Funding Circle Review: How Good are Their Business Loans?
Funding Circle Review: How Good are Their Business Loans?
Good for
- 4.6 customer rating on Trustpilot
- Simple and quick application process
- 30 second online eligibility checker
- Responsive customer service phone line
Bad for
- Limited loan options. Currently only offer simple business loans and Recovery Loans
- Not suitable for start up businesses that have been trading less than 2 years
- We found their customer service team slow to respond to a web query
Funding Circle was founded in 2010 to help small businesses get the funding they need to grow. As of today, they have successfully lent 118,000 small businesses a total of £13.1 billion in finance.
Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer lending platform, which means that individual investors pool their money to lend to businesses. The investors can receive a better interest rate than they would with cash savings accounts. Read our guide for more information about how peer-to-peer lending works.
Because Funding Circle isn’t a traditional bank they can offer competitive terms to both borrowers and lenders. They can afford to undercut bank interest rates whilst also offering investors better interest rates than they would get with a savings account.
In This Review
- Funding Circle Business Loan: Overall Review
- Summary of loans
- Customer Reviews and Ratings
- How to contact Funding Circle
Funding Circle Business Loan Overall Review
Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer lending company designed with small businesses in mind. If you’re looking for a simple business loan with reasonable interest rates then their loans may be right for you. Their application process is simple and you can use their business loan calculator to check out how much borrowing is likely to cost.
We loved their easy to use website and their great customer reviews. Trustpilot reviewers comment on their excellent customer service and competitive interest rates and rate them 4.6 out of 5 stars.
We tested out their customer service for ourselves when our researcher phoned their helpline with a query. She was able to speak to a helpful customer service assistant straight away with no queuing time.
On the downside, Funding Circle isn’t suitable if you’re a new business as they only lend to businesses with 2 years’ trading history. You may also find them slow to respond if you contact them via their web form. We asked them a query using their web form and still hadn’t received a response after 48 hours.
Bottom Line
Funding Circle was set up to help small businesses raise affordable finance. Over the past 14 years they’ve built a loyal customer base, and it’s no secret why when you look at their impressive customer reviews. They've helped over 150,000 businesses borrow £16.9 billion. Many customers comment on their competitive interest rates, quick access to funds and great customer service. If you’re after a simple business loan then it’s definitely worth checking them out.
Key features of Funding Circle Business Loans
- Simple business loans of between £10,000 to £500,000
- Competitive interest rates
- Personal guarantee required
- Quick application process and lending decision
- Loan terms between 2 to 6 years
Types of business loan available from Funding Circle
Funding Circle currently offers a simple business loan. Here are some of the loan's key features.
| Loan amount | Key features | Suitable for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple business loan | Borrow £10,000 to £500,000 |
|
|
Funding Circle’s loans in more detail
Simple business loan
You can borrow between £10,000 and £500,000 and interest rates vary between 2.9% to 12.1% per year. There’s a simple one-off fee when you apply and there are no early repayment charges.
Funding Circle has a useful business loan calculator so you can work out how much a loan is likely to cost you.
Funding Circle pride themselves on a quick application process and most lending decisions take under 5 hours. You’ll usually receive your funds within 24 hours of applying.
Your loan repayments will start after one month and will be spread over the term of loan. There’s no early repayment charge if you decide to repay the loan early.
Quick summary
This is a simple business loan where your repayment costs will be spread over the term of the loan. There are no early repayment charges and interest rates are very competitive,starting at 2.9%.
9 reasons to apply for a Funding Circle simple business loan
- Apply online in 10 minutes
- Most decisions take under 5 hours
- Typically receive funds in 24 hours
- No security required
- Rates start from 6.9%
- No early repayment charges
- Borrow up to £500,000
- Business loan calculator available to see how much borrowing might cost
- Great customer reviews
4 reasons not to apply for a Funding Circle simple business loan
- Only available for UK businesses with UK resident directors
- You’ll need a minimum of 2 years’ trading history and 1 year’s filed accounts
- Personal guarantee required
- We found customer service a little slow to respond when we used their web based form, although there was no queuing time when we phoned their customer helpline.
4 reasons to apply for a Funding Circle Recovery Loan
- No early repayment fees
- Check if you qualify in 30 seconds
- Apply online in 10 minutes
- No personal guarantees for loans below £250,000
4 reasons not to apply for a Funding Circle Recovery Loan
- Strict eligibility criteria
- Only available for UK businesses with UK resident directors
- You’ll need a minimum of 2 years’ trading history and 1 year’s filed accounts
- You may be able to find cheaper interest rates with other loans
FlexiPay
Funding Circle also offers lines of credit through the FlexiPay product, in which between £1,000 and £250,000 can be borrowed to help manage short term cash flows. You can pay bills or expenses by card or transfer directly to a supplier, then repay in monthly instalments. You’ll be charged one, simple flat fee per transaction with no interest charges. With this product, you can use it as much or as little as you like and you only pay when you use it, so there's no long-term commitment.
How to apply
If you want to apply for a Funding Circle business loan then it is a very simple application process that only takes a few minutes. You can use their eligible checker to see if you’re likely to be accepted. Here’s what you’ll need to provide once you apply:
- Bank statements for the last 8 months
- Financial statements including profit and loss and balance sheet
Funding Circle business loan customer service reviews and ratings
Funding Circle business loan Ratings & Customer Reviews {#reviews}
| Funding Circle business loan Ratings & Customer Reviews | |
|---|---|
| Trustpilot customer service rating | 4.6 out of 5 |
How do existing customers rate Funding Circle business loans? To find out, we've searched through hundreds of online customer reviews.
Funding Circle business loan Trustpilot
Funding Circle has earned an impressive 4.6 stars out of 5 at Trustpilot for its business loans. 83% of reviewers give Funding Circle an “Excellent” 5 star rating and only 9% of reviewers give Funding Circle a “Bad” one-star review. This rating is based on 15,000 reviews.
Many of the positive comments focus on how easy and quick it is to apply for a Funding Circle business loan. Customers also commented on the helpful customer service team and the competitive loan rates. Many reviewers said they would be coming back to Funding Circle in the future. Here are some of the recent reviews:
"Archie was lovely incredibly professional, patient and walked me through all the info. I’m dyslexic and sometimes technology and paperwork don’t mix well for me. I got a great deal over 2 years and for retail that’s unheard of. Definitely recommend very straightforward and quickly funded." June 2024
"Lewis has made the funding process a breeze, very quick & easy, enabling our business expansion plans to ignite. Really pleased with the excellent service from Funding Circle." June 2024
"Smooth, streamlined process and Henry was on the ball every step of the way. I was pretty surprised by how quickly it was all completed and funds received. Highly recommended and professional outfit." June 2023
How to contact Funding Circle
If you need to contact Funding Circle then they have a simple contact form on their website. They also have a support centre on their website that will give the answer to common queries.
Contact information for Funding Circle business loan
- General: 0800 048 2467
- Customer service: 0207 401 9111
- Website contact form: https://support.fundingcircle.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Website support centre: https://support.fundingcircle.com/hc/en-us
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