New Funder Doing 12-Month Deals With Weekly Payments (Guess Who)

Merchants doing at least $4,100 a month in gross deposits are eligible for funding on a 12-month term with weekly ACH debit payments, a new funder revealed. Interest rates start as low as 13.99% but the max funding size is only $35,000. Underwriting decisions can be made instantly online with funds available the next day. “We consider your existing business checking history — not just your credit score,” they advertise.

The name of the funder? Wells Fargo Bank.

The caveat is that applicants must have banked with Wells Fargo for at least 1 year to be eligible. The upside is that little documentation is required to apply outside of the application. The loan is unsecured and the closing fee is only $195. Dubbed FastFlex, the product is clearly meant to compete against online business lenders because well, they mention CAN Capital, OnDeck, and Kabbage in the footnotes on their loan calculator page.

Using their loan calculator, Wells Fargo estimated a 10k loan on a 1.14 over twelve months with weekly ACH payments.

Wells Fargo’s marketing message sounds awfully familiar:

Next day funding, not just your credit score, weekly payments…

Wells Fargo is not alone in their attempts to attack online lenders. Discover Bank for example, is targeting Lending Club directly. By going after the same borrower profile and offering better terms, Discover hopes to cut into Lending Club’s newfound market share.

Unsurprisingly, it is the non-bank prime lenders that will feel the growing bank threat the most. Companies offering small business loans or merchant cash advances to small businesses with damaged credit or complex situations are unlikely to find their target customer pool become bankable any time soon.

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.