British Business Bank Avis 

I was subject to irresponsible unprofessional degrading and derogatory treatment.

I feel I was discriminated against and the organisation was not independent.

I passed all checks and my application progressed but when I complained they miraculously declined my application instead of addressing my complaint.

Taking action

Great Help!! Very friendly Staff.
I applied last week and sent all the info requested using the templates provided,any issues the advisor Richard called me to helped me with them. My application was approved very quickly once I had submitted all the information requested.
Thank you again for your help.

I gave up in the end.

A very in depth business plan and then they wanted proof that what I said I wanted the cash for (stock), costed how much it costs. I sent them the screenshots of the suppliers websites and redacted the names as I don't reveal my suppliers.

Then it was (we need your January statement...it was the beginning of Feb so my Jan statement wasn't available yet), another check. Then it was multiple questions about the devide I'd used to complete my application - what tf does THAT have to do with anything unless the format in which my information is coming through is compromised?

Then is was 1/16th of an inch of a corner of my ID had been cut off - OK, fine.... I was going to relent then I thought . . . ''forget (The other F word) this''. Something just felt off about taking money from these charlatans.

So I came to look at reviews and am very glad I've binned them off because at this point, there's more than one way to skin a cat and jumping through various flaming and ever shape-changing hoops set by jesters that aren't fit enough to inhale the steam off your p**ss, isn't one of them.

These people are an absolute disgrace and need to be closed down. It's a holding pen for churlish cretins who couldn't find their ar*e with a map and two hands.

I applied last week got everything done and sent over using the templates provided,any issues the advisor Robert helped me with them straight away, my application took a few days to respond to and it was successful, just waiting for the loan to come through, to enhance my business and make it successful for 2023
Thank you to all the help I received and especially to Robert for answering all my questions quickly and efficiently whenever I messaged.

Helpful but only after speaking with 4 to 5 different people. Kind of sad that people here are on a power trip and think they can decide who gets funded and who is refused. After having 4 people say no, and refusing any money for my business, a sweet lady helped - got me approved for a loan

This organization is a complete waste of time. They ask endless questions which could have been asked on the application form or have already been answered in the business plan.

The process takes so long that it times out. Then you need to start the application again from scratch with even more questions.

The purpose of the British Business Bank's Start up Loans division appears to be to create jobs for its staff and waste the applicants time.

If you've already set up your business, this is a pointless service; however, it might be useful for pre-start-ups. I applied and spent weeks filling out the paperwork, constantly chasing for feedback as I hadn't had a response for 1, 2, or 3 weeks at a time.

Once I got to the final decision point, and they were ready to make a decision, I was told that they'd only give me the difference between what I'd asked for and what I had in my business bank account. For example, if I had £11,500 in my bank account and requested £12,000, they said they'd give me the £500, and I was to effectively empty the business bank account.

As this is supposedly a service for businesses up to 36 months old, this seems a ridiculous process. If I hadn't put money into the business or had revenue coming into the business, I could have, presumably, got up to £25,000, but because I had revenue coming in and money in the bank, I can only get a smaller amount.

Makes no sense to me, and I'm now going through the process with an actual bank to get financing to grow my business.

Absolute waste of space constantly going around in circles for nothing it’s a complete joke.
Spent months gathering everything they say you need for proof but turns out it’s still not enough for them because they again need more. Lazy and take ages to respond to messages and when responding it’s the good old copy and paste from the website.
Avoid these useless lot they just waste your time.

HUGE amount of work required to apply. Very detailed business plan, cash flow projections and survival budget to be made, every conceivable piece of ID verification must be submitted so be prepared to spend a lot of time on the application.
Communication is terrible, only get a response when I ask several times for updates, they then ask for even more ‘evidence’ and details about things I already made the effort to include in the original business plan. Every time you submit a new piece of evidence they quote 7 days for a response, that turns into 14 days and so on. I started this process on 8th feb, it is now 21st April and I STILL don’t have a decision!! It’s with the second approver apparently, god knows how much longer this will take. You’d think I was seeking a huge investment, it’s £15k, surely doesn’t take 10 weeks to come to a conclusion on that! Frustrated, wish I applied elsewhere.

