National Funding Review

Pros

• Low credit score requirements
• Discounts for repaying early
• No collateral required
• The application process is fast and easy
• Funds are disbursed quickly

Cons

• Rates can be expensive
• Some additional fees charged
• Repayments are required frequently
• Misleading website advertising

What Is National Funding?

National Funding is an alternative lender that offers funding options for businesses that need fast funding, as well as businesses that don’t qualify for traditional bank loans.

National Funding offers short-term working capital loans and equipment financing to small businesses and is one of the more well-established lenders in its market. It has shifted focus away from riskier products, such as merchant cash advances, onto its loans and equipment financing operations.

Services Offered

National Funding provides capital in the form of short-term small business loans and equipment financing.

Short-term loans provide a lump sum of cash that can be used for a wide variety of business expenses. Short-term loans generally don’t have interest rates in the traditional sense. Instead, you’ll be charged a flat fee for the funding, which is usually a percentage of the borrowed amount.

Equipment financing can come in the form of a loan or a lease and is used exclusively to pay for equipment.

Overall, National Funding offers a strong, if not necessarily comprehensive, set of services. National Funding does not offer a dedicated payment portal or app for repayments. This adds up to a 2.8/5 for services.

National Funding Borrower Qualifications

National Funding offers fast, though expensive, business funding. Businesses with poor credit ratings can still qualify. Borrower requirements take some clicking around to find but are on the site.

Companies such as National Funding are usually more concerned with the amount of revenue you’re bringing in rather than your credit history. It’s these revenue requirements that will be the hardest for businesses to meet. National Fundings gets a 4.3/5 for eligibility requirements.

To qualify for a short-term loan, you must meet these prerequisites:

To qualify for equipment financing, you must meet these minimum qualifications:

National Funding also requires no bankruptcies within the last year.

National Funding Interest Rates & Fees

National Funding’s offerings fall into two categories.

Business Loans

National Funding’s business loans are short-term loans, which use a fixed-fee structure. Instead of paying interest, the company charges you a one-time fee that is based on a percentage of the amount you borrow.

You should also expect to pay around 1% - 3% of the amount borrowed in origination fees. Our article on business loan rates and fees goes into more detail on this topic.

National Funding’s short-term loans are unsecured business loans, meaning no specific collateral is necessary. You will, however, need to sign a personal guarantee, meaning the funder can go after your personal assets if you default on your loans.

You’ll make daily or weekly payments to repay the loan via direct automated clearing house payment (ACH) from your business bank account.

National Funding offers early payoff discounts. If you pay off your balance (in full) early, you’ll receive a discount. You can take advantage of this offer at any time during your term.

Equipment Financing & Leasing

National Funding also offers equipment financing and leasing, which breaks from its background in short-term lending products.

While details on rates are lean, there is currently a Guaranteed Lowest Rates promotion on equipment leased through National Funding. After receiving a quote from National Funding, lessees have seven days to provide a competing offer. If the offer is valid, National Funding has to option to either beat the competitor’s rate or pay $1,000 to the lessee. Leases must be over $10,000 for approved equipment to qualify for the program.

Repayment terms are longer for equipment financing through National Funding, and payments are made monthly, regardless of whether you get a loan or lease.

Notably, National Funding does not require a down payment for equipment financing, which could make it a good solution for businesses that don’t have a lot of cash on hand.

Overall, National Funding’s rates and fees are competitive within its niche, but the company could do a much better job of disclosing its fees. We give National Funding a 3.8/5 for rates and fees.

Application Process

You can begin your application online, or you can call sales directly to get things underway. Sales reps are easy enough to reach, so you can probably skip the online portion if you want. You’ll need to have three months of bank statements handy to prove your income, a voided business check, and a copy of your driver’s license.

Time to funding is fairly quick. For small business loans, you can receive funding in as little as 24 hours, or seven days at the most. For equipment financing, time to funding is usually about 24-72 hours.

One of the bigger selling points of alternative funders is the fast and simple application process as well as fast access to funds. National Funding delivers on all these fronts, which earns it a 4.8/5 for its application process.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

National Funding’s sales and web presence are par for the course for non-traditional lenders. You’ll find some general information about the products National offers, such as maximum borrowing amounts, but it’s not particularly useful for comparison shopping. More frustratingly, the site implies a greater breadth of products than the two that National Funding provides.

Unfortunately, this is fairly common in the online lending market, either because the lender will hand your application off to a funder within its network that offers the product or because the information is presented simply for reference. Either way, it causes unnecessary confusion. National Funding gets a 3.8/5 for transparency.

Customer Service & Technical Support

Reaching National Funding’s sales staff is easy and painless, but I didn’t find my discussions with staff very informative as far as gathering information goes.

The majority of user reviews that address customer service are positive, however, so you may have a better experience when you’re a paying customer. National Funding does offer some self-service resources and general information about financing on its site. We rate National Funding’s customer service 2.9/5.

National Funding User Reviews

As is often the case when it comes to lenders, National Funding’s user reviews are highly polarized, with customers coming away with strong positive or negative assessments of the company. Overall, sentiment trends slightly positive, which earns National Funding a 3.7/5 for user reviews.

Negative Reviews & Complaints

National Funding maintains an A+ rating with the BBB, indicating that it tends to respond to complaints in a timely manner. However, the average review rating for National Funding is 1.65 out of 5. A total of 12 complaints have been closed in the last 12 months.

Complaints about National Funding tend to fall into the following categories:

• Aggressive Sales Tactics: The majority of complaints revolve around the company’s aggressive sales tactics, which involve unsolicited sales calls and mailers.
• Qualifying Can Be Difficult: Some customers complained that they received preapproval notices from National Funding but ended up not being qualified after going through the application process.
• Expensive: While National Funding’s business practices are generally well in line with the merchant cash advance and short-term loan industry, customers who don’t have much experience with them were shocked by the fees.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

National Funding has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot, with over 1,900 reviews. Customers who praised National Funding liked the following aspects:

• Responsive Customer Service: National Funding responds to most public reviews, positive or negative.
• Quick & Easy: Compared to traditional lenders, the application and approval processes are really easy.
• Easy Renewals: If you’re making your payments, you can easily get more funding from National.

Is National Funding The Right Lender For Your Small Business?

National Funding is one of the older non-traditional lenders out there and has retained a pretty positive reputation with its customers over the years. While there’s room for improvement when it comes to transparency and sales tactics, National Funding is among the better options for alternative small business lending. We give National Funding an overall score of 3.7/5.

Want to know what other types of funding you might be eligible for? Check out our picks for the best small business loans.

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 National Funding for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

National Funding	Apply Now

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