New Square Loan in 2024

[SPPhotography1]

I’m at a bit of a loss for what else I need to do to be offered a new Square Loan at this point. I’ve been with Square for over 10 years, had 7 loans now that I’ve have paid back early every single time. Metrics are all in green, record sales year. In 2023, record numbers across the board, no refunds, no complaints or issues of any kind in our entire history. Current loan is 80% paid off, but no new offer in site. This is the kind of stuff that causes businesses to find someone else to process through! Please help! I’m sure I’ll get the same old excuses that you guys send to everyone about looking at every aspect of the business. But there isn’t a single aspect that isn’t way up. I’m not sure if there is a new process they are using now, or if there is some kind of issue with my banking or something else I’m not thinking about or aware of. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, because I could really use some new capital to start the year off with and reinvest into my business!

[Stacelyn24 · Accepted solution]

I'm really sorry to hear about your frustration with the loan offers. I understand how important it is to feel valued, especially as a loyal customer. Let me try to address your concerns and provide some clarity.

Loan Offers and Qualification Parameters

Square’s loan offers are based on a variety of factors, and while past trends have shown offers at certain thresholds, the exact parameters can change over time and are not always disclosed in detail. Here are a few points to consider:

• Dynamic Criteria: Square uses a complex set of algorithms that take into account not just the repayment percentage but also your recent sales history, account health, and overall business performance.
• Market Conditions: External market conditions and internal policy changes can also impact when and how loan offers are extended.

Value Beyond Transaction Fees

I understand that a 3% card transaction fee can seem high compared to other providers, but Square offers several features and benefits that help justify this cost:

• Integrated Ecosystem: Square provides a comprehensive suite of tools that work seamlessly together, from point-of-sale systems to online stores, invoicing, and inventory management.
• Ease of Use: The user-friendly interface and intuitive design make managing your business simpler and more efficient, saving you time and reducing the need for extensive training.
• Reliable Support: Square offers robust customer support and resources to help you resolve issues quickly and keep your business running smoothly.
• Secure Transactions: Advanced security measures protect your business and customers from fraud and data breaches.
• Analytics and Reporting: Detailed analytics and reporting tools help you understand your business performance and make informed decisions.

I understand the disappointment regarding the loan offer, please know that Square regularly reviews its criteria and your status. I recommend reaching out to Square’s customer support for a more personalized review of your account and to express your concerns directly.

[MayaP · Accepted solution]

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concerns. We understand your frustration, especially given your long-standing relationship with Square and your excellent track record with previous loans.

There are several factors that can affect loan offers, and while it sounds like you have met all the typical criteria, there may be new processes or other considerations at play. I would reach out to our Square Financial Services Team if you have any further questions. They are available at 1-855-700-6000 Monday - Friday, 8 AM to 8 PM CST. 

[VanKalkerFarms · Accepted solution]

August 1st Square shareholder letter came out with another outstanding quarter for Square Loans.  More loans than ever were started in the last 3 months, an outstanding show of commitment to the service.
"Square Loans facilitated approximately 142,000 loans totaling $1.45 billion in originations, up 32% year over year."

That breaks down to almost 1,600 loans a day (66 an hour, or more than 1 per minute). averaging $10,200+ per loan.

So yes, there are THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of Square Loans happening all the time.  It is unbelievable that they can get this number of loans even facilitated, that is a staggering number of loans to Square customers.  It wouldn't be possible without the Square Loans Algorithm going thru and promoting offers to be given.  For every one post on here saying they haven't gotten a loan or 5th offer, 10s of thousands have gotten loans.  The service keeps growing though it may not seem like it to a user that is waiting for their 3rd loan.

@Twpchair 

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Good news, bad news, eh @cmeshine.  There are a number of reasons that COULD be part of why your new offer was lower.

1. Square might be slowing down on how much loan exposure they want to have on their balance sheet.  They are, after all, a publicly traded company that has to answer to their shareholders and investors.
2. If our sales are flat or at least not growing at a good rate to cover inflation and higher interest, then Square’s algorithm understands that inflation is eating into our available cash to pay bills, etc.  Flat sales (or very slowly growing sales) are always red flags to lenders, Square or not.
3. Sometimes how long it takes us to pay off our current loans can be a factor.  Let’s say that previous loans were paid off with automatic payments in 8-10 months in the past.  But for this current loan it took us 12-15 months.  That tells Square that our card processing volume can’t keep you with higher loan amounts.  Yes, they give us 18 months to fully pay a loan, but they obviously prefer that we pay them off closer to the 12 month mark.
4. If our cash/card ratio drastically changes, and cash spikes or is consistently higher than historical for our business, that is another red flag.  Since Square must only consider card volume when calculating repayment rates this can become a problem.

