United Kingdom · Finance roles · Senior (5-8 years)

Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, a real day, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

  • Experience bandSenior (5-8 years)
  • Direct reportsNo direct reports
  • Reports toFP&A Manager
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Senior FP&A Analyst · Finance Business Partner · Senior Management Accountant (FP&A focus)

Built on an analysis of 43,079 real UK job descriptions · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Start with a free Future Fluency check, tuned to Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this role rather than a generic one. About five minutes, and no card.

Start the check, free

1What this role really is

You'll be the go-to person for specific business units, translating their operational chaos into clear financial insights. This isn't just about crunching numbers; it's about understanding the 'why' behind them, building robust models, and helping leaders make smarter, data-backed decisions. Think of yourself as a financial detective and a strategic co-pilot.

2What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Building and maintaining complex financial models, using Power Query for data cleaning, Power Pivot for large datasets, and VBA for automation. You'll be the go-to person for Excel wizardry.

Anaplan / Workday Adaptive Planning (or similar EPM)Advanced

Building new modules, writing complex formulas, managing user access, and connecting data sources within our enterprise planning platform. You'll be a key model builder and administrator.

Power BI / TableauAdvanced

Connecting to various data sources (SQL, ERP), building new interactive dashboards, writing DAX/calculated fields, and telling compelling stories with data for business unit reviews.

Oracle NetSuite / SAP S/4HANA (or similar ERP)Intermediate

Building custom reports, understanding table relationships for data extraction, and assisting with system reconciliations to ensure data integrity for your analysis.

SQL (T-SQL/PostgreSQL)Intermediate

Writing queries with multiple joins, aggregations, and window functions to extract and validate data for analysis, often bypassing front-end reporting limitations to get to the raw data you need.

Microsoft PowerPointAdvanced

Building compelling presentations from scratch, creating clear narratives that explain complex financial results and strategic recommendations to non-financial audiences, including senior leadership.

3What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing inWhere you are nowThe step above
Financial Model DesignFollows existing templates and guidance from senior analysts.Chooses appropriate model structure for routine problems, seeks review for complex designs.Designs new, complex models from scratch, defines best practices, and reviews junior analyst models.
Forecast AssumptionsInputs data based on instructions, flags discrepancies.Proposes assumptions for specific line items, discusses with manager.Challenges and validates assumptions with business partners, makes recommendations to manager for approval.
Process ImprovementIdentifies minor inefficiencies, suggests to manager.Proposes and implements solutions for routine process bottlenecks.Leads initiatives to improve core FP&A processes, influencing team-wide adoption.
Budget Reallocation (within assigned units)No authority; flags potential over/underspends.Recommends minor reallocations (<£5K) to manager.Recommends reallocations up to £10K, provides detailed ROI justification, and seeks manager approval.

4How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, honestly: the hard targets, how often each one is actually looked at, and the quiet human signals that never make it onto a dashboard.

Forecast Accuracy (assigned business units)
How close your revenue and cost forecasts are to the actual results for the specific departments you support.
Target · Within ±3% variance on revenue, ±5% on costs

If your Q3 revenue forecast for the Sales team was £5M and actuals came in at £4.9M, that's a 2% variance – a good result.

Budget Variance Analysis Quality
The depth and accuracy of your explanations for why actuals differ from budget or forecast.
Target · Root causes identified for 90% of variances >£10K; actionable insights provided for 75%

Explaining that a £50K marketing overspend was due to an unplanned Q2 campaign, detailing its ROI, and recommending future budget adjustments.

Model Efficiency & Reliability
The robustness and speed of the financial models you build and maintain.
Target · 95% uptime for critical models; 20% reduction in manual data input/processing time per quarter

Automating a monthly reporting package that used to take 8 hours, now runs in 1 hour with minimal manual intervention.

Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis Accuracy
The precision of your ROI calculations for proposed projects or initiatives.
Target · Projected ROI within ±10% of actual ROI post-implementation

A project you projected to have a 15% ROI actually delivered 16.5% – a strong validation of your analysis.

