as administration and liquidation, winding-up notices published in The Gazette, the Companies House record of a strike-off notice, and significant director changes. Each alert explains what happened and what it might mean for you as a creditor.
Where does your data come from?
From the official public record: Companies House (the UK registrar of companies) and The Gazette (the UK's official public record, covering the London, Edinburgh and Belfast editions). Every alert links to the official record so you can verify it at the source. We don't buy second-hand data from brokers.
How quickly will I get an alert?
Companies House filings are checked every 15 minutes, so those alerts usually arrive within the hour. Gazette notices are checked once each night, in the hours The Gazette allows automated checks, so a notice reaches you by the next morning at the latest. Overdue accounts are checked every morning.
Is this a credit report or a credit score?
No. A credit report is a snapshot with a score attached; Kestrel Alert is continuous monitoring. Scores are useful when you first take on a customer, but they age quickly: the danger period is the months afterwards, when trouble shows up as filings: new charges, late accounts, resignations, insolvency notices. We watch for those events and tell you when they happen, in plain English.
Guides
Guides for trade creditors
How to check if a UK company is in financial trouble (for free)
Free ways to check the financial health of a UK company using Companies House and The Gazette: what to look for, and the limits of a one-off check.
6 min readWhat does a charge on Companies House mean?
A charge on Companies House means a company has pledged assets to a lender. What fixed and floating charges and debentures mean for suppliers owed money.
6 min readOverdue accounts at Companies House: how worried should you be?
What overdue accounts at Companies House mean: filing deadlines, penalties, why late filing predicts trouble, and what a supplier should do about it.
5 min readStop finding out from the bounced payment
Watch three companies free, no card needed. The register doesn't wait: accounts go overdue on a fixed date, strike-off objections have a deadline, and a new charge must be registered within 21 days. Get the warning while it's still useful.
Free account in about a minute. Paid plans from £9 a month when you need to watch more.
Kestrel Alert is an information service based on public records. It is not financial, credit, or legal advice.