Credibly is an online lender that provides short-term business loans and merchant cash advances to small businesses, with funding available as soon as the same day you apply. Although their rates approximate those of other online business lenders, Credibly does offer prepayment incentives. The lender has offices in Michigan, New York, and Arizona.

Credibly offers a variety of business loans that fit a number of use cases. Business owners have the option to apply for working capital loans, business expansion loans, and merchant cash advances.

• Adult entertainment
• Airlines
• Annual memberships
• Brokerage
• Cannabis
• Casinos/gambling
• Class 3 weapons dealers
• Consumer credit
• Dating services
• Escort services
• Financial institutions 
• Insurance 
• Nonprofits 
• Oil drilling
• Payday loan companies
• Used auto dealers
• Warranty companies

To start the funding process with Credibly, you’ll need to fill out an online application with self-reported information on your business credentials. 

You’ll need to following for your application:

• Three months of business bank statements
• Copy of your driver’s license or photo identification 
• Voided business check
• Business lease agreement or business mortgage statement
• Most recent business tax return for loans over $100,000

Credibly reviews this information and will decide whether or not you prequalify. If you do, you will proceed into their underwriting process. 

Be sure to accurately self-report from the get-go so that you don’t move forward in the process only to be rejected for funding later—Credibly will use the rest of the process to verify the credentials that you applied with. Credibly will pull your personal credit and business credit scores to confirm your credit history. But don’t worry—they’ll perform a soft credit pull which won’t affect your credit score.

They’ll also require that you submit documentation to their credit team and speak on the phone with a member of their credit team before they provide an offer. Once they’ve completed all of their required underwriting steps, though, Credibly can extend you an offer in two to three hours. And should you accept the offer they extend, you’ll sign a business loan agreement. Before Credibly deposits your funds, they will do a hard credit pull, which can decrease your score by a few points. At that point, Credibly can deposit the funds into your account in another two to three hours. The entire process generally takes three to five business days, though same-day funding is sometimes possible.

Credibly’s working capital loan will come with daily or weekly payments, automatically debited from your business bank account. The business expansion loan has weekly payments. If you opt for the merchant cash advance, Credibly will deduct a small fixed portion from your business bank account or credit card processor. Credibly will report your repayment activity to the business credit bureaus, so if you repay your loan on time, you can improve your business credit score. If a scheduled payment bounces, you’ll be charged a $25 non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee. To check how your Credibly loan is progressing, you’ll be able to consult emailed monthly statements, an online portal, and Credibly’s customer service team. 

One defining feature that Credibly funding boasts is its prepayment incentive. You can avoid interest if you pay off your Credibly working capital loan or business expansion loan in the first half of the term. Once you’ve paid down 50% of your debt to Credibly, then you’ll be eligible to renew your funding with them.

There’s plenty of Credibly customer reviews available online to read, but so that you don’t have to sift through all of them, we will summarize the positive and the negative here.

Many of the complaints are very situational and deal with the way Credibly has handled repayments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reviewers were displeased that they were still expected to make payments and that there was seemingly no wiggle room. Aside from that, other negative reviews don’t love the high interest rates and lack of customer service.

However, there are plenty of customers who had very positive experiences with Credibly. The application process seems to be simple and straight-forward with no hit to your credit score. While some reviewers noted that the rates are expensive, they enjoyed the longer payback terms as compared to other lenders.

Credibly is not in Fundera’s Lender Network. The Fundera team carefully vets all of the lenders in our network, and have determined that Credibly either doesn’t have the technology to work with Fundera or does not offer a financing product that competes with the other lenders in its product class. We suggest considering another lender in this product class.

See if you qualify for similar products in Fundera’s Lender Network.