The 6 Best Short-Term Loans For Small Businesses

BusinessLoans.com is a free business financing marketplace that provides businesses with multiple short-term financing options suited to their needs. This way, you can save time and choose the offer that works best for you.

After you fill out a quick form with some information about your business, BusinessLoans.com will connect you with some suitable pre-approval offers from lenders in its network. Some short-term loan types available through BusinessLoans.com include term loans, merchant cash advances, invoice factoring, and lines of credit.

BusinessLoans.com has no specific credit score or other borrower requirements. However, they recommend that your businesses should make at least $100,000 per year and have been in business for at least 6 months. But it is still possible that BusinessLoans.com will be able to find an offer for you even if you don’t quite meet these minimums.

BusinessLoans.com does not list rates or fee information on its website. Fees will vary depending on which lender in BusinessLoans.com’s network you receive an offer from.

With Revenued, small businesses can access quick and easy cash draws, even with poor credit or no credit, as this short-term lender requires no credit check. Revenued offers a business spending card, which is tied to your future business revenue and also allows you to open a flexible line of credit, called Flex Line, with your future sales as collateral. You can use Flex Line to withdraw cash from your credit line at your convenience.

This short-term financing option is convenient for small, frequent cash draws, particularly if you have good cash flow but bad credit.

Revenued requires business revenues of at least $15,000/month. You also need a minimum of 6 months in business and to maintain an average daily business bank account balance of at least $1,000. Credit score is not a consideration.

Revenued cash advances have factor rate between 1.1 and 1.5. There are no fees related to the credit card, as it is a charge card with no annual fee; you will, however, need to pay the balance in full every month.

Similar to BusinessLoans.com, Lendio is a business financing platform that aggregates loan offers from lenders and matches them to its customers. The platform matches its users to a variety of business loan options, including various short-term business financing options.

One important form of short-term business financing you can access through Lendio is accounts receivable financing, a category that includes invoice factoring, inventory financing, purchase order financing. Using AR financing such as invoice financing, businesses with outstanding invoices can quickly free up cash from unpaid invoices.

While the specific borrower requirements will vary depending on which of Lendio’s lending partners you get matched with, Lendio recommends that you have a personal credit score of at least 550, at least 6 months in business, and business revenues of at least $10,000/month before applying.

Compared to other types of business loans, accounts receivable financing generally has more relaxed borrowing requirements, so you may receive offers even if you don’t meet these minimums.

Looking at AR financing specifically, Lendio says loan terms are up to a year, with interest rates as low as 3%. You can receive up to 90% of your receivables amount and will receive your cash in as little as 24 hours after approval.

Whether you need $5,000 or $250,000, OnDeck offers short-term loans and lines of credit to businesses in need of fast cash. If your loan application is accepted, you may be able to access your funds within the same business day. OnDeck’s same-day business loans are not cheap, but they are fast and reliable.

OnDeck also offers revolving lines of credit that run from $6,000 to $100,000. Time to approval is quite quick, just as it is with OnDeck’s term loans. If and when you’re approved, you’ll be able to start withdrawing funds immediately.

To qualify for an OnDeck short-term loan or line of credit, you’ll need a minimum credit score of 625, at least 1 year in business, and business income of at least $100,000/year.

APRs for OnDeck short-term loans start at 29.9%, but the average APR is 62.1%. Term lengths are up to 24 months, and payments are required on a daily or weekly basis.

With an OnDeck LOC, term lengths are 12 months per draw, there are no draw fees, and you can repay early without facing any penalty. The average APR for OnDeck lines of credit is 48.9%.

Fora Financial is a direct lender offering short-term business loans and merchant cash advances. Though businesses with good credit can probably find better rates, Fora Financial is a good choice if you need a business loan for bad credit. Fora also offers pre-payment discounts and higher borrowing amounts than other short-term business lenders—up to $1.4 million—with a 72-hour turnaround.

To qualify for funding from Fora Financial, businesses will need a minimum credit score of 500, as well as 6 months in business. As far as business revenue, you only need to bring in $5,000 a month.

Fora’s loan terms have a maximum length of 15 months. Your borrowing fee will be approximately 10 to 30% of the loan amount, plus a 1-4% origination fee taken off the top of the loan.

Fundbox is a super convenient and flexible form of financing for businesses that need 24/7 access to a line of credit to solve cash flow issues. You can both apply and draw funds right from the Fundbox app (or from your online dashboard); Stripe users can also use their Stripe dashboard to apply. With each Fundbox cash draw, you can choose the length of your term—12 or 24 weeks—and see upfront all of your weekly payment amounts so you won’t be surprised later.

As with other short-term business financing options, Fundbox fees can be on the high side. But if your business needs easy access to cash on-demand, Fundbox’s convenience is unmatched.

Fundbox requires a FICO of 600 and $100,000 in annual business revenue. Ideally, applicants will have at least 6 months in business. Note that before applying, you’ll need at least three months of transactions in a business bank account or at least two months of activity using compatible accounting or invoicing software.

Fundbox’s lines of credit are offered for up to $150,000, and repayments are made in equal installments over 12 or 24 weeks. The borrowing fee begins at 4.66% for 12-week terms and 8.99% for 24-week terms, and there is no prepayment penalty. If you’re approved, funds will be deposited into your business bank account within one or two days of your withdrawal request. There are no draw fees or money transfer fees.