Post#1958 » by Dresden » Sat Apr 4, 2020 5:42 pm
The Payroll Protection Program had a shaky rollout yesterday. It's a great concept- it gives business with fewer than 500 employees a loan that will turn into a grant that will cover up to 8 weeks of payroll (provided they don't fire anyone in the meantime). Yesterday was the first day you could apply, and a lot of people, myself included, experienced difficulty finding a lender. You have to go through a private lending institution, normally your bank. But Bank of America required you to not only have a business checking account with them, but also a business line of credit, or a credit card. I had the first but not the second. As did many other business owners. So we were automatically deemed ineligible when we went to apply on line. It was very frustrating. I've been with B of A for over 25 years. And there was nobody to turn to- other banks told people to go to where they normally bank, and B of A was not taking any phone calls on the subject, and you couldn't go into a branch to apply or even speak with somebody. It all was run through the website.
Needless to say, there were a lot of pissed off people. The NYT ran a story on it, specifically calling out B of A, as did the Wall Street Journal. Many anecdotes of business owners driving around for hours, from one lender to another, looking for a way to apply. The phone lines of all major banks were jammed beyond capacity. And everyone was worried that the money (349 Billion of it) would run out before they got their applications in. Quite a sh*t show. I emailed my rep in Congress and both senators, as well as the SBA, as I'm sure many others did. Marco Rubio, to his credit, called out B of A on his twitter account, saying that there was nothing in the law they wrote that required anyone to have a credit card with a bank before getting a loan of this type.
In any case, I'm glad to report that all the pressure forced B of A to change it's tune, and this morning I got through on their website and got my application in. It's a huge deal- my 14 employees now don't have to worry about what they are supposed to do for food, rent, bills, etc, at least for the next 2 months. I feel relieved, too, because I was telling them we'd find a way to cover them, and now that burden is gone. IF my loan gets approved. Still a big IF, but I'm hopeful.
if this does work out, I'll give our govt. a big clap on the back- this program is really going to be a lifeline for many businesses and their employees, and allow us to safely shelter in place instead of having to think about trying to sneak in some work here and there to keep ourselves afloat.
