Tees Business | Page 6

6 | Tees Business / ADVICE TOP 10 BANKING TIPS We have an experienced team of advisors at Commercial Expert with a vast amount of knowledge and expertise. Indeed, our very own advisory board member, Mark Whitaker, has almost 30 years’ experience with three different banks, and six years of advising borrowers on bank-related matters. Together, we have come up with our Top 10 Tips for negotiating with your banks. • Interest rate margins reflect risk and managers rarely have significant authority to reduce these. Seek reductions in fees, particularly ancillary fees, instead. • If hedging is taken out, then risks of rising interest rates are mitigated. Less risk = reduced interest rate margin, so seek a lower margin. • Don’t fight a LIBOR-margin – this is simply prudent financial management by the bank. In any event, a margin linked to base rate would generally be