HSBC Business Loans Review: How do they compare?

Introduction

Did you know that HSBC is one of the largest banks in the UK and worldwide?

Or that they have roots from the Midlands Bank they purchased which dates back to 1836?

In this guide, you’ll find out everything you need to know about HSBC business loans, including who HSBC are, the types of loans they have on offer and HSBC reviews.

What’s in this review?

Let’s dive in and find out more.

Who is HSBC?

HSBC originally acquired the Midlands Bank in 1992, which was one of the biggest banking mergers at the time.

According to data from 2017, HSBC has around 229,000 employees globally and has a revenue of approximately $51.445 billion.

This makes HSBC one of the most successful banks in the world, being a goliath in the market with 38 million customers.

And, they have donated $136 million to community investment programmes around the world.

Plus, they offer their customers these types of loans:

✔ Small Business Loan

✔ Asset Finance

✔ Business Overdraft

✔ Commercial Mortgage

✔ Enterprise Finance Loan

✔ Flexible Business Loan

✔ Partnership Capital Loan

In this guide, we’ll be covering small business loans, flexible business loans and partnership capital loans.

Then, you’ll find out what their customers are saying about them.

Small business loans

Firstly, for small business loans from HSBC, the great news is that you won’t need a current account to get a business loan.

You could borrow between £1,000 and £25,000 for a term of between 12 months and ten years.

This is with 7.4% APR.

There is an option to defer your payment by three months, which means that you don’t make any repayments for that amount of time, but you will usually still gather interest.

You can use these types of loans to purchase things like new premises, equipment or hire more people to help your business grow.

It’s important to keep in mind that it’s all dependent on your credit status, so you should keep an eye on your credit score.

There are free websites such as ClearScore which help you to build up your credit score and allow you to see your score without having it come up on your file.

Some of the benefits of this loan include:

✔ Track your payments and outstanding balance
✔ Fixed monthly repayments to help you budget
✔ Offset the interest against your tax liabilities
✔ Faster small business applications
✔ Take a payment holiday for the first three months

Flexible business loans

Flexible business loans, on the other hand, are for businesses that want to borrow over £25,000 with a repayment period of between 12 months and 20 years.

Which means that unlike small business loans, you can borrow for a much more extended period and an increased amount that can help your business soar.

You can choose either a fixed or variable rate, keeping in mind that fixed loans are usually only up to 10 years in term length but variable rate loans can be borrowed for up to 20 years.

Plus, you can defer on your payments up to two months every year. However, this must be agreed at the start of your loan.

Partnership capital loans

With partnership capital loans, the minimum that you need to borrow is £25,001, which you can pay back with flexible repayments over around 30 years.

You can make these payments either monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly.

Additional payments can be made early without any penalties, which means that it’s perfect for those who would like the option to pay off their loan early.

✔ Choose a fixed or variable interest rate
✔ Option to request an interest-only loan
✔ Benefit from competitive interest rates

Business Sizes

If you’re a small business owner that turns over less than £2m, you can apply by calling the HSBC customer service line or by visiting your local branch and speaking to one of the Business Managers.

On the other hand, if you’re a large business with between £6.5m and £30m, you can even enjoy the specialist help you can receive from from the specialist business support in one of the Corporate Centres.

HSBC reviews

When it comes to HSBC reviews, the big high street bank, unfortunately, shares another comparison with their competitors; a poor rating on Trustpilot.

A massive 90% of their 1000+ unique reviews are in the negative one-star category, while only 4% of their overall reviews are positive.

While online reviews aren’t always accurate, they should still be considered when you are thinking about taking out a loan for your business.

Positive HSBC review

James on Trustpilot: Overall things always run smoothly, their loan application was simple and straightforward with an instant decision, and their customer service has always been top notch!

Negative HSBC review

KM on Trustpilot: Awful tried to open business account hard work interviews then not opened when they said it was, twice, then their key verification not working, then police customer harassing me racial targeting abusive staff on his side police thieves we have to be careful of them harassments stalkers!

Customer Service

HSBC offers their customers a large help centre, with faqs separated into different categories to allow for easy browsing to try and fix the different issues or answer the questions you need to ask.

If this doesn’t help, you can always call their customer service on 0345 602 2014 for help with internet banking.

Or, you can ring 03457 60 60 60 between the hours of 8 am and 10 pm, typically all week including weekends.

Kinga on Trustpilot: Bad customer service, long time waiting, rude staff.

Sean Browne on Trustpilot: I recently switched banks to HSBC. I must say, it’s been about a month now, I have had several interactions and I have been consistently delighted with the service.

Company Comparison

Conclusion

This review should have told you everything you need to know about HSBC, but if you have any other questions you could take a look at some of the other reviews available here.

Did you know that you can see all of your available loans in minutes with the ExpertSure comparison tool?

Take a look at the guides to find out more about your finances, or fill out the form at the top of the page.