Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small businesses complain that high-street banks are not entering into the spirit of the government emergency coronavirus loan, pushing them towards expensive products instead.
Entrepreneurs who have contacted Small Business show that banks are either wrongly understanding the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) by asking for personal guarantees or are deliberately up-selling it, directing small businesses to take out regular business loans instead.
Alice Douglas, who runs St Curig’s Church bed and breakfast in Snowdonia, North Wales, said that she is faced with £20,000 worth of cancelled bookings because of coronavirus closure. She spent two days trying to get through to her bank, including seven hours of being put on hold, to ask for an overdraft extension. When Douglas – who has been with her bank for 40 years – explained that she needed financial support, her bank asked her if she had another income source over the next few months. When she said no, the bank said it was unable to help.
Douglas said: “I then asked [the bank] about the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan but they said as I have no income at the moment they can’t do anything. Which defeats the whole