How the Application Process Works With Bond Street

With so many online lenders to choose from, business owners are often not sure which financing company is best suited to fund their company.

This is why it’s important for lenders to find a way to stand out in a crowd and show off their unique strengths. With a slick website and simple loan application process, Bond Street is doing just that by providing “small business loans that are simple, transparent, and fair.”

Why Go With Bond Street?

Applying for a Bond Street loan online is definitely fast and easy. They gather detailed information in just about 6 minutes. And when it comes to transparent, Bond Street is upfront with the requirements to get a loan. If you don’t meet those prerequisites, you should find funding elsewhere.

In terms of fairness, Bond Street aims to offer qualifying customers loans for lower rates than most online lenders. Although rates might still be higher than those at traditional banks, Bond Street will get you the money faster so you can immediately focus on your company’s needs and growth plans.

Bond Street was founded in October of 2013 to fill a void and service businesses that either couldn’t get approved for a bank loan or didn’t want to wait weeks for the funding to come through.

Many of these same businesses, generally with excellent cash flow, also couldn’t attract venture capital funding, leaving them in a no-man’s land when it came to financing their business.

Co-founders David Haber and Peyton Sherwood, with backgrounds in finance and technology, jumped in to fill a gap in the online lending marketplace, says Bond Street Credit Analyst Eric Walpert.

Although there’s no single type of business or industry group serviced by Bond Street, the lender works with many companies in service industries such as restaurants, coffee shops, and other business-to-business firms.

The sweet spot for getting a loan through Bond Street boils down to good solid financial health and opportunities for growth within your company and industry, according to Walpert.

“We’re built around speed and flexibility for our customers,” he says.  

To give you a better idea of whether Bond Street is a good fit for your company’s financing needs, take a look at the lender at a glance. If you want more details and information about Bond Street, scroll down to read about the application process, step by step.

The Nuts and Bolts of Bond Street Loans

Funding Amounts: Term loans range from $50,000 to $500,000. Although it depends on the individual applicant, typical loans are in the $150,000 to $200,000 range.

The Cost to Fund: 8% – 25% APR range.

The Average Loan Term: 1 to 3 years.

Minimum FICO Score: Although Bond Street prefers to see FICO scores above 600, this is only a guideline. “We do not make a judgement on your application based solely on your credit score,” says Walpert.

Approval Time: Typically you’ll have your loan decision within 48 hours of receiving all documentation. From this point, you’ll usually receive funding within 7 days.

Payment Frequency: Loan payments get deducted from your business checking account on the 1st and 16th  of each month.

What Are the Prerequisites for Applying for a Loan?

To apply for a loan at Bond Street, you need to meet the following criteria:

• You must be based in the United States.*
• Your business should be up and running for at least 2 years.
• You must have a minimum of $200,000 in yearly revenues.
• Your business must be able to assign a personal guarantee.

If you apply for a loan and don’t meet these criteria, you might get a message from Bond Street, while you’re filling out the online application, that it won’t be able to fund your business.

It’s that simple—and transparent.

One other important thing to know: if you’ve had a bankruptcy in the past 7 years, you will be ineligible for a loan through Bond Street.

*Bond Street can fund businesses throughout the United States except in the following states: North Dakota, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Vermont. This is due to licensing requirements in those particular states.

The Actual Application Process in 10 Easy Steps

1. Get Started

This is where you’ll enter in the basic information about the loan you’re seeking.

You’ll input your preferred loan amount, what you’d like to use the loan for, how much time you need to pay it back, and how you learned about Bond Street.

2. Down to Business

In this section, you’ll reveal basic business information like your legal business name, DBA if applicable, business address, the date you founded your company, and your annual revenue.

3. What About You?

Next up, you’ll tell Bond Street a little more about yourself by entering in your legal name, phone number, home address, birthdate and personal annual income.

In this section, you’ll also be asked to check a box that will give Bond Street permission to request your credit report. Although this will be used to help determine your loan eligibility, this request will have no impact on your credit score.

4. Create an Account

Here you’ll enter in your email address and a password to create an account with Bond Street.

5. Down to Business, Part 2

Once you’ve created your account, it’s time to reveal more business basics including your industry and business legal structure.

After that, Bond Street will ask you whether you filed a tax return with your spouse and to enter in your tax identification number if you have one. You’ll also fill out your business address and let Bond Street know whether your business tax return from the previous year was filed from that same address.  

6. Simplified Sharing

In this section, Bond Street will ask for your accountant’s contact information.

This part is optional, but if you do disclose your accountant’s information, Bond Street can reach out to ask for any missing financial documents. This can help speed up your application process and provide you with a more accurate funding decision.

7. Take Ownership

Here you will enter in your full legal name, title, email address, and your ownership percentage of your company.

Some of this information will be automatically populated based on your previous answers.

8. Your Financial State

You’ve now arrived at the stage where you’ll need to provide Bond Street with your company’s financial data.

First off, the lender will give you a list of financial software companies and ask you to select the one you use to track your expenses and revenue. These companies include QuickBooks, FreshBooks, SageOne and Xero. You can also enter in another company.

If you selected QuickBooks, you can opt to integrate your QuickBooks account with Bond Street in order to send your financial information directly to the lender. You can also choose to upload your information yourself.

Regardless of how you send the information, you will need to provide income statements for the last two calendar years plus up-to-date, as well as your latest balance sheet. Most businesses will also need to provide cash flow statements for the last two calendar years plus up-to-date data.

You can choose to skip this section for now, but Bond Street will still require these documents before lending.

9. Bank On It 

You are nearing the end of your loan application. In order to fund you, you will need to provide Bond Street with your banking information so that the lender can confirm your financial statements. You’ll be prompted to provide read-only access to your bank account by entering in your bank, user ID, password, routing number and account number. You’ll then authorize Bond Street to fund your business checking account with the loan proceeds and electronically withdraw loan payments from this account.

10. A Final Taxing Note

Bond Street requires a year’s worth of tax returns in order to fund your business. In this final section, you can either authorize the IRS to release your tax returns to Bond Street, or you can upload your tax return yourself. Once you’ve done this, you are done with your loan application.

What’s Next?

Your application will then move along to the underwriting stage and you will typically receive a phone call from an underwriter within 2 days.

We’ll discuss underwriting in the second of our three-part series on getting a loan through Bond Street.

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from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/2016/06/01/application-process-works-bond-street/