Claim Your Profile — Before You Pay

Credibility through transparency

Good tradespeople should be easy to verify.

Customers are not looking for perfection. They are looking for confidence. When your details are visible — identity, insurance, credentials and real completed work — you remove doubt before it becomes a lost job.

You chose to be transparent

Voluntarily adding your credentials, insurance and contact details shows confidence in your own record.

Everything important in one place

Homeowners can see the details they care about without chasing screenshots, certificates or links.

Unanswered questions cost jobs

If a customer cannot verify the basics, they may choose someone who makes the decision feel safer.

What homeowners see

What changes when you claim your profile.

The difference is simple: unclaimed profiles leave gaps; claimed profiles show the information homeowners are already looking for.

Unclaimed profile — unanswered questions

Apex Roofing & Construction Ltd

Profile not claimed

Identity

Insolvency

Credentials

Insurance

Voluntarily provided information

–Business registration & identity

–Proof of insurance

–Trade credentials

–Portfolio & photos

What homeowners are trying to verify

?Do they have an insolvency or dissolution record?

?Is the deposit they’re asking for reasonable?

?Do they have the right insurance?

Our reports scour public records, review platforms, and regulatory databases — and give you the answers and questions you should be asking before you pay.

Run a full check →

Claimed profile — proof in one place

Apex Roofing & Construction Ltd

Claimed & verified

Identity

Insolvency

Credentials

Insurance

Voluntarily provided information

Business registration & identityJun 2025

Proof of insuranceJun 2025

Trade credentialsJun 2025

Portfolio & photosJun 2025

What homeowners are trying to verify

?Do they have an insolvency or dissolution record?

?Is the deposit they’re asking for reasonable?

?Do they have the right insurance?

Our reports scour public records, review platforms, and regulatory databases — and give you the answers and questions you should be asking before you pay.

Run a full check →

How it works

Three steps. No subscription. No fee.

You submit your details once. We review and approve. Your profile goes live — and stays live without you needing to manage anything.

Step 01

Find your profile

Search for your business, or follow the "Claim this profile" link directly from your existing BYP profile page. If you're a sole trader not in our database, you can submit a new profile instead.

~1 minute

Step 02

Verify you're the owner

For Ltd companies, we check your name against the live Companies House record. A quick email token confirms you have access to that inbox. For sole traders, your trade credential is the identity anchor.

~2 minutes

Step 03

Add your details

Upload your insurance certificate, add your trade credentials, contact details, and before/after photos of completed jobs. We review manually and your profile goes live, usually within 48 hours.

~5 minutes · approved within 48 hours

Questions

Straight answers.

Does it cost anything?

No. Claiming a profile on Before You Pay is free for tradespeople and will remain free. We make money from the £5 report that homeowners run — not from you. No subscription, no trial, no card required.

Why does transparency matter to homeowners?

When someone is about to hand over a deposit — often £500 to £2,000 or more — to a person they've met once, they want to feel safe. They're not looking for perfection. They're looking for openness. A tradesperson who voluntarily shares their credentials, insurance status, and photos of real work is making a statement about who they are. That statement is worth more than a star rating.

My business is already listed — what does claiming actually change?

Without claiming, your profile shows gaps — no insurance, no credentials, no contact details. A homeowner sees those as unanswered questions. Claiming fills them with your actual information: verified credentials, insurance status, contact details, and real photos. It also pins your CH record precisely to your company, removing any ambiguity that fuzzy name matching can create.

Is this a review platform?

No. We don't collect or host reviews. We're not Checkatrade, TrustATrader, or Which? Trusted Traders. We link homeowners to your existing profiles on those platforms so they can read your reviews at source. What BYP adds is identity verification and voluntary credential disclosure — something those platforms don't do.

What information do I need to provide?

For Ltd companies: your Companies House number, your name as a director, and an email address. For sole traders: trading name, trade type, operating area, and at least one trade credential. The optional additions — insurance certificate, phone, website, photos — are what make your profile stand out. The more you provide voluntarily, the stronger the transparency signal.

What if there's something in the public record I'm worried about?

The £5 report covers public records — Companies House, trade registers, news sources. It doesn't include opinions or invented data. If there's a flag (for example, a company with a similar name was dissolved), a claimed profile actually helps: it confirms which company is which and removes ambiguity. If there's a genuine historical issue, the best response is accurate disclosure — not silence, which raises more questions than it answers.

I'm a sole trader — can I still claim a profile?

Yes — you submit a new profile rather than claiming an existing one. Our database is built from Companies House, which only covers Ltd companies, so sole traders won't already be listed. Your trade credential (Gas Safe number, NICEIC registration, etc.) becomes your identity anchor instead of a company number.

Win trust before the customer pays a deposit.