Questions you may have about your business lending application 

These are the two main ways you can improve your chances of being approved for lending:

      1. Check you have the right details on record

• If you're a NatWest customer, it’s important that your personal and business details match what we have on your file. Please check and update (if needed) before you apply. 

• You can update your details through Online Banking, our mobile banking app, or call us on 0345 711 4477.

• You should also check what's on file at Companies House and make sure your information is up to date there.

   

       2. Be accurate with your income declaration.

• If we believe you can't afford the repayments on the amount you apply for, you may be declined. 

• For example, if you tell us you have an income of £250,000 and we see only £180,000 going through your NatWest account, your application may be declined.

Getting an initial lending quote won’t impact your credit score.

If you go on to complete a loan application, we’ll ask for your consent for us to run a credit check. The outcome may impact your credit score.

Online, you can apply for our unsecured, fixed-rate Small Business loans with no fees. You can also apply for unsecured Business overdrafts.  

You can borrow up to £50,000 online. To borrow more, you'll need to speak with one of our lending team.

‘Unsecured’ lending means the money you borrow isn't secured against something you own (eg. property).

By contrast, with a ‘secured’ loan the money you borrow is secured against an asset you own. This asset may be repossessed if you don't repay the loan. Choosing a secured loan or overdraft may allow you to borrow more. 

You don’t need a NatWest business account to apply for a loan. 

You can do your business banking wherever you like and still take a loan from us. If requested, we’ll set up a fee-free loan feeder account to help you manage your loan repayments.

A fee-free Loan Servicing Account is not a Business Current Account. This account would only be used for your loan and would be free of any transaction charges.

We'll save your Small Business Loan quote for 30 days. You can find your quote again and continue with your application by going to our lending page and clicking ‘Apply now’. Alternatively, visit our business homepage and click ‘Resume lending’ under the Log in button at the top right.

Remember, these are just initial quotes based on what you've told us and what we know about your business. You'll get a final offer when you complete your application.  

As part of our application process, we’ll ask you to share certain information. We use this to complete our standard checks, assessments and credit reference searches. 

If we need more evidence to make sure you can afford the amount you’ve applied for, or if we have any questions, we may pause your application and have our Lending team contact you.

Based on the evidence, if we believe you can’t afford the loan or you’re not eligible, we may decline your application. If this happens, you’ll receive an email with more details relating specifically to you.

If you need help with your application, you can start by asking us through our webchat Cora. We'll answer your questions or connect you to an adviser who can help, if we can’t find what you need.

If you prefer, you can also call us 0345 711 4477.

In some cases, our Lending team might need to contact you to ask a few questions about your application.

If so, we’ll let you know by email. We’ll either ask you to call us, or we’ll let you know to expect a call from us within three working days, between 9am and 5pm (sorry we can’t be more exact). The call will be from a withheld number. 

The decision outcome, ‘approval in principle’ means that you’ve been initially accepted for lending, based on your application and credit check. 

After this approval, we may ask you to provide additional information, to make sure you meet our lending requirements.

What evidence we need to support your application will depend on the product you apply for and your circumstances.

We may not ask for any documents. You may just need to read and sign the lending agreement.

If the information you provide doesn’t closely match our records, we may ask for supporting documents to confirm the following:

• Net profit from past 12 months. 

• Evidence that any existing lending repayments for your business are due to be closed or have expired.

If you’ve only been with us for a short while, we may ask for 6 months of bank statements. 

if you’ve said income from a key principal is available to support your business, we may ask for evidence of that. (A key principle is usually a business owner, partner or director of your business, often listed as “people with significant control” on Companies House.) 

We may also ask you for proof of any changes made to your business, such as: 

• Change of business name or address

• If you’ve added, deleted or changed details for any of your key principals 

If we need you to share any documents to support your application, we’ll let you know by email. We’ll send you the list of what we need and explain how to share digital copies of these documents with us securely. 

We can usually accept any document type, for example, .pdf, .doc, .xlsx

If your business is a Limited Company, we’ll ask you to provide a personal guarantee.

If you provide a personal guarantee, you agree to act as a guarantor for debt obligations of your business. This means that if the business defaults on its loan or overdraft payments, you may be required to pay instead.

You’d need to let us know if circumstances change and you want to be released from the guarantee (eg. if you leave the business or the business has a change of ownership).

We’ll let you know if your loan application has been approved as soon as we’ve done our checks. 

We’ll either email you with a decision, or one of our Lending team will give you a call on the number you provided in your application. The call will be from a withheld number. 

You have 28 days to sign your loan agreement online and return any supporting documents that we ask for. 

If you don’t sign the agreement and submit your documents within this time, your application will expire, and you’ll have to start again.

After you’ve signed the agreement, we’ll send it to any ‘key principals’ who also need to sign and ask them to add their signatures digitally. (A key principle is usually a business owner, partner or director of your business, often listed as “people with significant control” on Companies House) 

We’ll send you an email to let you know when your funds are available in your chosen account. 

We’re sorry if we had to decline your application. We can’t explain the reasons here, but we can tell you that you do have the right to query and appeal against the decision if you’d like to.

Visit this page for more information on how to do this: How to appeal a business lending decision 

You can repay your Small business loan early, and there are no early repayment charges. 

If you make an additional payment to reduce your loan amount by direct debit, we’ll automatically recalculate your remaining payments and reduce your overall repayment amount. Your loan term (the length of time you have to repay your loan) won’t change.

You can make additional repayments over the phone, if you call us on 0345 711 4477. 

Unfortunately we can’t offer payment breaks (or capital repayment holidays) on our Small Business Loans. 

If you think you’re going to miss a repayment or you’ve already missed one, don’t panic. The best thing to do is contact us as soon as possible. 

It’s really important that we talk with you about your options. We’ll consider the situation and work out with you how best we can support you.

We’ll do what we can to help, but you should be aware that not making your agreed payments may be considered an ‘Event of Default’. If this happens, we may need to take steps such as requesting immediate repayment of the loan.

Your monthly payments won’t change with our Small Business Loan, as it’s a fixed rate loan. 

This means you’re protected from the risk of interest rates rising and will know how much you need to pay each month for the duration of your loan.  

You can, however, choose to make additional payments with no early repayment charges.