Of course, I’m not saying that any of these contributed to your lower offer.  I’m just throwing out a few reasons why this CAN happen.

[Twpchair]

For the most part, I've seen multiple posts of the new loan the same as the previous offer or lower than the last. Since last June when I really started to pay attention I have seen very few or at least people that post here say "hey my offer doubled or triple " most say I don't get it my income and business has more than doubled. I don't think much of this is due to us individually, but their new statement posted above finally has in what I thought was the bigger factor. The economy on its own and the overall impact of the economy. Some states are doing much better than saying my state, Michigan. On the whole, though, and we tend to forget about the rest of the world that uses square. Until this picks up and the lending  market on the whole picks up I don't see to many saying "hey my offer just tripled" if you're new to square and it's your 2nd or 3rd loan and you went from 1k-3k yeah, I could see that. Unfortunately, like us, who have had 40-75k offers in the past of higher. I think most are reporting that it was 10-20k lower. Again, this is just, imo I don't work for square I just been paying attention and watching the trend, is all. Good luck to everyone waiting! Ps I'm so glad you are up and running and finally got a personal middleman. Mine from tech support to terminal crashed during a late Friday and Saturday holiday weekend got me a new one and delivered on Saturday afternoon. They really are a great help. It sounds like you have a good one and a fighter. 

[Jjpainting]

I have been with square since October 2022 only. Got my first loan last April. Aside from my first one, my loans have typically been around 11% of my yearly processing volume. Which I really don’t understand being that they say it’s an 18 month payback. My current loan is only $14,700 with a payback rate of 17.25%. Using my current processing volume for 18 months at 17.25%, i could pay for a loan up to $37,500 (number including what the fee would be). 

it seems to me, reading these posts, most people get around 2-3 loans per year. My current loan will end up taking me 8 months to pay off in total (if I don’t get an offer sooner that is).  But December, January and February are my slower months and only paid back around 10% of it during those months. Paid off almost 75% during the past 4 months. Sorry I’m rambling, but it would just be nice to actually get a much larger loan that would still only take 18 months to pay off. The larger the loan, the larger the expansion of my business. 

[Knight87]

Dude you said you would quit square in December last year, what happened to chase? I saw you wrote you took a new loan 2 weeks ago. Friendly advice, in your case square does not make any sense. If you are processing 1 mil a year, traditional bank would offer you way more capital but you need to have a history with any bank. Here at square, high % of us don't go over 100k a year and loans are 10-20k, with fees around 1k. I notices squre is veru cautios about high loan amounts. What other bank will offer you a loan witn flat fee instead APR,and no credit check, none, that is why we love square loan. 

[Twpchair]

Agree to stay with Square, but those numbers, your bank, or credit union would be your best bet. Besides the loan part since 2012, I only had one issue, and the gentleman who helped me was not getting off the phone until my deposit went through. After 2 hrs, I had nothing to do with Square, but my credit union was doing an update 🙃 🙂 I swipe those cards, and it's in my bank. That is what matters to me! I average 187k 250k a year. I'm the type if ain't broke don't fix it. 

[Twpchair]

No, if you are processing that amount and your end return is roughly 1k that's a no brainer. With those numbers I am staying with square 💯 but your local bank or credit union would be your best option. 

[thehealingplant]

One thing we're a little concerned about is we notice that our customer mix is incorrect. It's showing a lot more returning customers than we actually had last month. In fact it's only showing 8 new customers when it's more than seven times that. Hopefully that won't affect our eligibility (still shows green on dashboard.)

[Twpchair]

Have you tried to reach out to customer service and make sure in your first sentence put technical support issues? I will go back and look and see if I still have tech support number. Sometimes if you don't I'm afraid you might get that good Ole script response. Are you or do you process cards daily? If so and it's still not right that needs to update so the algorithm picks that up. It's in the green section that a good healthy mixture of new and return customers. If it's not picking that up correctly your green section for it might be green today but turn into needs work. When you update daily it should show that properly. 

[thehealingplant]

Yeah I will call them but it's definitely an issue where it's not correct for sure. Even though I see people on our scheduling labeled as new customers they're popping up later as "returning." It makes no sense tbh.

