At Nav, we’re on a mission to make life easier for America’s small business owners. From the technology we create to the articles we write—we want to help you make educated funding and credit decisions for your business, so you can save money and time. That’s why we were one of the original signers of the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights.
For our educational articles and product reviews, Nav’s experts provide objective assessments. No lender or other partner pays us for a “favorable review.”
And our marketplace algorithm is lender-neutral, making recommendations based on your credit and business situation. We don’t care which product you choose—we just want to make it simpler for you to make the best decision you can, whether you need funding now or down the road.
Keeping with our mission, we also want to be transparent about how we make money. Rest assured: we don’t make money by selling your data. Nav takes your privacy seriously.
We have two main ways of making money:
1. Product referrals
It’s completely free to use Nav to find your best choice and apply for funding. Nav’s marketplace uses an unbiased algorithm, MatchFactor, to show and connect you to financing options based on your credit profile, business information and suitability. Only Nav can show you what financing you are likely to get before you apply.
More than 44 different credit and loan products exist for small businesses and we’ve partnered with over 100 of the top business lenders and credit cards. When you get funding from one of our partners, we may receive compensation from them in the form of a referral fee. Because we are sending customers that fit their profile, we help the lenders save money. Nav takes a small fee, and the rest of the savings is passed on to the customer.
Whether or not you take any offers from our partners, you can always use our free account to access your personal and business credit reports, along with tools to build your business credit profile. You are never obligated to take any offers presented to you on Nav.
2. Paid accounts
In addition to our Free account, we also offer Paid accounts: Business Manager, Business Boost, and Business Loan Builder. These accounts provide detailed data from 4 different personal and business credit bureaus and data providers, as well as other benefits, including identity theft protection and the ability to monitor the credit of multiple businesses.
The details in these reports include the same information business lenders see, so you get more helpful insights, like whether you have credit issues that could hold you back. Plus, they let you be proactive and stay on top of your credit so you don’t get blindsided.
It costs us more to get the extra data and reports from the bureaus, so we have to charge money for these Premium accounts. But, Nav charges less than it would cost going to each bureau for this information.
The money we receive helps us support our team of experts who research the latest news, products, and improve our technology so that it’s even easier for you to run and grow your business. We appreciate your trust.
This article was originally written on April 3, 2017 and updated on September 18, 2019.
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