LendingTree Business Loans Review

Pros

• Borrower qualifications are lower than with banks
• Financing is available to qualified startups
• Multiple types of available financing
• Applicants can quickly get prequalified
• The application process is fast and easy

Cons

• Some additional fees charged
• Website advertising is not informative
• Customer service is pushy

What Is Lending Tree Business Loans?

LendingTree is an online platform connecting individuals and businesses to a wide range of financial products through its lending partners. LendingTree does not originate loans. Instead, the company charges its partners for the use of its service. LendingTree’s partners include familiar names, such as OnDeck, Kabbage, Credibly, and Fora Financial.

LendingTree is best viewed as a time-saving tool for businesses that don’t want to slog through the alternative lending wilderness to find the best deal.

Services Offered

LendingTree offers the following through its partners:

• Short-Term Loans: Short-term loans grant the borrower a lump sum, which is then repaid daily or weekly, along with a flat fee, over the course of a year or less.
• Business Lines Of Credit: Business lines of credit establish a credit line for a designated amount of time. The borrower can draw on this credit as long as the total amount used is less than the limit. Interest is paid on the amount used in most cases.
• Equipment Financing: Equipment financing includes loans and leases for the use of acquiring physical assets. In most cases, the asset then serves as collateral.
• SBA Loans: The Small Business Administration guarantees SBA loans for up to 80% of the amount borrowed. This allows borrowers to access better rates and longer terms. However, the application process is more involved, and it may take weeks (or in some cases, months) to receive your funds.
• Invoice Factoring: Invoice factoring is an advance that allows you to sell your unpaid invoices to a factoring company for a fee.

As LendingTree can connect businesses with nearly any type of funding, we rated the company 4.8/5 for its services.

Borrower Qualifications

When evaluating if your business is eligible for funding, LendingTree doesn’t have explicit rule-out criteria for potential borrowers. Instead, the company will use your credit, annual revenue, and overall profitability to try to match you with a lender who is willing to work with you and your circumstances.

That said, expect to get better — and more — offers if you have good credit, have been in business for a long time, and are profitable.

The LendingTree website does provide plenty of information to help you determine what you may qualify for before applying. Though you may have to click around a bit to find everything you need, minimum requirements are disclosed for many of LendingTree’s partner lenders.

This transparency and the flexible borrower qualifications of LendingTree’s partners contributed to our score of 4.9/5 in this category.

Terms & Fees

Each of LendingTree’s partners has its own criteria for who it will lend to, the fees it charges, the interest rates you’ll receive, and the length of time you’ll have to pay it back. Some criteria will be contingent not only on the lender but also on the type of product you’re approved for.

There are some things you’ll want to keep in mind. One of the biggest will be how interest is calculated and accumulates. Some products, particularly short-term loans, have fixed fees. You’ll also want to know all the service, administrative, and origination fees the lender charges; these can range from minimal to downright punishing.

You’ll also want to know how frequently you need to repay your loan. Depending on the lender and product, payment may be expected monthly, weekly, or even daily. In many cases, the lender will want that payment automatically deducted from an account, so make sure you’re comfortable with whatever payment arrangement is required.

While LendingTree partners with lenders that offer low-rate, long-term loan products, the lack of transparency surrounding potential account fees was kept in mind when giving this lending marketplace a rating of 4.2/5.

Application Process

The quick and easy application process is probably one of the reasons you’re considering LendingTree. You can start the process online by providing information such as your business structure, loan purpose, loan amount, how quickly you need funds, monthly revenue, and credit score. At the end of the process, you’ll be prompted to give your contact information.

Once you’ve submitted your information, LendingTree will ideally match you with up to five offers from its partners. The company boasts that you’ll get your offers within two minutes. From there, the process varies, depending on the lender you’re matched with and the type of product you’re seeking.

Overall, LendingTree’s application process is fast and painless. We only made a minor deduction to our rating as some loans may take some time to disburse. Despite this, LendingTree still earned a respectable 4.5/5 for its application process.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

When we first reviewed LendingTree Business Loans, the company website gave us little to work with without having to submit personal information. Fortunately, the company now provides plenty of information, including lists of some of its partner lenders, borrowing requirements, term lengths, minimum interest rates, and more.

The company also provides additional helpful information such as pros/cons of various types of business loans, explanations of the various types of loans available, loan calculators, and other resources.

LendingTree doesn’t provide the most frequent updates on its social media profiles but still provides plenty of tips, tricks, and helpful resources. Overall, LendingTree has come pretty far in terms of its transparency, which is why we’ve rated it 4.7/5 for this category.

Customer Service & Technical Support

If you need support, you can call LendingTree Monday-Thursday 8 AM-9 PM, Friday 8 AM-8 PM, or Saturday 10 AM-7 PM ET. LendingTree can also be reached through live chat and email.

If you prefer to interact with the company through social media, you can follow LendingTree on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. A company blog with various articles about lending and other topics is available. The company also provides plenty of information and resources (such as loan calculators) throughout its website.

The overall quality of customer service is also good, with most users praising customer service reps for their helpfulness, although there are a few complaints, which contributed to our high marks for customer service and technical support.

User Reviews

LendingTree is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, where it holds an A+ rating. The company has closed over 200 complaints in the last three years. Overall, reviews for the company are positive, although there are several complaints worth noting. We took all of these factors into consideration when giving our rating of 3.5/5.

Negative Reviews & Complaints

Common complaints about LendingTree surround the company’s:

• Communication: Customers complained that customer service wasn’t always able to answer their questions.
• Quote System: Customers didn’t like having to submit their personal information before being able to evaluate the products.
• Aggressive Marketing: A prevalent complaint from customers was about receiving persistent calls after submitting their information on the site. Remember that your information is going to get passed around to a lot of different lending partners, so you may be setting yourself up to get a lot of phone calls from thirsty lenders.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

LendingTree has a 4.3 out of 5 TrustScore on Trustpilot. Customers most like:

• Ease Of Use: Customers found the application process to be extremely easy.
• Customer Service: Most customers found LendingTree staff to be helpful.
• Decent Rates: Numerous customers say they received good rates through LendingTree.

Final Verdict: Is Lending Tree Business Loans Worth It?

LendingTree is a well-known, comprehensive service that can match most applicants to some kind of funding with relatively little fuss and pain. The application process is quick and easy, and the company is partnered with plenty of lenders that provide everything from long-term SBA loans to merchant cash advances.

However, there are a few concerns worth noting. You won’t know specific details about your loan options until you apply, which is pretty common with marketplace lenders. Some details, such as account fees, aren’t disclosed upfront. There are also several complaints about aggressive marketing tactics.

Despite these issues, LendingTree has a solid reputation as a personal and business loan marketplace and has numerous lending partners that are well-known in the small business lending space. For these reasons, we recommend LendingTree Business Loans and have rated the company 4.5/5 overall.

Not convinced you want to go this route? Keep searching for the right lender starting with our top picks for best small business loans.

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.

Find Funding for Any Credit Level

BusinessLoans.com	Visit Site Read our Review

Explore a wide range of business loan options at BusinessLoans.com. With no minimum credit score requirement, find the perfect funding solution for your needs. Get Started.

Let Us Help You Save On Credit Card Processing