CAN Capital Small-Business Loans Review 2023

As an online lender (aka an alternative lender), CAN Capital offers business funding to small businesses that probably can’t get traditional bank loans. But is CAN Capital actually a good alternative to traditional lenders?

After grading CAN Capital on a dozen different factors, we found some things we really liked about it. CAN Capital offers fairly fast funding times, has more accessible credit score requirements than some lenders, and earns great customer reviews. But we don’t like the lack of information on loan costs, the low loan amounts, and the potential for a daily repayment schedule.

Learn more about all that in this CAN Capital small-business loans review.

CAN Capital has two types of business working capital: a term loan and equipment financing.

You probably already know all about term loans―how you borrow a lump sum that you repay over time. Unsurprisingly, term loans are one of the most popular kinds of business funding because you can use them for all sorts of business needs.

And if you don’t already know about equipment financing, you can probably guess a lot about it from the name. Equipment loans help you purchase new or used equipment for your business.

They’re both generally solid business financing products. But how do CAN Capital’s specific offerings look?

Well, the first thing we noticed is that CAN Capital doesn’t list any interest rates. That means you should expect CAN Capital loan products to cost a lot. Yes, its website calls its rates “competitive” with other online lenders. But online lenders already cost a lot more than traditional lenders (in almost all cases). They often keep their rates secret to hide how high they are.

While we can’t tell you any interest rates, we do know that CAN Capital charges a 3% origination fee on its term loans. And we can also tell you that business owners like CAN Capital (as we’ll discuss later), which means its overall costs may be high―but they don’t have to be a dealbreaker.

Costs aside, we want to point out a few more things. Loan amounts, for instance. CAN Capital loans max out at $250,000. With any luck, that loan amount works for your business. But given that other lenders offer loans into the millions of dollars, CAN Capital doesn’t have the biggest loans out there.

Notice the repayment terms too. CAN Capital’s term loan is really a short-term loan. You’ll get, at most, two years to repay your small-business loan. And with a short-term loan, you’ll have to make weekly or even daily payments. That can really strangle your cash flow, so make sure you can commit to that kind of payment schedule.

Fortunately, CAN Capital’s equipment financing comes with longer terms and monthly payment schedules.

So of the two products, we think the equipment loans look a lot more appealing. (Assuming you need business equipment, anyway.) But in either case, you’ll have to qualify.

CAN Capital lists the following borrower requirements:

• 3 years in business
• 600 personal credit score
• Less than $175,000 in tax liens/judgements
• No bankruptcies in last 2 years

If your loan application gets approved, CAN Capital will get you funding within a day or two.

With all those loan details in mind, let’s talk about the best CAN Capital features.

For starters, we like CAN Capital’s funding speed. In most cases, you’ll get an answer to your loan application within 24 hours. Then you can get money in your bank account the next business day. So all told, you can get a new short-term loan or equipment financing in 48 hours. That doesn’t make CAN Capital the fastest lender we’ve found (see our list of same-day business loan lenders  for that), but it’s still pretty quick.

We also like that CAN Capital accepts less-than-perfect credit scores. Lots of lenders won’t look at borrowers with a 600 credit score, but CAN Capital will. That makes CAN Capital much more accessible than banks and even some online lenders.

But CAN Capital’s best feature? Its excellent customer reviews. CAN Capital has a 4.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot, with more than 90% of reviews rating it great or excellent.¹ Borrowers love how fast CAN Capital works and praise the top-notch customer service. Business owner after business owner raves about how easy CAN Capital makes it to get working capital loans.

In other words, we’ve found plenty you might like about CAN Capital. But how does it look compared to other lenders?

CAN Capital makes it clear that it’s not trying to compete with banks. Instead, it’s designed for people that can’t qualify for traditional bank loans―meaning it competes with other alternative lenders.

As you can see, though, most alternative lenders list their starting interest rates (or loan fees, in Fundbox’s case). Sure, you may not qualify for those minimum rates―but at least other lenders let you know what’s possible.

And while we did praise CAN Capital’s moderate credit requirements, you can see that it's far from the only lender to accept lower credit scores.

CAN Capital does have one advantage worth noting, though: Its equipment financing comes with longer repayment terms than you’d get from many other online lenders.

So if you need to purchase equipment, CAN Capital may offer better business financing than other online lenders. But for general short-term loans, we’d stick with other alternative business loans―if only because other lenders list their interest rates.

CAN Capital offers a couple different loan options. You can get its short-term loans and equipment loans very quickly (in just a couple days), and you don’t need a perfect credit score to qualify. Plus, you can feel reassured that lots of business owners rave about CAN Capital.

But we do have some concerns about CAN Capital, like its hidden interest rates, high business age requirements, and difficult repayment schedules.

So while we do see some advantages to CAN Capital equipment loans, we think better lenders offer better value overall.

Don’t want to go with CAN Capital? Find a better lender for your business on our rankings of the best small-business loans.

Yes, pretty much all business loans require a credit check to get. In some cases, a lender will perform a soft pull instead of a hard pull, so it won’t affect your credit score. But definitely expect lenders to look at your credit score.

(If you really don’t want a credit check, we have found a handful of small-business loans with no credit check.)

Yes, your personal credit score affects business loans in a couple ways.

First, it affects whether or not your loan application will get approved in the first place. Most lenders have minimum credit score requirements.

Second, it affects the rates and terms of the loan you get approved for. A better credit score can earn you lower interest rates, for example.

For more information, see our guide to why your personal credit score matters to a small-business lender.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.