But it is showing everything green in customer mix on the dashboard

[Twpchair]

Hmm, if it's green in that section it means you have a good mix of new vs returning customers and with it green according to them that's what they look for and the algorithm picks up all green sections and good to go to wait for that Ole miracle and mysterious algorithm! To me, it's like who picks the shortest straw wins! 😆 🤣 😂 hopefully,  everyone who is waiting gets their offers. 

[thehealingplant]

I just spent over an hour on hold trying to get the situation sorted because we started the day with 7 new customers that showed as 3 and while I was on the phone with support it changed to 1 new customer. Our metrics still show green so I'm hoping it's not affecting things but I'll be honest, it's a little scary given what Glitzycow went through.

[Sammie_C]

Hi @thehealingplant!

Thank you for your post and we understand your concerns.

The information shown on your eligibility page is usually refreshed in real time. You can see the last date and time your loan eligibility was evaluated under “Eligibility factors.” However, if you have not processed payments through your Square account recently, the data may not be updated until you process payments again.

If you have additional questions about your account specifically, please feel free to contact us directly for further assistance.

[papaya19]

I have been sitting at 82% paid off for a while. All of my metrics are in the green and have been for a while as well. This is my sixth loan with Square. I do not understand their algorithm, and it is quite frustrating trying to figure it out. My first few loans I received another offer at around 60% and my last I received at 41% paid off. I am playing with the idea of switching to Klover if something does not give soon. Any suggestions?

[Ann14]

Definitely do some research on clover and what’s the difference between square& clover . I know they charge a monthly fee

[Twpchair]

I agree 💯! I've seen it multiple times and I understand people get frustrated and they have some very smooth reps trying to get you to switch and made some big promises and you can easily look at their terms and loan section. It clearly states 6 mths of processing prior to a possible 1st time loan! They use an algorithm as well and you are starting from scratch and so will your loans! Jump on their forums and read the comments as well. Their comments are almost identical to right here. It's not just square it's lending in general that has pulled back and watching what we are as well the economy hasn't been very steady and that has a lot to do with lenders. Big banks try to go and get a business line of credit now vs 3/4 years ago is much harder and you better have a ton of paperwork to back up your business. A credit union is easier especially if you have or are using one now. I have a line of credit with my credit union that I've had since 2012. I got mine years ago and in and out in couple of hours not weeks. I know sometimes the grass looks great on the other side of the fence until you get there. Good luck to everyone!

[Healthyketo]

Good luck to everyone waiting today. I’ve learned to take it one day at a time. Praying for a miracle today. 🤗

[Jaygripon]

I’m on my 83% and I don’t still see any offer; I have 5 locations and they are all with square, other location got an offer but I didn’t accept it and in few weeks it’s gone, 

how’s everyone doing when it comes to the loan offers?

[brunch1]

I'm wondering as well. I am 92% paid and they haven't offered anything. its weird no human can explain the process. They claim that its AI generated

[Lou8]

Hi @Jaygripon and @brunch1, thank you both for posting. I wanted to provide a bit more insight about loan eligibility.

We can’t predict if or when your business may be eligible for another Square Loan. We continue to monitor your account for eligibility, and you’ll get an invitation email and be notified on your Dashboard if your status changes.

• Loan offers are based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:
  you current payment processing volume
• your customer mix
• your Square account history.

Even if your business satisfies one or more of the criteria, you may still be ineligible if it does not fulfil other eligibility requirements.

You'll find more information about the process on our Support Center here, or don't hesitate to contact our Support Team directly at 855-700-6000. They are available Monday through Friday, from 6am to 6pm Pacific Time.

I hope this helps, but let me know if you have any other questions. 

[brunch1]

But it does meet all the other metrics as shown in the dashboard. That’s why everyone here is upset and/or confused. The information we are shown isn’t matching the actions you describe as being eligible. 

[thehealingplant]

The biggest issue that Square has to be honest is the super generic responses like the one provided above. The copy/paste is a huge issue.

[Twpchair]

It is and honestly it touches on misleading or not fully standing. I have reached out to the higher ups than me and see if we could get better clarification of it or the wording. In years past most all square users knew that loans regardless of sales, the new metrics is NOT guaranteed at all. It was a "perk" but unfortunately over the years since myself 2012 we've become accustomed to a new offer at 70-75% paid off. Therefore they need to update and provide what is going on now. We are all adults and can handle the truth. But when reading it it's kinda contradicting and misleading. If lending has slow down so be it but keep your customers posted and informed. That way we have the opportunity to go to our bank/credit union. I hope in an hour or so I or @Minion will get a private message as to what to respond to.