Why Big Banks Won’t Normally Lend You Less Than £1,000
Ever tried to borrow a small amount from your bank and found the door firmly shut? You’re not alone. Most high street banks set their personal loan minimum at £1,000 or more. If you only need a few hundred pounds, you’ll usually be told to use a credit card or overdraft instead. So why is that?
The real reason behind the £1,000 minimum
For the big banks, lending money isn’t just about handing over the cash. There’s a whole process behind every loan, like credit checks, paperwork, compliance, customer support, and it costs roughly the same whether you’re borrowing £500 or £5,000. When the loan is small, the bank doesn’t make enough interest to cover its costs. In short, it’s not worth their while.
What you get offered instead
If you ask your bank for a smaller loan, they’ll often point you towards an overdraft or a credit card. Those can be useful in some cases, but they can also come with high interest rates and charges if you don’t pay them off quickly. They’re not always the best solution if you just need a clear, simple loan for a short period of time.
Why it matters
Not every borrowing need is big. Sometimes you just need a few hundred pounds to cover an unexpected bill, fix the car, or spread the cost of something essential. For many people, being told they can’t borrow less than £1,000 is frustrating, especially when they know they don’t want or need that much.
How Wessex Community Bank helps
That’s exactly why our loans start from just £500. We know that life doesn’t always come in big, round numbers. Sometimes you only need a small amount, and it should be just as easy and affordable to borrow that as it is to borrow more.
At Wessex Community Bank we design our loans around what people actually need. We look at affordability, we keep repayments fair, and we’re here to support members, not push them into borrowing more than they want.
If you’ve ever felt stuck because your bank wouldn’t lend less than £1,000, you’ll find our approach refreshingly different.