SmartBiz Review

Pros

• Rates tend to be inexpensive
• No prepayment penalties
• Website advertising is clear and informative
• Customer service is helpful

Cons

• The application process can be slow
• Some additional fees are charged

What Is SmartBiz?

SmartBiz is an online lending marketplace that connects borrowers with SBA loans, bank term loans, and business lines of credit.

SmartBiz and its partner banks participate in the SBA’s most popular loan program: the 7(a) business loan program. SmartBiz has streamlined and simplified SBA lending by using technology to match eligible applicants up with a lender in its network of preferred SBA bank lenders. SmartBiz can determine whether you will likely qualify for an SBA loan from one of its partners within a few minutes.

While SmartBiz eliminates some of the undesirable elements of SBA loans, it can’t remove them all. Because the government backs SBA loans, SmartBiz still requires a fair amount of paperwork. Despite the long process, SmartBiz is an excellent resource for merchants who want an SBA loan or even a non-SBA bank loan.

Services Offered

SmartBiz offers several funding options for small businesses:

• SBA Loans: SmartBiz offers SBA Working Capital & Debt Refinancing Loans through its lending partners.
• Bank Term Loans: SmartBiz also offers non-SBA bank term loans to small businesses through some of its partnered banks. Though these loans have somewhat higher costs than SBA loans, they could be suitable for businesses that don’t qualify for an SBA loan or businesses that need their loan faster.
• Lines Of Credit: SmartBiz has also introduced small business lines of credit up to $150,000 for businesses that want flexible financing with low monthly payments.
• Custom Financing Options: SmartBiz also offers custom financing. This type of funding is ideal for startup businesses, businesses that don’t meet the requirements of SmartBiz’s other funding options, or businesses that need cash fast. Options may include equipment loans, invoice financing, merchant cash advances, and business credit cards.

Overall, SmartBiz has a well-rounded collection of financial products all with high borrowing limits to satisfy nearly any business need. The only thing lacking is the availability of a mobile app, which only has a slight negative impact on our 4.8/5 rating for SmartBiz’s services.

Borrower Qualifications

Eligibility varies depending on the loan you’re interested in. You need at least 2 years in business and fair to good credit for SBA loans and non-SBA bank term loans. If you don’t meet these minimum requirements, you can reach out to SmartBiz to learn more about custom financing options.

For working capital and debt refinancing loans, your business needs to meet these requirements:

Additionally, you must meet these requirements:

• Must own a for-profit business
• All owners must be US citizens or legal permanent residents
• No criminal backgrounds for any owner
• No defaults on government-backed loans
• No open tax liens
• No bankruptcies or foreclosures in the past three years

SmartBiz does not state specific revenue requirements; you must prove you have “sufficient cash flow to support loan payments.” Not sure if you do? Use the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) to learn whether your cash flow can support debt payments. To give you a general idea, SmartBiz says most of its approved businesses have annual revenues of $100,000 or higher.

For smaller SBA 7(a) loans, you’ll also need to pay attention to something called an E-Tran Score. E-Tran is the SBA’s scoring system used to calculate business creditworthiness for loans up to $350,000, and all SmartBiz SBA bank partners must also run applicants through this scoring system. The system uses your FICO business credit score as part of its process but does not disclose everything that goes into your E-Tran score.

If your E-Tran score isn’t high enough (scores range from 1-300, but you only need a 140 to pass), you may still qualify for a non-SBA bank loan through SmartBiz, provided that your personal credit score is at least 660.

For its lines of credit, no specific requirements are given. SmartBiz does state that it considers more than simply credit history when connecting its customers to funding options.

Although some applicants may not qualify for all funding options, SmartBiz can find custom funding solutions even for borrowers with credit challenges, new businesses, etc. For this reason, we’ve given SmartBiz a rating of 4.8/5 for its borrowing requirements.

Rates & Fees

SmartBiz terms and fees vary depending on the product. This lender’s terms and fees are both reasonable and transparent, though some additional fees apply. Repayments for all SmartBiz loans, including SBA loans and bank loans, are due monthly.

