Many business owners have been there — you have a window of opportunity to grow and expand that will disappear quickly if you don’t seize it right away. However, you need help finding the capital to take advantage of the opportunity.
Before the rise of online lenders, finding capital quickly seemed nearly impossible. Applying for a bank loan, to this day, takes more than a month to complete. Online lenders close this time gap, making it easy to get funding over four times faster than you would through a bank.
Credibly and Can Capital are two sources offering small business funding that can appear in your bank account in just a matter of days. Both offer multiple solutions for small business access to capital — most notably a business loan and a merchant cash advance product. Check out details on each lender below to determine if one of these lenders is right for you.
Credibly
Credibly offers two different financing options for small businesses: a business loan product and a merchant cash advance product.
Credibly’s merchant cash advance product and business loan product have the same requirements: 6 months in business with $15,000+ average monthly bank deposits. You can qualify for the merchant cash advance with at least $4,000/month credit card sales. With both products you can receive funding of $5,000 – $250,000 within 48 hours, and the repayment period can last up to 15 months. The biggest difference, like with all business loans and merchant cash advances, is how the repayment structure works.
A business loan with Credibly includes a 2.5% origination fee and daily fixed payments. With a merchant cash advance, you agree to sell Credibly a fixed percentage of your daily sales in exchange for capital. Once the loan is repaid, Credibly will stop pulling from your daily sales. The merchant cash advance product is best for businesses with unsteady cash flow or seasonal business cycles who don’t want to see money debited from their bank account, they just want the payment taken straight out of their sales.
The fee structure for the cash advance and business loan product is different as well.
| Cash Advance | Business Loans | |
| Fees | Filing Fee, Underwriting Fee and an Administrative Fee.
May also charge an NSF fee, a bank account transfer fee, and a collateral/site visit fee. |
2.5% origination fee |
To apply for a Credibly loan or cash advance, you’ll need at least 3 months of bank statements (up to 12 months if you are applying for a larger loan), a business lease agreement for renters or mortgage statement for owners, and business tax returns if the requested loan is over $100,000.
In general, Credibly is very upfront and transparent about their requirements, costs, and fees. If you have a question about their loan or merchant cash advance products, their customer agent team is very responsive as well.
Can Capital
Can Capital has three loan products: a small business loan product, a “Trakloan™” and a merchant cash advance. The merchant cash advance and the Trakloan™ are similar products tailored to different industries — a Can Capital representative can help you determine which is right for you.
Can Capital advertises that their business loan product can be used for most working capital needs: buying equipment, remodeling, increasing inventory, making payroll, opening new locations and more. Businesses with 4 months in business, $4,500 in monthly gross revenue, and relatively stable revenue can qualify for a loan up to $150,000 for single location businesses and $250,000 for multi-location businesses.
The merchant cash advance product is available up to $150,000 and can be used for similar purposes, such as ongoing operations, purchasing new assets (equipment, inventory, etc.), or cost management (seasonal fluctuations, growth opportunities, etc.).
We think that the best use of the merchant cash advance is for cash flow emergencies or to fund a period of very high growth. This option is more expensive than many loan options for working capital, so it’s best to use the merchant cash advance product when you are sure you can afford it.
Here are a couple merchant cash advance differentiators from the business loan product:
- You don’t need stable income to qualify — it is a “cash flow friendly” product.
- It is faster and easier to qualify for the merchant cash advance, but will be more expensive.
- Like with all merchant cash advance products, you will pay a fixed percentage of your daily sales back to Can Capital until the total agreed upon amount has been paid.
- Can Capital will automatically extract the fixed percentage of your sales each day, sending the rest to your bank account — thus, there’s no checks involved and nothing debiting your bank account.
So. Credibly vs. Can Capital: Which is Right For You?
| Can Capital Business Loan | Credibly Business Loan | |
| Requirements | 4+ months in business
Monthly gross revenue of $4,500+ Your business’s monthly revenue must be stable |
6 months in business
$15,000+ average monthly bank deposits U.S.-based business |
| Personal Credit Minimum | 550+ | No minimum |
| Amount | $2,500 – $150,000 for single location businesses.
Up to $250,000 for multi-location |
$5,000 – $250,000 |
| Cost of a $30,000 loan over paid back over 12 months | Weekday payments: $154
Repayment amount: $40,500 *will depend on your monthly sales |
Weekday payment: $152
Repayment amount: $40,200 *will depend on risk |
| Repayment period | 4 – 24 months | Up to 15 months |
| Time to fund | 2 – 14 business days | Less than 2 days |
| Collateral | No | No |
As seen above, Credibly and Can Capital have comparably priced products, with similar amounts and repayment periods. Credibly’s business requirements are a bit more thorough, but their loans in general seem slightly less expensive, serve a wider range of credit profiles, and can be in your bank account faster than with Can Capital.
One of the biggest draws to these lenders is how quickly you can get a business loan. The best option will be to apply to both lenders as well as other lenders with a similar turnaround time, such as Dealstruck and Kabbage, and compare the terms.
If you’re business is subject to inconsistent cash flow or if you don’t qualify for the business loan product, you should also compare offers from their merchant cash advance products bearing in mind that they will likely be more expensive.
Here’s one last piece of advice: if you need money in the bank within the next few days, don’t waste time on financing options for which you won’t qualify. Check into financing through your Nav account to see what funding options for which you will likely qualify and what each lender had to offer.
*This article has been updated to reflect that Credibly does not have a minimum FICO score, does not require collateral on their business loans, and offers loans up to 15 months.
This article was originally written on October 9, 2015 and updated on April 4, 2019.
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