Review loan eligibility requirements
About loan eligibility
Square offers business loans to Square sellers to grow your business. While you're processing with Square, we automatically evaluate your account for potential loan eligibility. Offer eligibility is based on a variety of factors related to your Square account, including payment processing volume, account history, and payment frequency.
Square Loans are offered by invitation. You can check your business’s eligibility by going to the Loans tab of Square Dashboard.
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, you can look at the tips below to strengthen your chances of becoming eligible.
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, and accounts are reviewed on a daily basis for loan offers. You’ll be notified through Square Dashboard and by email if you are eligible for an offer. If you haven't received a loan offer, you won't be able to apply at this time.
Loan offers aren’t guaranteed and we can’t manually generate or predict offers. As the process is automatic, there’s no need to contact Square to request an eligibility review. We are constantly reviewing accounts for eligibility, just keep processing with Square and consider the eligibility factors below as you process. All sellers must qualify based on eligibility criteria.
Keep in mind, if you are currently repaying a Square loan, new offers aren’t automatically extended when a certain percentage of an existing loan is repaid, and we cannot add to or increase an existing loan. 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.
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.
If you become eligible, please note that loan offers are only available for a limited time. We are constantly evaluating your account (even if you have an active offer). You’ll continue to see an offer for as long as you are eligible.
Review loan eligibility requirements
There are many factors that may affect your eligibility, and accounts are evaluated as a whole. Check your Square Dashboard for more information about your current eligibility status and your status for each of the key eligibility factors. Keep in mind, while the eligibility page can help you understand how your account aligns with key factors, seeing "good" across all factors does not guarantee a loan offer.
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 loan repayment.
If you consistently take payments, you’re more likely to get noticed. A steady pattern of taking payments shows that you have a healthy business.
A good mix of new and returning customers reflects that you’re growing in different ways. You can use Square’s analytics tools to understand your customer base better.
Learn how to use customer insights.
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 how to better monitor payment cards to prevent 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.
Additional eligibility factors if you have an active loan
We constantly review accounts for new loan offers, even if you have an active loan. Your business may become eligible for a new loan when your existing plan is closer to being repaid. However, reaching a certain percentage repaid or paying off a loan doesn’t guarantee a loan offer as other factors listed above are also considered.
Link a bank account to improve future offers
If you’re not currently eligible for a loan offer, you can link your primary business bank account with Plaid to provide Square with additional information about your business. Square will only use this data to improve future loan offers. Keep in mind that you must be the business owner to complete this step. Connecting a bank account or multiple bank accounts is optional and will not affect your current eligibility status or loan offer if one is present. To do so:
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Banking > Loans.
Click Connect a bank > Continue.
Connect your bank account by selecting your bank and entering the credentials associated with your bank account.
Once you've successfully linked your bank, click Connect another bank if you'd like to link another bank institution.
If you’re unable to find your banking institution with the bank selector tool, it's not currently supported by Plaid. Unfortunately, not all banks are supported at this time.
Review loan denial reasons
After you apply for a Square loan, your application goes through underwriting and verification processes to determine whether your business qualifies for the loan you requested. We review every loan application on a case-by-case basis, independently from any previous loan.
If your most recent loan request was declined, the specific reasons your application was declined 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 advancing includes 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, and isn’t designed to process person-to-person transfers, or to facilitate payments between companies owned by the same individuals/groups of individuals or within companies.
Note: Cash App is designed to be a peer-to-peer transmission product, and can facilitate the transfer of funds between family and friends.
We are required to verify information about the loan applicant, the business, and any beneficial owners. It is a part of our due diligence process to confirm some of the details of your application.
Square Loans are underwritten and issued by Square Financial Services, a Utah-Chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC.