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.

[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 · Accepted solution]

Congratulations! I am sorry it's lower than expected but you are correct about daily swiping vs not. That's one of the metrics. I'm retail furniture and I process daily. If 90.00 or 900.00 a swipe is a swipe and they each add up at the end of the day. Hopefully, the next offer will go up! I don't know if the algorithm picks up how your business processes I hope it will or maybe that's something that should be addressed to square. You are not alone and a big market for venues and events. The same goes for contractors who send out invoices and how fast the customer pays. Congratulations on at least getting one and thanks for the update and details about it.

[Twpchair · Accepted solution]

Hello, I apologize I've tried 3-4 to reply, and the boom screen locks up, then under maintenance. Not a good few days on here! When I get to your percentage especially, if I run a sale Thurs-Sun and do 10% off storewide, I use Facebook and Google for this. They are powered tools and are free. I take loads of pictures and post a few times a day with sneak peeks of new arrivals, older furniture, floor models, etc, with further markdown. Our business neighbors have a doughnut and bakery store. I usually get 20-25.00 worth of baked goods and now I would do hot cider and coffee. They or we give each other deals. I post the events that going on. Coloring contest for the kids, pumpkin coloring contest. A gift certificate live drawing on Saturday. All week prior I posted daily on both and boosted some of the posts for 9.95 for 5 days usually in a 100-mile radius and these women came. Last Saturday we tripled to very close to 4x our busiest day. I spent roughly 60-75.00 dollars. It jumps you up and in sales and this is just imo that boost kicks in something in the algorithm again imo. I went back and looked and 85% of my offers were Saturday night usually 7-10 pm after I updated. Thurs is another day again I have done Monday -Wed early bird specials and it kicks it in. I'm retail furniture and it is a little easier to do sales and deals than other industries. Just don't forget the power of free advertising for myself 95% of my first customers are women and then they bring in their spouses. Good luck, I hope you have received a loan offer by now! Hopefully, all the bugs will be worked out.

[Twpchair · Accepted solution]

Oh, yes! You do not need to meet your 60 days or whatever your minimum payment is. I have many times after I my minimum payment was meet and only paid a couple more days received an offer. After 12 years you kinda pick up the big do’s and don’t. I meet my minimum amount way ahead of time but definitely meet that! If not that means their last offer was too big for you to handle. 2. Try not to do too many, especially in a 4 mth-6 mths span of multiple refunds, and disputes. We have a zero return policy and our furniture already has a warranty and the rest we take care of in house. Those disputes and refunds trigger a person to physically do it and investigate why, who, and what type of thing and then back and forth with card company. The rest are important to stay green but I have been offered loans when one of metrics said needs works. So have many others. But definitely, if you have a slower period or a week or 2 of cash and checks. Just watch one or two big transitions will eat that up. I'm retail furniture so I see a week of cash or checks and then boom all cards. Keep swiping away what line of business are you in? Whenever I run a good 3-day sale on Thurs -Sat. And if I am around 70%ish. Usually, Saturday night it triggers an offer. Just lucky, coincidence? I don't know 100% not with an algorithm but I can pay down over 20% of a loan in 3 days it's triggering something to look at. I have done it before at 13% of my loan paid off and nope not happening. But in the 70s I have had it more often than not. But, like I said it is not a guarantee and honestly nothing is without a human connection. All POS systems use an algorithm type system that picks off or triggers something to look at it. 

[Lynix123 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for being here and answering everybody’s question. 
We got an offer at 95% yesterday but it’s only 20%of my current loan. Do you know anybody did not accepted loan and got another loan offer. How long it takes to update to another offer. 
It’s our busiest season. I generate $5-10k everyday till Christmas. I hoping that will trigger bigger loan if I wait. Thank you again 

[itisnotjustpiza]

100 percent since June 18th and still no offer.  I have given up on hopes of it happening for us as well.  I see too many other people paid off and nothing.  I also notice our number of transactions for July are way off.  I had mentioned it but got a generic response.  It is nice to not have that payment coming out right now.    

[Healthyketo]

Here's to a new week! Had a great processing day yesterday! Sales are up and all on green. Lets pray for that good ole algorithm to grab some of us today! 🙏 Prayers to you all for a great week! 

[TaylorA92]

5 year square business. Doing 300k annually. Still on pace for that this year. 78% paid off and for the first time ever I am ineligible. Just switched to that today. Crazily enough it was due to processing volume which isn’t any different than any other week. Every transaction we do is processed through square. Anyone else have this experience? Did it rebound quickly back to eligible? 

[Bonzy2010]

this is in no way a gurantee but just in my case...my last offer I received I had the same thing happen the week before I had a new offer pop up. It reverted from not enough volume to green again in like 2 days and then the new offer showed up the following week. 

[TaylorA92]

Well it still says ineligible but the processing was put back in the green. So I assume tomorrow it’ll likely reflect that everything is normal. 

[Cauldron]

Received an offer at 72% after an amazing weekend of sales. We jumped about 10% of our loan amount in 2 days. Typically we get an approval and deposit within the hour, but it’s been a day and it still says pending. I’m hoping our approval comes through soon.

[Healthyketo]

Congrats! I had a good Sunday of sales but still waiting on an offer. Hope your approval comes soon! 

