Hi Mcmenad,
Was talking to a colleague today who had the same experience, she called into the bank and loan was arranged without much fuss, I think it is just a general symptom of the banks tightening up procedurally, probably what is needed to be honest given the difficulty many people (myself included) have found themselves in. I was contacted by BoI last week, they suggested and arranged a consolidation loan for me within days with some conditions, my overdraft was reduced from 3k to 1k, my cc limit was also reduced, from 4k to 1k, saving per month is close to 300 though. To be honest the conditions are not a problem, I was spending way more than I could afford to over last few years and have only started to get it together financially since Xmas.
Hope you get sorted.
Nutsy