Revealed! Shady Methods For Approving Loans for People With Bad Credit and Businesses. The CFPB Has Begun its Investigations.

by Anand Bailey Nov 28, 2022

Your credit scores may be problematic when you seek busy financing solutions. You might believe you require a business loan for people with terrible credit. However, not all of the issues with your credit score may be your fault.

A solid personal credit score is essential for any borrowing. But what if you have nothing to do with your credit score declining? Or maybe you tried to solve it, but no one listened to your complaint? You wouldn't be alone at all.

Senate Investigation

Rep. James Clyburn, the head of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, requested an investigation into Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion on October 17, 2022, for allegedly failing to address customer complaints during the outbreak.

According to Clyburn, the major credit bureaus may have broken the Fair Credit Reporting Act. According to the select subcommittee, there is evidence that the agencies dismissed disagreements without looking into them.

The percentage of credit disputes that resulted in relief decreased from 25% to 4.1% during the epidemic. This raised red flags for the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. However, a low personal credit score impacts more than your finances and borrowing capacity as a consumer. Your ability to obtain loans for start-up businesses is also affected. And some corporate credit ratings are even impacted.

What Impact Did It Have on Personal Credit Scores?

Consumers were immediately impacted since, when applying for a term loan, such as a mortgage, or to purchase a car, low credit ratings will prevent them from receiving competitive interest rates. Personal credit score errors have a direct impact on loan approval as well. They will affect the terms and loan amounts you are eligible for.

Of course, interest will always be due. However, your rates will be more excellent if you have a poor credit history.

Issues with Personal Credit Reports

Consumers should have had the opportunity to enhance their credit records because the personal credit bureaus disregarded their disputes. Errors that go unfixed can be pretty expensive. In only 2019 alone, the CFPB received almost 619,000 complaints. Consumers may lose millions of dollars due to the credit reporting organizations' inaction.

Does a business loan impact one's credit history? Yes, it can lower your score if a lender runs a "hard inquiry"—a procedure that involves looking at your credit—but usually just temporarily. It's possible that people lost their homes and employment due to the bureaus' delay.

What Impact Did It Have on Business Credit Scores?

Your personal credit history is taken into account when calculating your business credit score by Experian and FICO SBSS, respectively. Even while Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax do not factor in personal credit when determining a business credit score, having a lower FICO SBSS score will directly impact whether your small business can obtain SBA business loans of any loan size.

If compelled to take out a bad credit business loan, small enterprises would have had to pay higher interest rates, shorter periods, and less money available.

The Wall Street Journal reports that there were 200,000 more company closures during the pandemic than usual.

How many of those may have been avoided if business owners had obtained the best business loans as opposed to the business loans for people with bad credit that they could have been forced to take out?

The Importance of Credit Scores in Small Business Loan Applications

Many lenders, including the Small Business Administration, will look at your credit score when determining whether you qualify for company financing. A low personal credit score can impact your interest rates, the amount you are eligible for, and the loan's term. If your application for a small company loan is approved, that is.

Is there a required minimum credit score to qualify for a business loan?

An SBA loan often requires a FICO score of 640 or above. However, even preferred SBA lenders frequently have their specifications.

Small company owners can discover that the necessary personal credit score is higher than that. Of course, the lender will have restrictions for other company loans.

Funds for new businesses start-up will heavily weigh on personal credit history. For that to be approved, a business plan is also frequently required.

What credit score must I have to qualify for business loans?

The minimum credit score that a lender will accept varies. A company owner with bad personal credit might still be able to secure corporate funding. But thinking outside the "enterprise financing box" will pay off. There are other options than term loans. Small firms with proprietors that have bad credit may want to attempt a few other businesses opportunities in financing before applying for SBA loans.

Business Cash Advances

An MCA can be wise when a business is still operating and has a history of receiving payments from customers using credit cards. As long as the source of the merchant cash advance can determine that the small business's clients will make timely payments, credit history will not be a factor. I have bad credit; can I still get a business loan?

Bill Factoring

This occurs when you sell your unpaid invoices to a lender, similar to an MCA. The factoring company pays a significant portion of the invoices to the small business owner and collects from the clients.

Once more, a low credit score won't matter much because the factoring business is more concerned with whether the clients who owe money have a strong payment history. The factoring company could want to look over your yearly income.

Additionally, it is generally not a realistic alternative if your company is experiencing cash flow problems.

Finance for Commercial Real Estate

Personal credit will be less critical because real estate is the collateral. Similar to mortgages, these loans typically have lengthier terms.

Finance for Equipment

Similar to financing for commercial real estate, equipment loans employ the equipment as security. This lessens the need for business owners to have high credit scores.

Personal Credit Business Loan Credit Suite Financing with a Business Credit Card from a Start-Up Vendor

Even though companies like American Express and Visa, which offer business credit cards, frequently prefer entrepreneurs to have higher ratings, novice vendors might not. Even without any prior business credit history, using vendor credit is a tried-and-true method of establishing credit for your company. Even if a business owner has access to other sources of capital, establishing business credit is still an excellent method to enhance a company's worth.

Business Credit Lines

Credit lines frequently resemble credit cards in terms of how a business can use them. It's also possible to renew a business line of credit.

Different Lenders

Many businesses will lend even if you have business partners with poor credit (many of them are online lenders). Their main concern is whether your small business can meet its required monthly payments. Since many have been in business for a while, your loan wouldn't be their first. An excellent option is a company loan from a different lender.

How to Challenge Inaccuracies on Your Credit Report

Now, adding this part might seem out of place, given that the personal credit bureaus may have improperly deleted several complaints. Disputing is still a valuable strategy for raising credit scores, though. Getting a business loan will always be aided by clearing up a mark in your credit history. At the very least, company owners should protest any errors on their business credit reports.

Additionally, it's feasible that the House of Representatives will force Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to pay much more attention to disputes (or a lawsuit if it gets that far). Credit reporting firms may be under pressure to enhance their algorithms and hire more staff to manage the surge of disputes, mainly since many claims were denied in an automated manner.

How Do You Locate These Mistakes?

For business owners, repairing their credit always begins with identifying the errors and omissions in the first place. Monitoring your credit is the most straightforward technique to find inaccuracies in your credit history. Monitoring is much more affordable with Credit Suite than with commercial credit reporting companies. If you weren't monitoring, you would have to spend much more time looking for issues.

Given that an accurate credit report might be the difference between receiving a company loan and not, the expense is more than justified.

Conclusion

Credit reports for both individuals and businesses sometimes contain mistakes. However, ignoring arguments makes matters worse. Fortunately, monitoring makes it easier for you to find and report problems. It makes sense that the House of Representatives is investigating. For much less expensive tracking, get in touch with us immediately to know what else we can do to back up the expansion of your small business.