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Need a business loan, but you have bad credit? Getting a loan isn't as unlikely as you think! All of these lenders offer solutions for businesses with bad credit.
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Lead Staff Writer
Last updated onUpdated
REVIEWED BY
Editor & Senior Staff Writer
When you have a bad credit score of 600 or lower, getting a business loan with fair terms and affordable fees can be difficult. If you’re in the “bad credit” boat, you might think getting affordable financing for your business is impossible. Fortunately, that’s not always the case.
Many lenders are beginning to look at other business factors to judge your business’s creditworthiness, even for first-time business loans with bad credit. While most still pull your credit score to verify your identity (and for additional reasons), you will find that high credit scores are not always necessary to qualify for business financing.
The following lenders (and honorable mentions) offer solutions for how to get a business loan with bad credit to those that might not qualify for the products of other lenders.
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Even with bad credit, you can still get approved for a small business loan. Various online lenders offer bad credit business loans for working capital. You’ll have to pay more for the loan than someone with good credit, but many lenders will still lend to your business—as long you earn enough to make your payments.
Here are the five best small business loans for bad credit.
| Min. Credit Score | Min. Annual Revenue | Max. Loan Amount | Time In Business | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BusinessLoans.com | N/A | $100K | $3 million | 6 months |
| Revenued | N/A | $180K | $1 million | 6 months |
| Fundbox | 600 | $100K | $150K | 6 months |
| Lendio | 500 | $50K | $10 million | 6 months |
| Credibly | 500 | $180K | $600K | 6 months |
Pros
Cons
BusinessLoans.com is an online lending marketplace with multiple types of business loans available to businesses with bad credit via the free service's network of partnered lenders. Some of these loan types include short-term loans (STL), merchant cash advances (MCA), lines of credit (LOC), invoice factoring, equipment financing, and others.
Importantly, BusinessLoans.com does not require any minimum credit score to apply. Different lenders in its network may have different qualifications they desire in applicants, but BusinessLoans.com will try to find you with a matching offer, even if your credit is bad.
Get Started With BusinessLoans.com
Pros
Cons
Revenued is one of the only business credit cards with no minimum FICO but still offers rewards. In fact, Revenued does not conduct any hard credit checks at any point during the application or approval process. Instead, approvals and borrowing limits are based on your business revenue.
Revenued also allows cardholders to withdraw cash advances against their credit line. These no-credit-check business loans can have high factor rates, but they are still in line with industry standards,
Pros
Cons
Fundbox offers an easy-to-use business line of credit that is not backed by specific collateral, even with bad credit. Fundbox uses algorithms to gain a holistic view of your business and make quick lending decisions. Most applicants will be able to fill out their applications, learn about their eligibility in a few minutes, and start drawing funds immediately.
Fundbox also made our list of the best unsecured business loans.
Pros
Cons
Lendio is not actually a lender. It's an online loan marketplace you can use to search and apply for business loans of all types, including short-term loans, medium-term loans, lines of credit, and merchant cash advances, among others. Lendio has a vast lender network that includes lenders that accept applicants with bad credit.
Lendio's free service lets you prequalify for and compare multiple loan offers so that you can select the best one. Lendio saves you time and ensures you secure a fairly priced loan, even with bad credit.
Pros
Cons
Credibly offers short-term working capital loans for bad credit, as well as equipment financing and invoice factoring for businesses with poor credit. Lines of credit, SBA loans, and business expansion loans are also available, though these require slightly better credit.
Credibly's loans are not available in every state, so make sure Credibly serves your state before applying.
Credibly has a relatively easy online application process and good customer service. Credibly advertises same-day funding and a 4-hour approval time. However, some users say that the application process and/or time-to-funding took longer than expected.
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.
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.
To improve your chances of getting a loan despite bad credit, look for types of business loans that don’t place as much emphasis on credit during the application and review process.
Types of loans for bad credit you might want to consider include:
Wondering how to get a business loan with bad credit, or if it is even possible to get a business loan with bad credit?
It is absolutely possible to get a business loan even with subprime credit. Finding a business loan when you have poor credit does present an extra challenge—you’ll need to have strong income and limit your search to lenders that don’t require good credit— but you’ll still follow the same basic steps to securing financing as someone with good credit.
Read our post on how to get a business loan for a step-by-step guide to getting funded.
Finding business loans is still possible even if you have bad credit.
Low credit score business loans can enable businesses to purchase needed inventory and equipment or cover payroll during slow seasons. Though a traditional bank requires a good credit score to qualify for a loan, many online lenders will be willing to lend to you even if your credit isn’t anything to brag about. Just make sure that you look over the loan terms before accepting an offer because many short-term lenders have unfavorable terms.
Finally, a credit card is another option to consider as an alternative to a loan. If you have business expenses you can pay for with a credit card and don’t necessarily need liquid cash, you should read about the best credit cards for bad credit to explore your best options.
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Our expert reviewers found BusinessLoans.com to have a quick and easy application process alongside excellent support and guidance for borrowers.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
Our expert reviewers found BusinessLoans.com to have a quick and easy application process alongside excellent support and guidance for borrowers.
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