Business Partner Trust & Influence
How much the business leaders you support rely on your insights and proactively involve you in their planning.
  • You're consistently invited to departmental strategy meetings. Business leaders seek your opinion before making significant spending or investment decisions. They'll come to you with problems, not just data requests.
Clarity of Financial Storytelling
Your ability to translate complex financial data into clear, concise, and actionable narratives for non-finance audiences.
  • Your presentations are easily understood by executives. You receive positive feedback on your ability to simplify complex topics. People 'get it' after you explain the numbers, without needing follow-up questions on basic definitions.
Proactive Problem Identification
Your knack for spotting potential financial risks or opportunities before they become critical issues.
  • You flag an emerging cost trend or a revenue shortfall risk before your manager or the business unit head does. You're bringing solutions or warnings, not just reacting to requests.
Mentorship & Team Contribution
Your willingness and effectiveness in supporting and developing junior team members.
  • Junior analysts come to you for advice. You regularly offer to review their work or help them unstick a problem. You actively share knowledge and best practices within the FP&A team.

5Would you like it

The honest version. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Impactful Decision-Making

You'll feel a real buzz when a business leader uses your analysis to greenlight a new product, cut an unnecessary cost, or shift strategy. Seeing your numbers directly influence the direction of the company is a huge driver.

Your deep dive into marketing spend reveals that a particular channel isn't delivering ROI, leading the CMO to reallocate a £200K budget to a more effective area.

Solving Complex Puzzles

If you love the challenge of taking a messy, disparate set of data points and turning it into a clear, coherent financial picture, you'll enjoy the daily grind. It's like being a detective, piecing together clues to form a complete story.

You're tasked with explaining a sudden dip in gross margin. You meticulously trace it back through sales data, cost of goods sold, and supplier invoices to pinpoint a specific product line and supplier issue.

Continuous Learning & Mastery

The world of finance and business is always changing. You'll be constantly learning new modelling techniques, understanding new business drivers, and grappling with different economic scenarios. If you enjoy mastering new skills and deepening your expertise, you'll thrive.

You spend your lunch breaks learning a new Power Query technique or reading up on the latest macroeconomic trends to better inform your forecasts.

What frustrates people
  • The last-minute 'fire drill' from an executive at 4:30 PM on a Friday, requiring an all-nighter to rebuild a model.
  • Spending 40% of your time trying to make numbers from the ERP, CRM, and HRIS systems tie out before you can even begin your actual analysis.
  • Inheriting a monstrous, 100MB Excel workbook built by someone who left, with no documentation and thousands of circular references.
  • Being the 'budget police,' constantly having to say 'no' to passionate business leaders and explaining why their pet project doesn't have the ROI to justify funding.
  • Forecast whiplash: stakeholders changing their core assumptions mid-way through the forecast cycle, forcing a complete rework of weeks of effort.
  • Explaining variances you don't control, while chasing down the unresponsive budget owner who is actually accountable.
What this role does not give you
  • A predictable, unchanging daily routine.
  • Immediate, tangible output for every single piece of analysis you do.
  • A role where you only deal with clean, perfectly structured data.
  • A 'set it and forget it' approach to financial planning.

6Who you work with

This role directly influences our budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning processes. Your accurate analysis helps department heads manage their spending, identifies areas for revenue growth, and ensures we're allocating capital wisely. Get it right, and we hit our targets; get it wrong, and we could miss opportunities or overspend significantly.

Inside the business
  • FP&A Manager and Director
  • Heads of Sales, Marketing, and Operations
  • Product Management Leads
  • Senior Accountants (for month-end close)
Outside the business
  • External auditors (for data requests)
  • Key vendors (for cost analysis)
  • Potential investors (indirectly, through accurate reporting)

7What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • At least 5 years of dedicated experience in a Financial Planning & Analysis or similar analytical finance role.
  • Demonstrable experience building complex financial models (3-statement, DCF, operational) from scratch, not just updating existing ones.
  • Proven ability to conduct in-depth variance analysis and present findings clearly to non-finance audiences.
  • Experience acting as a finance business partner to at least one operational department.
  • Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (Power Query, Power Pivot, VBA) and at least one EPM system (Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning, Hyperion) or BI tool (Power BI, Tableau).

