My Mum used the EST loan scheme and I'm thinking about it.
EST use the loan application process as an opportunity to check whether other parts of their remit might be relevant for you. In particular there's a 20-30 minute phone session going over your home energy and insulation situation. Bit of a drag if all you want is the ebike loan, but they might have something else that's useful for you and, if not, it's a small price to pay for a 0% loan.
As part of the application process the shop you are buying from has to provide a quote / pro forma invoice on their headed paper for you to submit with the application. And then once they've decided to give you the loan and bought the bike you need to send them the receipt. Again a bit bureaucratic, but I guess they need to be assured we don't just tap them for a cheap loan to spend on something else.
It takes them a couple of weeks to make their decision, which would probably make it more difficult to pick up a one off bargain that might be available in the sales.
You can't do anything retrospectively like buy the bike and then apply for the loan.
Funds availability is on a first come first served basis. I expect the additional funding is because they've given out this year's funding allocation already.
The EST staff were helpful when guiding Mum through the process.
The loan is on a per household basis up to £6,000 over 4 years for up to 2 x £3,000 'ordinary' ebikes, or up to 1 x £6,000 for a cargo bike or adapted bike.
