Week nine of the Bounce Back Loan scheme started on 29th of June and ended on July the 5th 2020, and that week saw just 46,089 Bounce Back Loans being approved.
It was around this time that both Coutts and Arbuthnot Latham were approved as Bounce Back Loan lenders, however both being private banks meant that not many SME’s had the required huge cash reserves required to open an account with either bank to access a BBL with them.
As I had come to expect plenty of people continued to contact me night and day with their horror stories along with their success stories too, and in the video below you will find a sample of the messages I did receive that week.
I had been aware that NatWest had been declining some people telling them they were bankrupt or had a Cifas marker, that bank then claimed that was in fact an error, and many of the people they declined and went on to let re-apply did go on to get a BBL with them.
Some of those erroneously declined did get offered compensation by NatWest, as usual the amount of that compensation did vary.
However, and this was a trend that is continuing to this day and for weeks/months later NatWest have gone on to close peoples accounts out of the blue and told them they no longer want their custom, even after issuing a BBL.
Another issue that many people experienced was when they set about applying with the Royal Bank of Scotland, after applying they were swiftly told they could not apply as they were not based in Scotland.
I also got mixed reviews about Metro Bank, many people were raving about just how hassle free their experience was when applying with that bank, however not all the feedback was glowing.
The online portal that HSBC was using for those wishing to apply for an account to allow them to go on to apply for a Bounce Back Loan was driving many people insane, for after initially applying their application just seemed stuck as the first stage of the process, and trying to get an answers about how their application was progressing or why it was not progressing via the banks support staff was a nightmare experience.
Those who were getting errors with Barclays took my advice and continued to badger the CEO via email, with a mixed bag of results.
Some people declined by Starling did appeal their decision, and as you will see in the video above a tiny number of people did get told to re-apply after getting an initial decline.
As for many of the people Starling Bank declined in previous weeks, well I started to see more and more of them successfully apply for and then get a Bounce Back Loan with other lenders, but many of them were facing problems opening accounts with other lenders as not many were accepting new customers or had long delays with their account opening systems.