Avoid like the plague. This is not in the interest of small businesses.

I apparently failed the application due to adverse credit!! I have a credit score with Experian of 876. No bad credit. NOTHING.

This business is not worth the time in dealing with.

I just hope they don’t mess my credit report up. Big mistake. Go to a reputable, well known lender.

Thanks for nothing.
Nearly a year wasted with this British business bank. I’ve done everything possible I could do and still not enough. You would be quicker saving up your £25000 in small change rather than bother with this set up.

They asked me to restart my application twice, the first time it deleted itself from the system because they took too long to reply. The second time a member of staff left and their internal communications are so poor that they required me to restart the application.
Absolutely ridiculous process, thanks for wasting months of my time for no reason.

Rejected my loan application on the basis that I had some gambling transactions on my account (well within my means) and had bought some Bitcoin.

These 'advisors' are clearly very poor businessmen and I would advise extreme caution when dealing with them.

What an amazing experience I had overall with British Business Bank. The work that was needed was challenging however totally worth it. I now leave with a successful application, a realistic business plan and a positive mindset as I set to start my new buisness. This has been a real learning curve for me, and set me up for my future. Thank you so much to Julie Colling especially, for being so friendly and making the full experience very easy, for navigating me and for sharing my excitement over the phone, I wish you well in the future. I will forever treasure this experience, Thanks again Julie!

A very long winded and drawn out process wherein my business plan and forecast were not even looked at.

Eventually rejected on the basis of two obsolete nominal monthly payments leaving my account. They told me to wait 3.5 months, so that these now deleted standing orders do not appear in statements, taking me up to 1st September before I can even formally apply - after wasting a 6 laborious and debilitating weeks on this process with BBB / Start Up Loans / NWES.

My business launches on 4th May without the capital I require, but I can scrape by safe in the knowledge that within my venture, I possess the idyllic platform with which to highlight the ludicrous and nonsensical nature of their business to the wider majority.

My initial impression is that BBB will support white-trash dregs of society with criminal records whilst dismissing upstanding applicants life long Brits with foreign-sounding names and make up redundant excuses after forcing us to jump through unnecessary hoops to satisfy their warped desires.

BBB unnecessarily registered THREE credit checks against my name for no apparent reason and lessened my credit rating as a direct result. As such, I question BBB's cohesion and code of ethics.

I wasted an accumulative 30 hours on this application. These rednecks are incompetent and prejudice. Having stated that, the first lady I conversed with over the phone spoke very limited English, which only served to lengthen the torturous process. I can only urge applicants with excellent business plans not to waste their time and steer clear.

Omg got stick from Dillon, o last name...who sounded half asleep, no manners and an a potential nurse hiring firm, very strict credit criteria in a pandemic...frustrates and will frustrate more

Alison was a great person with Tony was about of the problem but in the end and a lot of effort and calls we received that lone

The British Business Bank is run by aload of Bankers who the main highstreet banks don’t want. They will not be able to help.

Let’s face fact who bails all the Banks out it is the Uk taxpayers how many Banks actually help people none of them.

They lend money which is not there and even mess that up.

But when they mess up we have to bail them out do you really think the main CEO’s of the Main Banks Care ??

Nope they don’t care.

The web site looks great and very professionally done. The problem though is that it fails in its objective of providing easy access to finance for many small businesses. The website simply points potential borrowers to the sources of lending that that may be appropriate. Most of these are simply commercial moneylenders with their own terms and conditions. It takes a huge amount of time to work through these in applying for a loan. You don't need a British Business Bank to provide this information as any small business owner could find more or less the same information by simply using Google. Small businesses in the UK are being let down because it's still very difficult and time consuming to raise even small sums of money at a fair rate of interest. We need a central UK bank that will provide funding for small businesses directly rather than through associates - just like those that exist in many other countries.