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Get Small Loans For Your Business the Easy Way With a Great Bank Rating

Reviewed by Ty Crandall

November 14, 2023
Small Loans Credit Suite

Need Small Loans for Your Business?

Even small loans can be challenging without a great bank rating. Learn why this little-known number matters, and how you can improve yours. The search for small loans can be a recipe for frustration if you aren’t ready and don’t take the time to build your bank credit score. But what’s a bank credit rating, anyway?

Your Bank Credit Score – What’s it All About?

Do you know the distinction between bank credit scores and small business credit?

Company credit is the full and complete amount of money that your business can get from all manner of creditors. That means credit unions, credit card companies, and also leasing firms. And it also means providers, under what’s called trade credit or vendor credit or trade lines.

A bank credit rating, on the other hand, is a measure of the full amount of borrowing capacity which a business can get from the banking system only. 

Bank Credit Scores ClarifiedBiz Loans Credit Suite

A business can get more company credit promptly, so long as it has at the very least one bank reference and an average daily account balance of at the very least $10,000 for the most recent three month time period. This setup will generate a bank credit score of a Low-5. So this means it is an Adjusted Debt Balance of from $5,000 to $30,000.

A lower rating, like a High-4, or balance of $7,000 to $9,999 will not instantly turn down the small business’s loan application. Nevertheless, it will slow down the approval process.

What is a Bank Score?

A bank rating is a measure of the average minimum balance as kept in a business bank account over a 3 month long period. Hence a $10,000 balance| will rank as a Low-5, a $5,000 balance will rank as a Mid-4. So a $999 balance will rate as a High-3, etc.

A company’s chief objective should always be to maintain a minimum Low-5 bank rating (or, an average $10,000 balance) for at least three months. This is because, without a minimum of a Low-5 score, most banks will operate under the assumption that the business has little to no capacity to pay off a loan or a business line of credit.

But there is one thing to remember: you will never actually see this number. The financial institution will simply keep this number in its back pocket.

Some Bank Score Ranges

The numbers work out to the following ranges:

To get a High-5 score, your company will need to have an account balance of $70,000 to $99,999. For a Mid-5 score, your business must have an account balance of $40,000 to $69,999. And for a Low-5 rating, your business needs to hold onto an account balance of $10,000 to $39,000. So your company needs this level bank score or better to get a bank loan.

But it’s easy to ruin this score if you’re not careful.

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Ruining Your Bank Score

Unfortunately, there are a lot of ways to really destroy your bank rating. Here are 7 – and how you can fix them to get small loans or really any level of financing.

7th Way to Ruin Your Bank Credit Score and Lose Out on Small Loans: an Ever-Changing Balance

One way to hurt this score is if you do not maintain a minimum balance for a minimum of three months. Given that every bank rating cycle is based on the previous 3 months, a continuously seesawing balance ought to damage your bank score.

6th Way to Destroy Your Bank Credit: Inconsistent Records Online

If you don’t make sure your business bank accounts are reported precisely the same way as all of your small business documents are, with the exact same physical address (no post office box) and telephone number, then you’ll harm this score.

Learn bank rating secrets with Credit Suite's free, sure-fire guide.

5th Way to Destroy Your Bank Credit and Lose Out on Small Loans: Inconsistent Records Offline

To accompany #6, if there are offline records which don’t show the business name and address the precise same way, then your score will suffer. This is every keeper of financial documents, earnings and sales taxes, internet addresses and e-mail addresses, directory assistance, and so on.

No loan provider is going to stop to consider the myriad manners in which a business might be listed, when they explore the business’s creditworthiness. For this reason if they are not able to locate what they need quickly, they will either deny an application (for fraud!) or it won’t be reported to a business credit reporting agency like Experian, Equifax or Dun & Bradstreet.

Therefore, if they are not able to discover what they need quickly, they will just reject the application.

4th Way to Damage Your Bank Credit Score: Not Managing Your Bank Account Responsibly

This means your small business may have been writing non-sufficient funds (NSF) checks. Because non-sufficient-funds checks are something which no business can afford to let happen.

3rd Way to Destroy Your Bank Credit Rating and Lose Out on Small Loans: No Overdraft Protection

To add to #4, if you do not include overdraft protection to your bank account ASAP, in order to avoid NSFs, you’re missing out on a preventable way to avoid destroying your bank score.

2nd Way to Damage Your Bank Credit Score: No Positive Free Cash Flow

A positive free cash flow is the quantity of profits left over after a business has paid every one of its expenses. According to Investopedia, it “represents the cash a company can generate after required investment to maintain or expand its asset base. It is a measurement of a company’s financial performance and health.”

When an account shows a positive cash flow it shows your small business is producing more earnings than is used to run the business. That means the financial institution will feel your company can pay its expenses.

Learn bank rating secrets with Credit Suite's free, sure-fire guide.

1st Way to Ruin Your Bank Credit and Lose Out on Small Loans: Inconsistent Deposits

Financial institutions are extremely motivated to lend to a company with consistent deposits. And a business owner should also make regular deposits to preserve a positive bank score. The business owner needs to make several regular deposits, greater than the withdrawals they are making, to have and preserve a good bank rating. If they can do that, then they will have a great bank credit rating.

If You Damage Your Business’s Bank Score and You Could Be Losing Out on Small Loans—Even Though You Will Never See This Number

A bad bank credit rating means your firm is far less likely to get small business loans.

So, where do you go from here?

The First Way to Rescue Your Bank Credit Score: Deposit $10,000 or More in Your Account and Keep it There for 6 Months or More

Possibly the most convenient way to attain and maintain a good bank credit is to deposit at least $10,000 into your small business bank account and maintain it there for as much as a half year. While you will still have to make consistent deposits, this one straightforward step will aid in 3 ways. 

One, you will have maintained an excellent minimum balance for at least three months. Two, you will probably not overdraw with such an excellent balance. And three, you will get to the magic minimum for a Low-5 bank credit rating. Hence you will counter #4 and #7, above.

And you might even have the ability to get around our #3. But we still highly recommend overdraft protection.

The Second Way to Rescue Your Bank Credit Rating: Consistent Details

Make sure your small business account details are consistent across the board, all over. While it might take some work to ensure everything is right, you will be taking care of #5 and #6.

The Third Way to Rescue Your Bank Credit: Regular Deposits

And make certain those deposits are more than what you withdraw every month. This will take care of our #1 and #2.

Takeaways for Your Bank Credit Rating and Small Loans

Your bank rating is not to be trifled with. Although financial institutions keep them secret, failing to keep your bank credit rating high will make it a great deal harder to do well in business. You might not even get small loans, so be diligent!

Learn bank rating secrets with Credit Suite's free, sure-fire guide.

About the author 

Janet Gershen-Siegel

Janet Gershen-Siegel is the seasoned Finance Writer and a former content manager at Credit Suite. She has been admitted to practice law for over 30 years, with a focus on litigation and product liability, and is a published author, with writing credits at Entrepreneur, FedSmith.com and BusinessingMag.com.

She has a BA in Philosophy from Boston University, a JD from the Delaware Law School of Widener University, and a MS in Interactive Media (Social Media) from Quinnipiac University.

She regularly writes for Credit Suite, which helps businesses improve Fundabilityâ„¢, build credit, and get approved for loans and credit lines.

Her specialties: business credit, business credit cards, business funding, crowdfunding, and law

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