Why can’t I get a bank loan?

Dear Aunty,

I used to have a low-doc loan with a finance company that has pulled out of Australia. I had decided to scale back anyway, but now I want to expand big time and I can’t get a loan.

It was fair enough when everyone thought the economy was going to get worse that the banks weren’t lending. But what’s their excuse now? Why can’t I get a loan? I know a lot of other companies in the same boat.

Fed up,
Perth

Dear Fed up,

The days of easy credit are gone. I know, it was great while it lasted. But it was always going to end. Like a great party. In fact, you can see yourself as lucky to have been running a company at the time of the great credit boom when a lot of financial institutions were lending to companies that would never have got loans in the past.

But now we are back in more sobering times: back to the four banks ruling the market place and you have to play by their rules. Believe it or not they like lending money, it’s just you have to have a lot of things before they are happy to do so.

Go and see your accountant who will explain what you need to do to get credit ready. It will be a long time, if ever, that we see a repeat of the credit boom.

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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