8What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Python for Financial Analysis

While Excel remains king for many, Python (with libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy) is becoming indispensable for handling larger datasets, complex statistical analysis, and automating data pipelines that Excel simply can't manage efficiently. It's about scaling your analytical capabilities.

Pandas for Data Manipulation · NumPy for Numerical Operations · Matplotlib/Seaborn for Visualisation · Automating ETL Processes

  • This week: Complete a free online Python for Finance tutorial (e.g., on Coursera or DataCamp).
  • This month: Recreate one of your existing Excel data cleaning processes in Python using Pandas.
  • Month 2: Build a simple financial forecast model in Python, incorporating basic statistical methods.
  • Month 3: Contribute a Python script to a team project, perhaps automating a data pull or report generation.

Quick win: Use Python as a calculator for complex financial formulas or for quick data aggregations that are cumbersome in Excel. Start small, build confidence.

9Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attending industry webinars and conferences on FP&A best practices, financial modelling, and business intelligence.
  • Subscribing to financial news and analysis publications (e.g., Financial Times, Wall Street Journal) to stay abreast of economic trends.
  • Participating in online courses or workshops to deepen skills in advanced Excel, SQL, Python for finance, or EPM system administration.
  • Actively seeking out mentorship opportunities, both formally and informally, from senior leaders within Finance and other departments.

10How the AI economy is changing work like this

Before we ask anything of you, here's what we can already say about AI and work of this kind:

The new skill this role is being asked for: Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration

Competitors are already using Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT and Claude to draft reports in minutes that used to take hours. Analysts who master this will outproduce their peers significantly. It's about working smarter, not harder.

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

Your PlanIllustration

Built for Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

3 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Analyse Financial PerformanceInstitute of Sales Professionals · covers 1 of 2 standardsLevel 5
  2. Analysing the financial potential and performance of customer accountsInstitute of Sales Management · covers 1 of 2 standardsLevel 5
  3. Data AnalyticsPearson Education Ltd · covers 1 of 2 standardsLevel 5
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration

Competitors are already using Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT and Claude to draft reports in minutes that used to take hours. Analysts who master this will outproduce their peers significantly. It's about working smarter, not harder.

  • Context Windows & Token Limits
  • Temperature Settings
  • RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation)
  • Output Validation & Hallucination Detection

Data Ethics & Governance (AI Context)

As we use more AI, especially with sensitive financial data, understanding the ethical implications and ensuring data governance is paramount. Misuse or biased AI outputs could have serious financial and reputational consequences.

  • Bias in AI Models
  • Data Privacy in LLMs
  • Explainable AI (XAI)
  • Regulatory Compliance (AI specific)

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Financial Modeling
  • Variance Analysis
  • Rolling Forecasts & Long-Range Planning
  • Capital Allocation & ROI Analysis
  • Management Reporting

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Financial Analyst (L2)

    2-3 years

    Skills to master

    • Owning specific P&L areas, producing standard reporting, initial variance commentary, and basic financial modelling.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently accurate reporting and initial analysis.
    • Proactively identifying minor issues and proposing solutions.
    • Reliable delivery of all assigned tasks and reports on time.
  2. 2

    Management Accountant

    3-5 years

    Skills to master

    • Strong understanding of accounting principles, month-end close processes, and detailed cost analysis. This provides a solid foundation for FP&A.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Efficient and accurate contribution to month-end close.
    • Ability to reconcile complex accounts and explain accounting movements.
    • Strong grasp of cost drivers and profitability analysis.
  3. 3

    Business Analyst (with Finance focus)

    4-6 years

    Skills to master

    • Translating business requirements into data solutions, process mapping, and working closely with operational teams. Less direct financial modelling, but strong analytical and partnering skills.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully delivered analytical projects that drove business improvements.
    • Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
    • Ability to understand and interpret business data beyond just financial numbers.