[Twpchair]

They have been running about or 2. Watch your dashboard and your loan pie chart and your bank. I knew when my chart went to zero and checked my bank it was there. I did sign the paperwork the day prior but the emails are coming in a Lil slower than it's working behind the scenes. 

[SPPhotography1]

Can someone from Square Loans please review my account??? I’m at a loss at what else I need to do to be offered a Square Loan again. I’ve been processing with Square for over 15 years and am on my 10th loan currently. I’ve paid back every single loan within 8 months at most and this one will

be no different. Every business metric possible is in green, record sales year, record card processing, record numbers across the board, no refunds, no complaints, no issues of any kind in our entire history with Square. Current loan is 3/4 paid off and no new offer in site. Something has definitely changed over the last 2 years with Square loans offers and this is the kind of stuff that causes businesses like mine 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 of my business that isn’t way up normal. I’m sorry but I cannot believe there’s just sOme

random computer software out there just randomly generating business owners loans through a confusing algorithm that makes no sense to anyone but it. I’m not buying it. 

[thehealingplant]

Unless I’m misreading the usernames, you’ve had 3 loans this year alone then correct? If so it definitely seems like you’re getting reviewed much quicker than the rest of us to be fair.

[Jjpainting]

No they said 10 loans received since with square for the past 15 years. But also said takes about 8 months at most to pay any said loan back. That sounds about right. I usually receive an offer every 3-6 months, more so 6 months now as my loans are more towards an accurate number as opposed to my first few. But unless you have some unusual circumstance, no one is manually reviewing any account under a normal circumstance and very few people are getting offers under 85%. From the people that post on here, it seems like it’s been averaging between around 85% and 92%. Some haven’t received loans after being paid back for months,

which is just odd. I’ll be hitting 88% today, so hopefully I’m close. I think everyone is getting frustrated cause they have come to expect them by no more than 75% and that they state on their site, most people get an offer around that number but not guaranteed. 

[thehealingplant]

Definitely wishing you the best of luck getting yours soon! (Us as well!)

and I just noticed they started the actual thread and as of January 1st they were on their 7th and now their 10th. Again, maybe I’m misunderstanding what they’re presenting but it reads like they’ve gotten 3 this year.

[Jjpainting]

Oh I see what you’re saying.  Well on January 2nd they jumped from 7 to 9 lol.  So first post was maybe a guess. But it sounds like they received one at the beginning of the year, probably their 10th now 6 months later are 75% paid off 🤷‍♂️. So to me I’d say be patient as I’ve only seen a few people get an offer that posts on here getting an offer under 80%. 

what percentage were you at again?  

[thehealingplant]

We jumped from 69-74 in the last week and should hit 75 by midday today so maybe, just maybe. This is number 10 for us but it was a huge jump (almost double) our last offer and the first that’s taken us over 6 months (just over 7 currently.) we’re processing significantly higher and paying it down faster regardless but we’ve also been dealing with some weird reporting issues.

our customer mix shows green but it’s also reporting incorrect on our dash and now we’re having to escalate with customer service 🤮 Hoping that’s not holding us up

[Jjpainting]

I was at 79% on going into July. From July first to today I will have jumped 9% to 88%. So hopefully we both will have some luck today.  I only do about 3-5 card processing sales per week being a painter. So my loan offers always come after one large sale over my average sale. So hopefully today’s will make it hit. 🤞. 

[Sammie_C]

Hi @SPPhotography1!

Thank you for your post and we understand your frustration.

We are continually re-evaluating your account on a daily basis to determine if you’re eligible to receive another loan.

We can’t guarantee a loan offer even if the key factors displayed on the eligibility page show all “Good.” I understand this isn’t the best experience, so I’ve shared this feedback with the product team.

If you’re eligible for a new loan, you’ll be notified directly on your Square Dashboard and via email.

There are many factors that affect loan eligibility, but the factors listed on the eligibility page are key factors we consider to help you understand our process. There’s no additional information we can share at this time, and we can’t go into further specifics about program requirements because the criteria we use is proprietary.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

[Healthyketo]

Paid off since June 28th no offer yet. Never have been in this situation. Have had 6 loans with square and alway gotten an offer at 60%- 98%. I really need to get one soon. I really love square and have been very loyal. Wish they would let us know what exactly is going on. I’m losing hope. Best of luck to the rest of you still waiting. 

[Jjpainting]

I thought you were one of the 2 I’ve seen recently that were 100% paid off without an offer. That scares me. I’m hoping for my 5th offer soon. I’ll be jumping from 86% to around 88.5% today so we shall see. I wish you luck. Keep me posted on if you receive an offer anytime soon as will I.  The one thing is, probably only like a half a percent of all people that have received loans post on here so it’s probably such a small sample size. A lot of these posts I’ve noticed are from us same select number of companies keeping each other posted lol 

[thehealingplant]

Your last part is to be honest one of the biggest things. Were a mega small sample size on here and to be honest we’re all different fields/numbers/etc.

all we can do is pray to beat the algorithm lol

[Twpchair]

💯 correct! We are a very small portion that post here. I wish more people would! It helps others a lot. Good luck!

[Jjpainting]

And probably like myself, I only come on here and start paying attention until I’m about 2/3rds paid off. I’ll post when I receive a loan, then probably won’t come back for a few months lol