Business Loans in the Digital Age: Trends and Opportunities in NZ & Australia

If you are thinking about trying to secure a business loan in Australia or New Zealand, and you’re concerned about the complications and regulations when approaching a bank, perhaps you should be considering the digital alternative.

In recent years, the business loan sector has been revolutionised by the arrival of new, online, digital, alternative finance platforms. They offer a simpler application process and far better outcomes than the traditional bank network, even for those with poorer credit ratings.

The Modern Approach to Securing a Business Loan

Once the cornerstone of the lending industry, ever since the savings and loans crises of the 1980s and ’90s, traditional banks have been tightening their belts concerning lending money to consumers, businesses and entrepreneurs. The next event that impacted the banking network’s attitude toward lending was the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the States in 2007. It sent shockwaves across the world, had a devasting effect on global financial economies, and instigated the biggest review in terms of bank lending rules and regulations ever.

Since then, banks have continued to be very selective about to who they grant loans, particularly business loans. Not only has their application reject rate heightened, but the checking process has lengthened, and nowadays, it can take weeks and even months to make loan approval decisions.

The internet and the Fintech industry have taken full advantage of this situation with the introduction of the alternative finance sector, which has grown exponentially in recent years, resulting in a new wave of disruptive alternative finance platforms appearing.

Seeking Business Loans in Australia

Nowadays, more and more entrepreneurs and business owners in Australia prefer to turn to an alternative finance business loan comparison platform as their first choice when it comes to the options open to them for securing business loans. You can apply for unsecured business loans from AU$ 1,000 to AU$ 350,000 and secured business loans from AU$ 50,000 to AU$ 5 million and get decisions within 24 hours. Where collateral is involved, it can sometimes take a little longer to verify suitability, but it rarely takes longer than a few days at most.

The loan sums available are designed to suit the SME (Small to Medium Enterprises) sector and are very fitting. They cater for entrepreneurs funding small-sized startups to business owners looking for more significant sums to expand their operations.

Seeking Business Loans in New Zealand

Business loans in New Zealand are available for all stages of business growth, from one-man startups to established companies that need additional finance to fund holes in their cash flow or who need significantly large amounts of money to buy stock materials or machinery to set up a new line of production. You can even secure fixed or variable-rate commercial real estate loans with an LTV (Loan to Value) of up to 75%. There is also something called ‘Accounts Receiving Finance’, which provides you with immediate access to cash, which is otherwise tied up in terms of your clients’ unpaid invoices.

If you visit a top New Zealand alternative finance business loan comparison platform, you can check all of the above-mentioned loan options and more.

How to Find the Best Business Loan Deals

The new digital age in which we find ourselves affords you the perfect opportunity of securing the best loan offers. In times gone by, seeking business loans from banks used to be your only option. With the tighter restrictions that banks impose these days, it does mean that the majority of business loan applications are turned down, and only after weeks of waiting. Then, if you wanted to persevere, it meant starting all over again with another bank. It was all very time-consuming and, often, unproductive.

The new digital business loan tendering sites available in both Australia and New Zealand have completely revolutionised the application process.

Not only can you complete the business loan application process online, rather than having to sit and be grilled by a bank manager, but it takes considerably less time. Once you’ve completed the online form, it’s over to the comparison site’s team of experts to get 20 or more suitable loan offers from different, reputable lenders, each one tailored to your specific needs.

All that then remains to happen is for you to run through the different offers, compare them and choose the one that best suits your requirements.

Concluding Thoughts

Because the new breed of alternative finance companies are not hampered by the same strict rules and regulations that banks are, you stand a better chance of securing a business loan. Yes, the riskier the application, the higher the interest rate you’ll be offered, but at least you’re still in with a shout.

The new digital business loan comparison platform sector has completely revolutionised the business loan landscape.