[Carley Miller]

Hello,

Has anybody been successful in obtaining a business grant? I have applied for one and had a response saying the application has been accepted however there is an admin fee of £200 to be before the grant is awarded.  This seems to good to be true to me! i have spoken with them at length and they assure me there are no other costs involved and that they will not require any further information but I am wary of being scammed!
 I have everything in writing and it clearly states grant will be paid upon receipt of the £200.00 and it is absolutely 100% guaranteed...any advice or experience of this?

Many Thanks!

[Smudger]

i would be careful of parting with cash, however there are some companies out there that do arrange 'grants' for £200 however, it's never, ever 100% guaranteed you have to jump through lots of hoops, show your tax returns, accounts etc...

You could always contact your local council to see if they have an enterprise scheme, this would be free, but sometimes restricted to new start ups

Darran

[Carley Miller]

Thanks Darran,

I did speak to the council, they directed me to a website which listed the available grants but unfortunately there was nothing there suited to my business.

Probably best left alone then!

[Paul Wisdom]

Pay the £200 on a credit card if you can. Is is guaranteed then  by the cards insurance if you get scammed or no goods or service arrive

[chris scott]

Tell them to take the fee from the grant before they send it to you….after all they have guaranteed the grant . So it's no risk to them to do the paperwork and get paid later.

[Kev Martin]

Tell them to take the fee from the grant before they send it to you….after all they have guaranteed the grant . So it's no risk to them to do the paperwork and get paid later.

+1

[JandS]

It's not a scam but it's close.
I had the same thing with council tax band lowering, they said if they got my band dropped for me they would charge me 30% of whatever rebate I received.
Nearly let them do it as I didn't think there was much chance and a lot of hassle.
Then I Googled it and after 30 minutes work and 1 e mail to the appropriate department I waited.
6 week later I got a letter saying my band downgrading had been approved and I should receive a cheque within the next 4 weeks for the princely sum of around  £2100.
And I did........then I did it for the mother in law who lives across the road and she got about £900 back.
Don't just jump in..get online and check it out first...it's usually already happened to someone already and they will have posted something somewhere.

[JandS]

Think I found the council tax advice on here which prompted me to go for it.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

[Kev Martin]

Great advice John

[Carley Miller]

Thank you for the good advice all.

Was thinking of paying by credit card so that I am protected, also like the idea of telling them to take it out of the grant.
I have googled excessively and cant find anything of anybody being scammed or not receiving the funds...still just seems to good to be true which invariably means it is!