Credit card / loan for self employed bod

Cullumpster

Morning Guys,

i've posted this in the small Biz section as well as i didn't know what would be better.

My b/f has just gone self employed (just over a couple of months) but he needs to get a credit card / loan to be able to buy materials ect for the business.

Currently he's having to use his own money as banks ect will not touch him with a barge pole as he can not prove his income.

Anyone know a way around this, as i'm starting to skint myself out using my credit card to buy all of his stuff!!!

Thanks ;D
Vic

Gotabiscuit

Has he actually tried to get a credit card yet?

A self-employed friend of mine recently got an Egg card so it isn't a complete barrier to getting credit, though what sort of credit limit he'd get is a different matter.

Galstonian

Unfortunately the best way to get credit is always to prove that you don't actually need it.

A few thoughts though. Personal loans are (I believe) never offered for business purposes, this is usually a specific exclusion. For a loan you'll have to approach the bank who is handling the business accounts.

For credit cards it is risky. You are taking on a personal liability - if the business fails you are still liable. If you insist on going this route then a 0% for purchases might be best - Sainsburys are 0% for 12 months. Alternatively you could try and get some 0% on balance transfer cads and transfer the exisiting balances to them. Personally I think this would be a very dangerous course to take and requires a lot of thought. What if the business failed and you split up?

What about him applying for trade accounts? There is usually 90 days before you have to pay for materials and if he is still not getting any income from a job after 90 days then I seriously think he needs to sit down and work out the cash flows to see if the business can actually succeed.

zcaprd7

You could try my A&L account/loan wheeze.

You get an A&L account and then apply for a loan.

They offer you their lowest typical rate on a loan (currently 5.8% APR) - when I did it originally I was offered a loan at 10.9% but when I rang up to get a better rate, I was told to re-submit the loan application after I'd opened a bank account and it worked...

... Annoyingly their typical rate back then was 6.4% grrr

Cullumpster

Cheers for the info guys,

I'll try and look into a trade account for him.

The reason why he isn't making a lot of money at the moment is because he is getting paid from one job and then having to use that money to buy materials ect for the next and so on.

i'm sure it will sort itself out soon enough, apparently (or so i've been told) the first few months are a bit of a nightmare being self employed, we have been told not to expect to make a lot of money. Booger!