Reliant Funding Review: Alternative Lending For Businesses

Pros

• No credit score requirements
• Multiple types of financing available
• High borrowing amounts

Cons

• Repayments are required frequently
• Not available to businesses in some industries
• Website advertising is not informative
• The application process can be slow (equipment financing)
• Customer service is inconsistent

Reliant Funding Overview

Reliant Funding is an alternative business funder that provides short-term loans and merchant cash advances (MCAs) rather than traditional lending products such as bank loans. While MCAs superficially resemble loans, they differ in some important ways, which we’ll discuss below.

While Reliant has an attractive spread of products, it isn’t the most forthcoming company. Be prepared to have to do some additional due diligence if you decide to do business with this company.

Note: You should approach the world of alternative funding with caution; the rates are often usurious, and the terms can be punishing for the unprepared or unlucky. You should always make sure you’ve exhausted other potential sources of funding first (take a look at our handy short-term funding comparison chart to make sure).

Services Offered By Reliant Funding

So, what is Reliant Funding? It’s an alternative business funder that offers the following types of business funding:

• Merchant Cash Advances: Merchant cash advances purchase a percentage of your daily credit card sales for a lump sum. The provider will then collect those sales until it has recouped the amount agreed upon, typically the amount it advanced you plus a flat fee.
• Short-Term Loans: Short-term loans extend borrowers a lump sum. It, along with a flat fee, is paid back over the length of the term with weekly or daily payments. Term lengths are typically less than a year, although some may go a little longer.
• Equipment Financing: Equipment financing includes loans and leases specifically for equipment acquisition. In most cases, the equipment purchased also serves as collateral.

Reliant Funding Borrower Requirements

Reliant estimates that it approves over 70% of its applicants. In addition to the qualifications below, your business cannot be in an open bankruptcy, have a negative landlord reference, or any other significant judgments:

To qualify for a short-term loan or MCA from Reliant, you must have been in business for at least one year. However, some exceptions may be made for businesses that have been in operation for at least seven months.

If you’re looking for an equipment lease through Reliant, the company can finance new or used equipment, including:

• Software
• Computers
• Work vehicles
• Office furniture
• Fixtures
• POS systems

Reliant Funding Interest Rates & Fees

How does Reliant Funding work in terms of its fees and rates? Here’s what you can expect:

Reliant offers a breadth of short-term funding products that make the company a bit more flexible than the average alternative lender. In practice, these products are fairly similar from the customer’s point of view.

Unfortunately, Reliant prefers not to disclose its rates in advance, which means you’ll have to submit your information before you receive an initial quote. Like most short-term funders, Reliant doesn’t use traditional interest rates. Instead, it charges a fixed fee based on the amount of money you receive. This fee is typically calculated using a multiplier (for example, 1.12), but it might be calculated using a percentage of the borrowing amount (for example, 12% of the borrowing amount). In either case, you’ll have to pay back the amount you borrowed plus the fixed fee. So if you borrow $10,000 at 12% of the borrowing amount, you’ll owe $11,200.

That doesn’t include additional fees charged. If you want to compare the offer you get to traditional loans, you’ll need to calculate the APR.

There are some differences between the products. A short-term loan (STL) is technically a loan in the traditional sense but is paid back daily through automated withdrawals from your business bank account. A merchant cash advance (MCA) resembles a loan but is actually an exchange of future sales. Reliant will either claim a percentage of your daily credit card sales or withdraw a set amount from your business account.

Reliant doesn’t offer much information about its equipment leasing structure, but you should expect a slower and more traditional approach to its underwriting process compared to the company’s other products.

Reliant Funding’s Application Process

Reliant’s application process begins by requesting a quote on its site. This involves submitting your name, phone number, email address, business name, years in business, and gross annual sales.

Once you’ve received your quote, you can follow up with the representative who gave it to you. If you decide to accept Reliant’s initial offer, expect to have to provide corroborating information about your business and income in the form of bank statements. You should also expect to have your credit checked.

Time to funding varies by product. Short-term loans and merchant cash advances can be approved within hours, with funds disbursed as soon as the next business day. Equipment financing, however, can take up to a month to approve, with funds disbursed three to five days after approval.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Previously, Reliant provided a few useful details under the FAQ heading of its website. However, at the time of this writing, the FAQ section was not working, and the rest of the website provides few details surrounding Reliant’s products. You will need to speak to a representative to get all the info you need to make a decision.

More confusing for customers, however, is the company’s mail strategy, which involves sending an unsolicited credit-card-like item to prospective clients. It’s meant to advertise Reliant’s line of credit products.

Customer Service & Technical Support

Customers have mixed opinions about their interactions with Reliant. Most of the negative comments seem to revolve around soliciting tactics.

Reliant can be reached by phone or by contact form. The company also has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Reliant Funding Reviews, Complaints, & Testimonials

Negative Reviews & Complaints

At the time of our last update, Reliant Funding had an A+ rating with the BBB. However, the company is no longer accredited with the BBB, which suggests that the BBB’s assessment of the company and its practices has changed — and not for the better.

There are currently 23 customer complaints on Reliant Funding’s BBB profile that have been logged over the last three years. Customers took issue with:

• Advertising Tactics: Numerous complaints cited misleading offers received in the mail. These often took the form of a card meant to represent Reliant’s line of credit. Others said they received large amounts of junk mail from Reliant.
• High Cost: As is the case with most alternative lenders, the rates cause a fair amount of sticker shock.
• Lack Of Transparency: Between the limited information on the site and the company’s confusing mailing strategy, Reliant doesn’t come across as especially open.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

As many companies do, Reliant fares better on Trustpilot, where it has a TrustScore of 4.8/5 based on 1,275 reviews. Here’s some of what customers liked about the company:

• Fast: If there’s one area in which online funders such as Reliant live up to their advertising, it’s speed.
• Easy: Many reviewers note that Reliant’s application process is very easy.
• Customer Service: Customers generally seem satisfied with the care they received from Reliant staff.

Final Verdict: Reliant Funding For Business Lending

Reliant Funding had taken some steps to improve its complaint resolutions, but many of the problems are still there, and the company’s recent loss of its BBB accreditation isn’t the best sign. However, Reliant does seem to have stopped offering its Premier Line line of credit, which was the source of some of its advertising issues.

Still, Reliant Funding’s lack of transparency is an issue. Your time is precious, and you’ll be spending more of it trying to extract the information you need to make an informed decision than you should have to. If you don’t mind submitting your data without knowing exactly what you’re applying for, the breadth of Reliant’s product options is attractive. Nevertheless, there are probably better options.

If you’re not sure where else to look, our other merchant cash advance reviews might help point you in the right direction.

FAQs About Reliant Funding

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