Have you had your Recovery Loan Scheme Rejected?
The government’s new Recovery Loan Scheme is harder to obtain because the terms are stricter compared to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.
However its an amazing scheme and there is a lot you can still do if your Recovery Loan Scheme was declined. Spend some time here watch all the videos, read everything below and most importantly DONT GIVE UP.
What is the recovery loan scheme?
Since the pandemic, the government has been helping business owners to get back on their feet.
That was done through two different loan schemes. One was called the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBL), and one was the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). Both were excellent at helping entrepreneurs and business owners to keep funded.
The Bounce Back Loans (BBL) were guaranteed 100% by the government. That meant that the banks had very little risk in lending to you. They were fairly easy to get between £2,000 and £50,000. Because the government backed the scheme the money came very quickly.
These schemes saved thousands of business owners from closing their doors forever.
Then there was another scheme, which is similar to the new scheme Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). It was called the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS ).This was more suitable for bigger businesses. They weren’t guaranteed 100%. So there was a little bit more risk to the lender to the bank, at that point.
What this means that there will be more hoops that you needed to jump through. You needed to have accounts, prove that your business was viable, going forward, not in liquidation or insolvent.
NOTE: Both those schemes finished at the end of March 2021.
They have been replaced with the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). This new scheme is for loans between £25,000 pounds, and £10 million pounds. Its another great scheme set up by the government to get people back on their feet.
Bounce Back and CBIL’s loans were to keep people open, The Recovery Loan Scheme is to get people trading again now the world is starting to slowly get back to normal.
👉🏻 If you want more details on The Recovery Loan Scheme click here to check out my in-depth blog.
What to prepare before applying a Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS)
If you want to make sure you are not refused a recovery loan scheme loan, start with being prepared.
Look I get it maybe you already applied and got rejected, if so let’s get prepared before we try again.
First off, the most important thing that you need to do before you apply for the recovery loan scheme is be organised.
Go on Companies House and check is your annual return has been filed, it a 5 minute job but without it you wont get the loan.
One thing that stopped me getting my bounce back initially was my annual return. I needed to go back and get that submitted and it took a week before it showed on companies house.
Make sure your accounts are up to date.
If your accounts are due with Companies House get them submitted, it does not matter if you made a profit you just need to get this stuff sorted.
If you’ve been rejected for the Recovery Loan Scheme, and you’re done organising and processing your papers lets look at what else you can do.
Try Another Bank
One bank might reject you. Another might say YES.
That happened a lot with the Bounce Back Loan Scheme. The problem is the banks cannot cope with the volume of loan requests, so some of them just declined applicants to get to the next one.
I’ve got my personal banking and properties with HSBC but I got rejected by HSBC (four times) and then when I applied to Metro bank, it went through within five minutes.
A number of my Business Accelerator Students got declined by their banks and quickly got funded by Starling Bank.
The Government has stated if you get declined by one bank you can apply with another.
PRO Tip: The real key thing here, go around all of the lenders and apply with more than one.
(Watch this video on what to do if your Recovery Loan Scheme is Rejected)
What to do if I got rejected by the Recovery Loan Scheme?
RLS is a government backed scheme. A formal complaint to the bank is an option if you get rejected.
Call them up and ask them what the process is to formally complain to them. You need to have a formal complaint so that there is a trail.
This is very important you do this correctly, complaining does not mean calling them up and telling the operator you are unhappy. It means asking what is your formal complaints procedure. The bank has to take this seriously and a team will look into this and give you a reply in writing within 7 days.
Declined loans do get overturned by complaining so you have nothing to lose.
Why this happens, as mentioned above often the banks have too many applications on their plate. It’s faster for them to reject people, because they can get through their day’s work.
Contact Your Local MP
An MP is a Member Of Parliament you know the guys sitting up in London deciding all the rules. The Recovery Loan Scheme is a Government backed Scheme, so if you have been declined your local MP can help.
Firstly complain to your bank as stated above, once you have done that contact your local MP and ask them to help with your complaint. An MP can speak to people much higher up a bank than you. Hundreds of people got their Bounce Back Loans approved following a decline by asking their MP to help.
When you’ve got a formal complaint in, go and contact your local Member of Parliament. If you don’t know who that is, you can google who is you local Member of Parliament.
You can find your local MP here.
Watch For New Lenders
Not everybody is lending at the moment, maybe your bank is lending maybe its waiting approval.
This happened with the previous schemes, new lenders got added weekly to the scheme.
If you want to apply with one of the major lenders and you don’t already have a bank account with them apply for one now.
Have a relationship with as many of the lenders as you can. You should open an account with all of the places because some of them will get you an account in a couple of days some take weeks or months.
In future if you don’t need the accounts just shut them down.
Give yourself more options, you need to apply to all lending banks.
Once you’ve got all your paperwork in place, accounts in place all of this stuff, and you can apply you can apply with as many banks as you want with the recovery loan scheme.
You can only get one loan, but nothing stops you applying with all the lenders and going ahead with the one that approves you first.
NEVER GIVE UP
In my Business Accelerator programme we work with hundreds of Entrepreneurs and Business Owners. That gives me a great insight into how successful people are at getting funded by these schemes.
At least 20% of my community did not get funded straight away, some gave up and just carried on without funding. Those that kept trying, kept pushing the banks 100% of them eventually got funded.
2 of my community it took 6 months to get funded. While that was great their persistence ultimately paid off.
Metro Bank Bounce Recovery Loan Declined
If you have been refused a Recovery Loan with Metro bank its time to complain. There are various reasons you can be declined which I have covered above.
Call them – 0345 08 08 500
Write to them –
Dan Frumkin, Chief Executive Officer,
Metro Bank PLC,
One Southampton Row,
London, WC1B 5HA
https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/help-and-support/forms/give-us-feedback/
