Loans complaints from small businesses up

Numerous ‘strings attached’ to loans and overdrafts are increasingly frustrating small businesses, new research has claimed.

The number of small firms lodging complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service about loans and overdrafts rose by 10% last year from 394 to 435, figures from IT finance provider Syscrap have shown.

Only 136 complaints were logged in 2007-08, as complaints have risen by over 300% in the last five years.

The figures are based on firms with fewer than 10 employees and turnover of less than £1.8 million.

“Whilst some lenders are treating small businesses very responsibly there have been too many incidences of banks using the shortage of credit as an excuse to impose the highest possible fees that they can get away with on their customers,” Syscap chief executive Philip White said of the research.

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