Banks? - Are they REALLY open for business lending?

niceirishfella

Anyone got some credible knowledge on this?
Seeking a bit of an expansion to my business's.
Looking about going in with a strong business plan/proposal seeking 80k, as i've got 20k availabe ready to be put to work (overall 100k investment):pac:

Anyone got the low down?
Who's best right now?

Thoughts please.

Thanks,
NIF

FusionNet

I know of a business recently went to his trading bank to get finance for an item. Now he was with them 2.5 years. Ulster said sorry we cant decide that it has to go to Dublin for approval. He said fine, went to another bank, gave them the accounts, the statements etc and asked for the same finance, got told in 5 mins he was approved even though he didnt even have an account with them...

Ill be moving my accounts from Ulster tomorrow.. From what Ive seen over the last few months they are scaling back and are basically closed for new business..

best of luck to you, its tough but there are a few euro out there..

DoMyBooks

I've worked with clients on getting finance recently and most of it was successful. Its an awful lot easier if you've got security though. .

newman10

FusionNet wrote: »

I know of a business recently went to his trading bank to get finance for an item. Now he was with them 2.5 years. Ulster said sorry we cant decide that it has to go to Dublin for approval. He said fine, went to another bank, gave them the accounts, the statements etc and asked for the same finance, got told in 5 mins he was approved even though he didnt even have an account with them...

Ill be moving my accounts from Ulster tomorrow.. From what Ive seen over the last few months they are scaling back and are basically closed for new business..

best of luck to you, its tough but there are a few euro out there..

They are as good as shut and want to pull in money, not give it out.

Would move if I could but no bank wants a Commercial Mortgage

FusionNet

hey newman,

Im moving my day to day banking from Ulster and leaving my finance there. That way I get the best of both. Could you not do the same?

drunkmonkey

I think there's also some scheme banks are running at the moment from eu funding where business looking to expand can get cheap money,
I think around 2.5%, I wasn't paying enough attention but it's there to be had..

there open for business, well aib anyway;)

stepbar

European Investment Bank funding - Some info:
http://www.ibf.ie/Articles.asp?article_title=&category_id=132

If your business fits into the boxes you may qualify for funding at a better rate.

You also might want to read this report from Mazars -

http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/publications/reports/2009/mazarrepjul09.pdf

Basically it's a review of lending to SME lending to June 08' to Feb 09'. From the report it's clear property and construction were not sectors the banks wished to continue funding (no suprise there).

I cannot stress this hard enough - repayment capacity is key. If you don't have repayment capacity forget it. Security is also important as often it can be the deal clincher for the type of lending SME's look for. I'll also say that the quality of the information you present is helpful as it demonstrates that you have an understanding of the financials surrounding your business (in other words, don't be going in with your workings on a handwritten A4 sheet of paper). Take the time to cost every detail, know exactly where every penny will be spent. I've seen applications declined simply because of poor information (but somehow the banker decided to put up the application and try make it work for what reason I don't know??)

Mickk

I have to say BOI were very good to me, I am going to borrow 50k to help launch a new product and they approved it for me in 24 hours. I gave my manager (who does know me and the business fairly well) a rough guide of what I was going to use the money for over the phone (10k website, 60k stock ect.) and I don't have any collateral but do have another 50k to invest myself and I payed back my last two loans early. They were only for tiny amounts that I didn't even need but if you take a loan when you don't really need it and then pay it back early it looks very good on your record.

Flan45

We've had a good experience with BOI recently also, needed to increase the overdraft limit for 3 months as we had been awarded a large contract.

We were going to incur alot of costs at start up and at 30 days, payment wasn't due to us for 60 days. They looked for some information but not as much as I expected and came back to us with approval within 24 hours.

mick19

Flan45 wrote: »

We've had a good experience with BOI recently also, needed to increase the overdraft limit for 3 months as we had been awarded a large contract.

We were going to incur alot of costs at start up and at 30 days, payment wasn't due to us for 60 days. They looked for some information but not as much as I expected and came back to us with approval within 24 hours.

Good for you. I was with BOI and got on well - manager changed & attitude changed. Now gone to AIB who to date are very good for day to day business.