Which funding products does this apply to?

Working Capital, Term Loan, Business Line of Credit. Each has its own page listing the funders in this directory that offer it and what each one publishes about its terms.

Is this specific to construction?

It is written around how a construction business actually generates and collects cash, which is what makes its funding problem different. The mechanics transfer; the arithmetic may not.

The Find Me Funders research desk. Some drafting is AI-assisted, and every page that is says so at the top, including whether a person has checked its claims yet.

How do I know a figure here is right?

Where a page carries the green notice, its claims were checked against the sources listed at the end and a reviewer is named. Where it carries the amber one, nobody has verified it yet and you should confirm anything you plan to act on.

Are the examples real deals?

No. Every worked example is labelled illustrative and exists to show the arithmetic. What any particular lender charges is on that lender's page, where it publishes it.

Why do you never say what a typical rate is?

Because we cannot source it. A market average assembled from lenders who do not publish prices is a guess with a decimal point on it. Where a lender publishes a figure, we show that figure and say where it came from.

Is this financial or legal advice?

No. It is general information about how these products work. Outcomes depend on your contract and your state, and a lawyer or accountant licensed where you are is the person to ask about your situation.

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Bank, credit union or non-bank for the same request

Three lenders, three different people they answer to. That is what decides which evidence they need, what they can price, and what they can forgive later.

By Find Me Funders research desk Updated 14 September 2026 1039 words 5 min read

Drafted with AI assistance. Not yet independently checked. Nobody has verified the claims on this page against a source, so treat the figures and legal points as a starting point rather than as settled, and confirm anything you are about to act on. How we check things.

The useful difference between these three is not price. It is who each one answers to when your loan goes wrong. A bank answers to an examiner reviewing the credit file. A credit union answers to its members and to a statutory framework that limits business lending in aggregate. A non-bank answers to whoever funds its balance sheet, which may be a credit facility with covenants of its own or investors expecting a yield.

That determines the evidence each one needs, how much room it has to price risk, and — the part nobody discusses until it matters — how much discretion it has to work with you in a bad quarter.

What each one is constrained by

The bank.Its file has to satisfy a third party who was not in the room. That means filed tax returns, verifiable cash flow, a documented debt service coverage ratio, and collateral it can describe. A bank cannot solve a thin file with a higher rate, because the constraint is not price, it is documentation.

The credit union.Member-owned and not-for-profit, so pricing tends to reflect cost rather than margin targets. You must be eligible for membership before anything else happens. Federal law also limits how much member business lending a credit union may hold in aggregate — the framework sits at 12 U.S.C. § 1757a with exceptions, and the guaranteed portion of a government-backed loan is treated differently. The practical effect is that a credit union may be excellent on your deal and unable to do the next one, for reasons that have nothing to do with you.

The non-bank.It can price almost any risk, and it will. Its constraint is its own cost of funds, which is why its money is more expensive and why its products are shorter. It has the widest credit box and the least patience.

Where the credit union wins

Illustrative only —a $250,000 request over seven years from a member-eligible business with clean books.

Bank at 8.25%: $3,927.76 a month, $79,932 of interest.
Credit union at 7.75%: $3,865.49 a month, $74,701 of interest.

The saving is $5,231 over the term — real, but not decisive on its own. The decisive part is usually elsewhere. Suppose the bank's loan carries a 3% prepayment penalty and the credit union's does not. Sell the business or refinance at month thirty, when the bank balance is $176,679, and the penalty is $5,300. Total advantage to the credit union on that exit: $7,169.

Add the things that do not price at all — a decision-maker you can meet, a smaller minimum loan size, more willingness on a deal that is slightly outside the template — and for a member-eligible borrower with a clean file, the credit union is frequently the best available deal that nobody applied to.

Where the non-bank wins

Illustrative only —the same $250,000, but the business is fourteen months old with one filed tax return, and a contract worth $420,000 of revenue at a 22% margin starts in three weeks.

The bank cannot lend. Not "will not" — the file does not contain what its examiner requires. The credit union is in the same position. A non-bank offers thirty-six months at 16.5%: $8,851.10 a month, $68,639 of interest.

That payment is $4,923 a month above the bank's. It is also the only offer, and the contract is worth $92,400 of margin. Comparing a rate you cannot get against a rate you can is not analysis.

The variable that flips it: whether your file can be evidenced to a third party's standard.Filed returns, clean deposits, documented coverage, describable collateral. If you have all four, the bank or credit union is almost always cheaper and you should be annoyed at anyone who told you otherwise. If you are missing one, price stops being the question.

The measures do not line up

A bank or credit union quote is an annual rate over a stated term. A non-bank quote may be a rate, a total repayment figure, or a factor — and a factor has no time dimension. Do not let three quotes onto one page until all three show the same four figures: amount funded, total of all payments, all fees in dollars, and the number of months.

Then look at what is not in any of them: the personal guarantee, the collateral filing, the covenants, the reporting obligations and the default remedies. Those are where the three genuinely differ, and none of them appear in a rate.

The questions that settle it

Am I eligible for membership anywhere? Employer, industry association, county of residence. Check before you assume the answer is no. This is the cheapest five minutes in business finance.
Do I have two filed returns, twelve clean months of statements, and coverage above the threshold? If yes, apply to a bank and a credit union first and make the non-bank compete against a real offer.
What is my actual deadline, and what does missing it cost? Put a dollar figure on it. That figure is the maximum the speed is worth.
What discretion does this lender have if I need an amendment? Ask directly: who approves a covenant waiver, and have you done one this year?

What to ask for, and what to refuse

Ask each lender what would have to be true for them to approve, and take notes. A bank's list of missing items is a free roadmap, and if you are twelve weeks from having those items, that is a plan rather than a rejection.

Ask about prepayment on all three, in dollars, at month twelve and month thirty. Ask about the collateral filing description. Ask the non-bank for the total dollar cost and the number of months in the same sentence.

Refuse to submit to a non-bank first because it is easier. The order matters: the cheapest money has the slowest process, so it has to start earliest. Refuse to let a broker tell you a bank "won't do this" without having asked one. And refuse any comparison table that shows three products at three different term lengths and calls the smallest payment the winner.

Where this applies