With SmartBiz, you’ll find low interest rates, great repayment terms, and transparent pricing. Although some lending fees are standard for the industry, we’ve rated SmartBiz 4.8/5 for its rates and fees.

SBA Working Capital & Debt Refinancing Loans

These are the terms and fees for SmartBiz SBA loans for working capital and debt refinancing:

SmartBiz SBA loans have variable interest rates; the rate is calculated using the prime rate. If the prime rate changes, so will your interest rate. At the time of this review update, rates range from about 10.5% to 14.25%.

Aside from the interest rate, SmartBiz and its partner banks charge a few additional fees:

• SmartBiz charges a one-time referral fee and a one-time packaging fee, both of which are a maximum of 2% of the borrowing amount
• Loans have a guarantee fee between 0% and 3.5%, depending on the size of the loan
• Bank closing costs, which include standard bank fees, typically add up to about $450, but additional third-party report charges may also apply

SBA working capital and debt refinancing loans through SmartBiz have no prepayment penalties.

Previously, SmartBiz also offered SBA Commercial Real Estate Loans up to $5 million. As of the time of this review update, these loans are no longer advertised.

Bank Term Loans

Below are the interest rates and fees for SmartBiz’s non-SBA bank term loans. These loans have shorter term lengths than SBA loans, and unlike SmartBiz SBA loans, the interest on these loans is fixed, not variable.

Application Process

SmartBiz has an excellent, streamlined application process that can be kind of slow-going, particularly for SBA loans.

Fortunately, SmartBiz can determine whether you have a good chance of qualifying for a loan in a few minutes via a questionnaire on its website. In contrast, with regular SBA loans, you might not know if you’re eligible until you’ve put together the whole application and sent it in.

You’ll be asked some basic questions about your business to start the process. At this stage, SmartBiz will initiate a soft pull on your credit, which has no impact on your credit score. (Further into the process, a hard pull will be performed, which will have a small impact on your score.) You can be prequalified in as little as five minutes.

If approved in this initial stage, you are assigned a personal “relationship manager” who will explain the process, answer any questions you might have, and generally be a consistent point of contact and help.

Your relationship manager will also request documentation, such as two years of personal and business tax returns. This step may take several days or longer, depending on the number of documents needed and how fast you can collect and send in the information.

Once all documentation and information are received, you will be potentially matched with a lending partner. If approved, you will simply need to accept the offer, sign any documentation, and receive your funds.

The time from application to funding can take between three days and three months, depending on the loan product, the speed at which you provide the necessary documents, and other factors. It is only this lengthy timeline that negatively affected our rating for SmartBiz, placing it at a 4.5/5 for its application process.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

SmartBiz provides mostly everything you need to know to make an informed borrowing decision on its website. If you poke around a little bit and do your research, you won’t be surprised by anything during the application and loan process.

There are a few areas where it would be nice to see more information, such as borrowing requirements and funding timelines. Overall, though, SmartBiz has a professional, easy-to-navigate website full of useful information, earning it a 4.9/5 in this category.

Customer Service & Technical Support

SmartBiz has a good FAQ section on its website, which is capable of answering most of the questions you’ll have about the loan process. Customer service is also available via email or phone if you need answers to more specific questions.

A live chat option was available during our last update of this review, but it no longer seems to be an option. You can also check out SmartBiz’s YouTube videos, social media profiles, or company blog.

After you’ve started the loan application process, you will be assigned a dedicated relationship manager who can provide personalized support.

In addition to the numerous ways to contact the company, SmartBiz has also received overall positive reviews about the quality of its customer service. For these reasons, we awarded SmartBiz a rating of 4.9/5 for customer support.

User Reviews

SmartBiz has overall positive reviews. It holds an A+ rating with the BBB and has had five complaints closed in the last three years.