11Where this role leads

The long view:Your journey in FP&A is what you make it. We provide the platform, the challenges, and the support; your ambition and drive will define how far you go. We're excited to see what you'll achieve.

Pay & demand

Pay and demand for this role will appear here, each figure traced to a named authoritative source (e.g. the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, under the Open Government Licence). We don’t show numbers we can’t attribute.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst is actually changing. In about two minutes, the free confidence check asks where you stand on each of the ten. That's the whole check, and it's what makes the plan yours rather than generic.

12The team that's yours

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

Zavmo is a hyper-personalised AI learning platform. Twelve virtual tutors, each with a different way of teaching, and one orchestration agent that picks the right one for the moment. So every single lesson is shaped around you, your role, and the way you learn. Not a course everyone sits through. A conversation built for you, and no one else.

…and nine more, matched to you after your first chat. Meet all twelve

13What it feels like

A conversation, not a course

Because your tutor knows your role, your projects and your last session, learning sounds like this. And it's different for every single person:

Analyse Financial PerformanceLevel 5

Applied to your work in Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

The objective of this unit is to enable learners to analyse financial performance using appropriate tools and techniques. Learners will be able to evaluate financial risks, adhere to organisational procedures, and estimate future financial performance for customer accounts.

How the thinking builds
  1. Remember
  2. Understand
  3. Apply
  4. Analyse
  5. Evaluate
  6. Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

One to one, not one to many

No two people run this the same way

A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.

  1. Your actual work Every lesson is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
  2. What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
  3. The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
  4. How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
  5. Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.

See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.

DemonstrateIllustration

Evidenced on your work in Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

You do not finish by watching something. You finish by showing it on the work you already do, against the measures this job is judged on.

  • Forecast Accuracy (assigned business units)How close your revenue and cost forecasts are to the actual results for the specific departments you support.If your Q3 revenue forecast for the Sales team was £5M and actuals came in at £4.9M, that's a 2% variance – a good result.Within ±3% variance on revenue, ±5% on costs
  • Budget Variance Analysis QualityThe depth and accuracy of your explanations for why actuals differ from budget or forecast.Explaining that a £50K marketing overspend was due to an unplanned Q2 campaign, detailing its ROI, and recommending future budget adjustments.Root causes identified for 90% of variances >£10K; actionable insights provided for 75%
  • Model Efficiency & ReliabilityThe robustness and speed of the financial models you build and maintain.Automating a monthly reporting package that used to take 8 hours, now runs in 1 hour with minimal manual intervention.95% uptime for critical models; 20% reduction in manual data input/processing time per quarter
  • Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis AccuracyThe precision of your ROI calculations for proposed projects or initiatives.A project you projected to have a 15% ROI actually delivered 16.5% – a strong validation of your analysis.Projected ROI within ±10% of actual ROI post-implementation
These are this job's own measures, with its own targets. Nothing is marked evidenced, because nobody has started this yet. Yours would fill in from the work you bring.

Your passport

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

Every credit you earn and every fluency you build adds up: evidence where it counts, carried with you. Zavmo keeps the map: where you are, where you're heading, and the next step, at your pace, around your life. From Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst to FP&A Manager / Lead Financial Analyst (L4), and whatever you decide comes after.

Level 5 · in progressAI Fluency→ FP&A Manager / Lead Financial Analyst (L4)→ your design
Where this takes you

Your journey in FP&A is what you make it. We provide the platform, the challenges, and the support; your ambition and drive will define how far you go. We're excited to see what you'll achieve.

See Your Progress GrowIllustration
Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst
  • Financial Modeling
  • Variance Analysis
  • Rolling Forecasts & Long-Range Planning
  • Capital Allocation & ROI Analysis
  • Management Reporting
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

14The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. You'll move from leading workstreams to managing entire planning processes or a small team. Your scope expands significantly, and you'll have more direct reports and decision-making authority.

