Perhaps your credit is less than stellar, or you want to avoid dings to your credit report. Can you secure funding for your company without a credit check? Yes, you can.
Learn more about your options for small business loans with no credit check, including where to find them.
No Credit Check Small Business Loans and Lenders
Depending on your needs, credit score and business performance, you may qualify for business loans that don’t require a credit check.
Invoice Factoring
If you’re in the business-to-business space and waiting on payments from clients but falling short on payroll, then invoice factoring may help you. These financing providers place less importance on your credit score and more emphasis on the value of your receivables and your clients’ creditworthiness.
Invoice factors advance you money based on your unpaid invoices. The lender then collects from your clients and remits any extra payments above the advance, less a fee.
Eagle Business Credit
Eagle Business Credit offers invoice factoring lines from $1,000-$5 million, with funding available as soon as 24 hours. There are no time-in-business requirements, and rates are advertised as starting at 1%.
This provider is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, where it also has an A+ rating.
Clarify Capital
Clarify Capital provides up to 100% of invoice value with funding available in 24 hours. Rates start at 0.5%. There are no personal credit requirements, but applicants must have at least 3 months of invoicing history and a minimum of $300,000 in annual revenue.
This financing provider has a 5-star Trustpilot rating and a 4.9-star Google rating.
Merchant Financing
Many payment processing and credit card companies have transitioned into the lending space, offering financing to their business customers. Here are a couple of popular providers.
PayPal Working Capital Loans
If you do business through PayPal, this type of financing is a great way to secure a small business loan with no credit check. Instead of reviewing your credit report, the lender reviews your PayPal account history.
- Automatic loan payments via a percentage of sales
- Minimum payment of 5%-10% required every 90 days
- No early repayment fee
- One fixed fee and no other charges
The fixed fee is determined by the amount of the loan, the repayment percentage the applicant selects and the business’s PayPal account history.
Square Loans
Mobile payment company Square offers small business loans with no credit checks ranging from $300-$250,000. Offers are based on an applicant’s credit card sales and payments are based on a flat fee.
- Automatic loan payments with a percentage of daily Square sales
- Minimum of 1/18 of the original balance must be met every 60 days
- Eligibility based on account history, payment frequency and payment processing volume
- No prepayment penalties and no late fees
- No personal guarantee requirement
Debt Crowdfunding
You’ve probably heard of people starting a GoFundMe campaign. Well, debt crowdfunding is a similar concept, except instead of donations, contributors are loaning funds to a business they want to invest in.
Kiva
Since 2005, this nonprofit has been helping entrepreneurs gain access to capital. Instead of a credit check, Kiva’s direct loans to small business owners are based on what’s referred to as social underwriting.
Borrowers must have family and friends support their loan before the loan is able to fundraise publicly on Kiva or they need to be endorsed by a Kiva Trustee. The minimum investment is $25 per lender.
Mainvest
If you’re searching for a small business loan with no personal credit check, consider Mainvest, which has earned BBB accreditation as well as the organization’s A+ rating. Lenders on the platform contribute at least $100 per investment. In return, borrowers are expected to provide investors with a fixed percentage of their revenue quarterly until they’ve paid out their returns.
Alternatives to Small Business Loans With No Credit Check
In some cases, securing business funding may result in a “soft pull” on your credit account. A soft credit inquiry looks at your payment history, collection accounts and lines of credit. It gives a broad overview of your credit information. A soft pull doesn’t affect your credit score and is used during the prequalification stage.
After qualifying for funding, many lenders then require a “hard pull” inquiry, which will affect your credit score. Therefore, it’s essential to select companies that only do this as the final step.
You might consider securing a loan from a lender that can connect to your accounting program or bank account, where less emphasis is placed on credit history and more is placed on cash flow. Some of these types of financing include the following:
Merchant Cash Advances
While merchant cash advances are among the costliest forms of business financing, they’re also among the least stringent when it comes to credit score requirements (and among the fastest to fund). Not surprisingly, the fees are higher with merchant cash advance funding when compared to the merchant financing offered through PayPal or American Express.
With a cash advance, the financing provider uses your daily transactions as a form of collateral. You’ll pay a percentage of your sales to the lender, usually daily, until you’ve repaid your advance plus interest and fees. This financing is typically short-term and doesn’t often extend beyond 18 months.
Short-Term Loans
Short-term loans are another good option for business owners with bad credit. These loans are typically meant to be repaid within 1-3 years and usually have higher interest rates than long-term loans. Because lenders of short-term loans are often more concerned with business performance than credit score, you could qualify with a credit score in the 500s.
-
Search for Multiple Business Loans on One Platform
If you’re unsure about applying to a single vendor or have unique problems, consider going through a lending platform. An online lending platform gives you access to many lenders in one spot. Doing so helps you avoid negative credit marks from multiple hard pulls on your account.
Instead, a lending platform often does an initial soft pull and then finds lending partners that fit your needs. This type of platform works well for those who want small business loans with no credit check upfront or those looking for business funding with bad credit.
Find financing that meets your needs.