how long?

malima

Hi,
Please can anyone tell me roughly how long a business loan should take?
It's just that i asked for a loan to buy my business last October/start November, i handed in all my accounts, and i am still nowhere near knowing if i can get it or not!!! I keep phoning, but the business manager is never there, and she does not return my calls! (well, i think out of 10 she returned 2).

She is saying that she is getting a surveyor out to survey my property, and that was 3 weeks ago, she keeps fobbing me off for some reason!
Am i allowed to go to another bank to ask for a loan, or will my bank charge me.
5 months, is that long? If i try to complain, they say that i need to phone my own branch to complain, but i tried complaining,no use.
Thanks
malima

borders_dude

Its all very well her saying she is getting someone out, but when on the phone to her ask her about timeframes not just actions.

Savvy_Sue

You've tried complaining, but have you raised a formal complaint? Phone and ask for their complaints procedure, and start following it, ie if you wrote and complained but have not had a response within the time frame they said you should, then you can raise it to the next level, and eventually to the banking ombudsman.

It doesn't get you your loan any faster, necessarily, but it may get things sped up - sometimes in order to avoid a formal complaint someone will get things moving!

paulwf

That does seem a very long time but I know how you feel. It is amazing how a week can be lost waiting for them to get to the next stage and all those weeks add up...2 1/2 weeks Christmas break, 1 week for snow disruptions, 2 weeks to decide which manager to allocate it to and so on. And they never return phone calls.

So far this week I've had 5 forms to fill in and return, 2 of those are just consent forms so that they can send me lots more forms One is a company debenture so that's a £180 fee and for 2 of them independent legal advice is compulsory, which will make my solicitor happy at £240 p/h.

This is why if someone comes up with a good business idea on this forum as bizarre as it sounds the first thing I advise is to get a job. It's quite easy to rack up several thousand in fees and spend a few months going through the legals - and that's before you even get to the loan stage! - so you need a job to tide you over.