    • Budget Ownership: Managing a larger budget (up to £500K) for a specific function or project.
    • Process Architecture: Designing and optimising core FP&A processes across the team.
    • Advanced EPM System Administration: Taking on more responsibility for the planning system's architecture and governance.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real, a big chunk of FP&A work can be repetitive, data-heavy, and frankly, a bit tedious. But what if you could offload some of that to AI? We're not talking about replacing you; we're talking about giving you a superpower. Imagine spending less time on data wrangling and more time on high-value analysis and strategic thinking.

AI isn't some far-off future; it's here now, and it's transforming how top FP&A professionals work. For a Senior FP&A Analyst, this means automating the mundane so you can focus on the 'why' and the 'what next.' We're building an internal AI hub to help you get started.

Automated Variance Commentary

Imagine AI analysing your actuals vs. forecast data and drafting the first version of your monthly variance commentary. It'll flag the top drivers and significant deviations, giving you a massive head start. You just review, refine, and add your unique insights.

Anomaly Detection & Insight Generation

AI can scan millions of transactions in real-time, spotting unusual spending patterns, duplicate invoices, or unexpected revenue drops that a human would never catch. It provides a starting point for your investigations, letting you jump straight to the 'why'.

Scenario Modeling Co-pilot

Need to quickly model the P&L impact of a new interest rate, inflation spike, or a sudden change in customer acquisition costs? AI can instantly run multiple scenarios, allowing for far more robust sensitivity analysis and quicker 'what-if' explorations. It's like having an extra pair of hands for complex modelling.

Competitor & Market Analysis Synthesis

Stop sifting through endless analyst reports and earnings call transcripts. Use AI to scrape, summarise, and extract key trends and risks from market data, giving you a concise brief to incorporate into your forecasts and strategic recommendations. Saves hours of research time.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst?

Common routes in include Financial Analyst (L2) (2-3 years), Management Accountant (3-5 years) and Business Analyst (with Finance focus) (4-6 years). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst progress to?

This role can lead on to FP&A Manager / Lead Financial Analyst (L4) (3-5 years), depending on the skills you build.

What level is a Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst in the UK?

This role aligns to RQF Level 5 on the UK framework, a guide to the depth of qualification it maps to, not a hard entry bar.

What new skills matter most for a Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst?

Increasingly, Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration and Data Ethics & Governance (AI Context). These are the areas where the higher-paid, future-proof work is heading.

The honest bit

You’ve started things before

Most of them were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.

There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.

And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.

What it costs

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

A single career-coaching hour costs more than a month of this, and it ends when the hour does. Zavmo doesn't. It's £70 a month, about £2.30 a day, for a companion that knows a Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst, works on the job you actually do, and keeps going at your pace rather than a timetable's.

  • Searching and planning stay free. You only pay when you start learning.
  • Your credits are yours. Regulated, and they don't vanish when a subscription ends.
  • Cancel any time and billing stops. No notice period, no minimum term.

Your path, personalised

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.

This route runs to 2 national skill standards. That is a real journey.

Zavmo shapes a learning experience as unique as you are. It fits how you learn, your pace and the work you already do. Every step stays benchmarked to recognised national standards. That’s the plan for becoming a Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst: personal to you, and it still counts. The first steps are free.

Independent research finds well-designed intelligent tutoring performs nearly as well as one-to-one human tutoring: VanLehn (2011), Educational Psychologist.

A private tutor in the UK averages £35–40 an hour . Zavmo is £70/month.

A real plan on learn.zavmo.ai: Ofqual-regulated units, credits, and a three-month run at your own pace.
Start free No commitment. See your first steps free.

15Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

Other roles in Finance roles

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

The skills you gain in FP&A are highly transferable. You could move into Corporate Development (M&A), Investor Relations, Treasury, or even transition into operational leadership roles (e.g., Head of Operations for a business unit), given your deep understanding of business drivers.

Not sure this is the right direction?

Work out what you actually want from work first, then come back and see which roles fit it. Takes about ten minutes.

This role profile is © 2026Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Build my plan, free Here's the first ten minutes: a 2-minute confidence check → your personalised roadmap → meet the tutors matched to you. No card, cancel any time. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.