Review loan eligibility requirements
About loan eligibility
You can check your business’s eligibility for a Square loan by going to the Loans tab of your Square Dashboard. Offer eligibility is based on a variety of factors related to your Square account, including payment processing volume, account history, and payment frequency.
Numbers are for illustrative purposes only.
If you don’t see a loan offer available, take a look at the key factors that may be affecting your eligibility below or in the eligibility page in Square Dashboard. This page helps sellers gain insight into the status of their loan eligibility by taking your business’s real time data and comparing it to key factors that determine eligibility. If any of your eligibility factors need attention, take a look at the tips below to increase your chances of eligibility.
Square can’t promise a loan offer, even where all of the factors on the eligibility page are good.
Before you begin
Loan eligibility review happens regularly and is automatic, so there’s no need to contact us to request an eligibility review. You’ll be notified in Square Dashboard and by email once you’re eligible for a loan.
Loan offers aren’t guaranteed and we can’t manually generate or predict offers even where all eligibility factors are met. Just keep processing with Square and consider the eligibility factors below as you process. All sellers must qualify based on eligibility criteria.
If you’re currently repaying a Square loan, new offers aren’t automatically extended when a certain percentage of an existing loan is repaid, but your business may become eligible for a new offer when your existing plan is closer to being repaid. Making an extra payment or paying off your loan early does not guarantee another loan offer through Square.
In general, sellers repay at least ¾ of their loan before receiving another offer but there’s no set amount you need to pay back to receive a new loan offer. Loan offer details, as well as the timing of eligibility, may differ from your current Square loan. Each offer is unique and evaluated separately.
After you apply for a loan through Square, your application goes through underwriting and verification processes to determine whether your business qualifies for the loan you requested. The specific reasons your application was declined can be found in the email notice you received from Square loans.
Review loan eligibility requirements
There are many factors that may affect your eligibility, and accounts are evaluated as a whole. Check Square Dashboard for more information about your current eligibility status. Below are some of the key factors we consider when evaluating your business for a loan offer.
The size of your loan offer is generally shaped by how much you process through Square. In general, businesses that have processed at least $10,000 or more in a year are more likely to be eligible for an offer. Additionally, your business needs to have used Square at least 20 days in the last year.
If you have multiple Square accounts or locations with outstanding Square Loans, ensure that they are processing payments consistently and are current with repayment of any existing loans.
A steady pattern of taking payments shows that you have a healthy business. If you consistently take payments, you’re more likely to become eligible.
A good mix of new and returning customers reflects that your business is growing in different ways. You can use Square’s analytics tools to understand your customer base better.
A payment dispute happens when a customer disputes a charge from your business and contacts the card issuer to reverse it. Having disputes on your account can affect your loan eligibility.
Swiping chip credit cards is one way to increase your chargeback risk. Switch to a Square Reader or learn to manage payment disputes.
Learn more about credit card chargebacks.
To protect your account, Square may place a payment limit on your account. Payment limits are restrictions that put a temporary cap on your ability to process transactions through your Square account. Having a payment limit on your account affects your loan eligibility.
To assist with payment disputes, Square may place a reserve on your account. Having a reserve on your Square account affects your loan eligibility.
Learn how to manage payment reserves with Square.
Your Square account is reviewed for failed debits due to insufficient funds. Ensure that you have available funds in your linked bank account to avoid failed debits.
Understand loan denial reasons
If your loan request was declined, the reasoning can be found in the email notice you received from the Square Loans team. Additionally, being declined doesn’t prevent you from becoming eligible for a loan in the future. We routinely review account eligibility and if your business becomes eligible for a loan again, you’ll see loan offers in the Loans tab in Square Dashboard.
There are various requirements that must be met in order to qualify for a loan. If your business has been denied for a loan, it may be due to one of the following reasons.
During the account review process, we look at your Square payment history. If you’ve been declined for this reason, it means that your recent account payment history seems inconsistent, or that your sales through Square have decreased compared to your prior payment history.
When your business is connected to another Square loan, it is important to keep the connected account processing payments consistently until the loan is repaid. If you have one or more accounts that don’t meet this criteria, your loan application may not be approved. We’re unable to take any action to unlink or dissociate the accounts.
To protect your business from chargebacks, retain receipts or invoices to prove that goods or services were provided to your customers. A loan application can be denied if your business received too many chargeback claims while using Square.
Cash advances include swiping your own credit or debit card or those of family members, friends or associates. This conduct is prohibited by Square’s Terms of Service. Square’s Point of Sale service is designed to process payments for the sale of goods or services. It is not designed to process person-to-person transfers or to facilitate payments between companies owned by the same individuals, groups of individuals, or within companies.