FSN community member Joe brought this to my attention.The promise is fast easy business loans with minimal documentationGive them 3 months of checking account statements and they’ll handle the rest.

But there’s always a catch. This is literally payday lending for small business. I had to check it out and find out what the scam is.

I do a google search and there’s a million of these companies. So I decide, let’s test it out and see what the deal is. I go to Lending Tree and type in business loans. I fill out the form and no sooner do I hit the submiit key and they’re already call. 

The game is on. Their small business lending expert is a very articulate young man/woman who knows all the right buzz words. I explain that I have a high credit score, no judgments or liens. A couple of bucks in the bank, pay everyone on time, even now. I’m looking for expansion capital to build a new studio and set up a real broadcast channel. I need $75k, but of course it depends upon the rate. I can always self-finance. 

Then the fun begins. These are modern day legal loan sharks. They can give me the money from 7-12 months, but I want 18. Sorry we can’t do that. And we’re gonna take our payments from your bank, some weekly, some daily and some whenever they feel like it. All for a paltry interest rate of 30% to 85% per annum and perhaps higher. 

But here’s the catch, they never tell you what the rate. In their word, “You just need to know your cost of money, how much you’ll be paying back…” Because they know if they were to tell you the real interest rate, you’d slam the phone down and block them from ever calling you again. I did 7-8 times all with similar results. They kept calling and emailing until I told them to lose my number and dnc me. After the 3rd or 4th one I would tell them my parameters, no rate higher than 10 percent, monthly payments, 18 months minimum. They always promised they would get it done and then they’d come up with 40 percent interest rates or more. Complete scammers.

And they never mention it, but I’m sure they require a personal guarantee. Some states still have usury laws, but only for personal loans or credit cards. There has always been an exception for corporate loans accompanied by a pg, even if the the corp was formed just to avoid the usury cap. 

Beware of these scumbags. You’re much better off going to friends and family or taking out credit card advances. Or if you’re a student, even though it’s not permitted, using some of you subsidized student loans to fund your start-up. Anything but these shylocks.