The lender also has over 16,000 reviews on Trustpilot (with an aggregated rating of 4.6 out of 5), among a few other places on the web.

Taking all of this into consideration, we rated SmartBiz a 2.9/5 for its user reviews.

Negative Reviews & Complaints

Although SmartBiz reviews are mostly positive, here are the complaints that some customers voiced about the service:

• Endless Paperwork: Even though it’s more efficient in some ways, SmartBiz is still facilitating the SBA’s loan program. That means it has to adhere to all of the SBA’s paperwork requirements. You will have to provide a lot of business and financial documents (such as three years of business and personal income tax returns, a profit and loss statement, and a balance sheet) during the application process.
• Additional Fees: Some people claimed they didn’t know about the additional fees or felt that the fees were too high. However, they are clearly disclosed on the website, and SmartBiz’s fees are competitive with others in the industry.
• Rejections: Some customers were disappointed to learn that they did not qualify for a SmartBiz loan, even if they were initially deemed eligible, due to information discovered during the application process.
• Customer Service: A few customers reported difficulty getting in touch with their account representatives.

SmartBiz is very active in responding to negative reviews wherever they crop up. Although SBA loans can be frustrating, it’s evident that SmartBiz is doing everything it can to streamline the process and keep merchants in the loop regarding the status of their applications.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

SmartBiz has overwhelmingly positive reviews, especially compared to other online small business lenders. Most customers like:

• Easy Application Process: A majority of SmartBiz reviews say the application process is fast, easy, and streamlined.
• Customer Service: Many SmartBiz reviews praise the company’s personal relationship managers as being helpful, knowledgeable, and professional.
• Speed Of Funding: Relative to other SBA loans, SmartBiz is a much faster way to go, and many SmartBiz customers note this as a benefit of using the service.
• Advertising Transparency: For the most part, customers feel that SmartBiz’s terms and fees are clear and transparent, with no hidden or surprise charges.
• Excellent Loan Terms: Many SmartBiz reviews point out that SmartBiz rates are lower than those of other online lenders, with fair and reasonable terms.

Final Verdict: Is Smart Biz Worth It?

SmartBiz scores an overall 4.7/5 rating, and we recommend this lending marketplace to eligible merchants who need low-cost financing that’s either long-term or medium-term in length. Although SBA loan applicants will still have to submit a fair amount of paperwork, SmartBiz has significantly streamlined the SBA loan application process and expanded its offerings to include non-SBA bank loans, business lines of credit, and custom financing options.

The process may take a while, but a significant perk of SmartBiz is that you have a dedicated account manager who will keep you in the loop and let you know what’s happening with your loan application. This service doesn’t completely simplify the SBA loan process, but with SmartBiz, you don’t have to navigate the application by yourself.

Besides its easy SBA loan application, perhaps the most significant thing to know about this lender is that SmartBiz reviews from small business borrowers praise it as being honest and trustworthy. These traits are hard to come by for online business lenders.

Business Loan & Funding Products Review Methodology

We spend hours researching and evaluating each business loan and funding product that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate our ratings.

When rating lenders and funding providers, we use a 31-point rubric that looks at rates and fees, services, eligibility requirements, application, sales and advertising transparency, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating. This rubric is applied to traditional term loans, as well as short-term loans, start-up loans, lines of credit, online lending products, merchant cash advances, and equipment financing products.

• Rates & Fees: 20% of the total star rating
• Services: 20% of the total star rating
• Eligibility Requirements: 20% of the total star rating
• Application: 15% of the total star rating
• Sales & Advertising Transparency: 10% of the total star rating
• Customer Support: 5% of the total star rating
• User Reviews: 5% of the total star rating

Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we examine specific attributes like terms lengths, conditions of repayment, credit score and revenue requirements, ease of application, length of time to funding, the ethics involved in promoting the lending product, customer support, and the overall reputation of the lender or funding provider.

Read more about how we rate small business lenders.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see SmartBiz for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

SmartBiz	Apply Now

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see SmartBiz for yourself.