 TITLE: Best Online Business Loans CONTENT: Pros and Cons of Online Business Loans\n--------------------------------------\nOnline business loans offer a lot of benefits for small business owners seeking money in a hurry, but there are also some downsides to be aware of.\n**Pros**:\n*   **Quick access to cash**: Many online lenders can fund your loan the next business day or even the same day if you are approved.\n*   **Fast approval process**: Because they don't require as much documentation as banks do and use advanced technology to assess loan applications, you will usually get an answer from an online lender within a day.\n*   **Access to smaller business loans**: It can be hard to get small loans from a bank—and anything under $350,000 is considered small in the world of Small Business Administration-guaranteed loans.\n*   **More flexibility with credit score**: Online lenders often cater to small businesses that have fair to poor credit scores or minimal credit history and may not qualify for bank loans.\n*   **More flexibility with loan use**: Online lenders typically place no restrictions on what the loan can be used for.\n**Cons**:\n*   **Lower loan limits**: Loans from online lenders tend to top out at around $250,000. If you're looking for more than that, you'll be more likely to find it at a traditional lender.\n*   **Higher interest rates**: The tradeoff for the speed, ease and flexibility of online loans is often higher interest rates than business loans from traditional lenders.\n*   **More frequent payments**: While traditional business loans are paid back in monthly installments, online lenders may require weekly or even daily payments drawn from your business bank account.\n*   **Less flexibility with loan use**: Traditional lenders generally want to know what you will use your loan for and may have restrictions on how you can use it. For example, each type of SBA loan is limited to very specific uses.\nSince the terms of any online loan will vary depending on your qualifications, you can't always get complete details about a loan from the lender's website. When considering any online business loan, be sure to find out about interest rates, origination fees and other fees; prepayment penalties; and whether any personal guarantee or lien on your business is required.\nAlso ask whether the lender reports your payment information to the three major business credit bureaus: Experian, Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax. If they do, making on-time loan payments can help to build a business credit history and improve your business credit score, which can make it easier to get a loan in the future. END