Loan Stacking – What It Is and Why It’s Dangerous for Your Business

Companies, especially smaller companies, sometimes stack loans to get the necessary capital to grow. Starting a profitable business can be difficult, and working without outside capital and building your business from the ground up with only your personal savings (called bootstrapping) is notoriously difficult.

With loan stacking, business owners can apply and be approved for multiple loans within days and sometimes hours, allowing them to draw on funds quickly. It works because the time between approving the loan and delivery of the funds is often much shorter than the time it takes to report the loan to credit-reporting agencies.

In theory, loan stacking sounds like a smart strategy for small businesses. But since each loan increases the debt burden on your business — which in turn increases the likelihood of default — loan stacking isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

What Is Loan Stacking?

In a nutshell, loan stacking is taking out more than one loan without your creditors knowing it.

Perhaps you have office expenses, payroll, and rent to pay, but there’s not enough money. Or maybe you need more capital to pay for new inventory or an upgrade to your computer equipment. You head over to Acme Credit to take out a loan. You apply, but they approve you for a lesser amount than you need.

But applying for a loan is part of public record, so FasterLoans calls and says they can approve you for any money Acme doesn’t approve. If you take out the second loan from FasterLoans in addition to the Acme loan, you’re loan stacking, or having multiple loans on the books at the same time. Although FasterLoans doles out the money you needed, having the additional loan could become a problem for you — and for the first lender, who’s counting on you to be able to pay back their loan.

Is Loan Stacking Legal?

Loan stacking isn’t illegal, but many people frown upon it for obvious reasons. First, loan stacking often involves at least one party who’s engaging in fraudulent activity. For example, unscrupulous lenders sometimes falsely report the number of loans they’re servicing for a specific borrower to a credit bureau.

In some instances, you can find yourself dealing with a lender that uses high-pressure or dishonest sales tactics to convince you to take on more debt than you can possibly pay back. At other times, unscrupulous lenders contact you about “special promotions” shortly after you’ve secured an existing loan.

Likewise, you may make a hasty decision simply because you need more money than any single lender can provide or is willing to give you. Honest lenders try to ensure business owners aren’t stacking loans.

Different companies have different financing needs. Building websites from a home office doesn’t require much in terms of financing, while opening a food truck costs between $60,000 and $250,000. And building a manufacturing plant or opening a car dealership can require millions for startup costs like a building, inventory, and licenses.

When a company applies for a loan, the lender takes everything into account, including known income, accounts receivable, accounts payable, debt, creditworthiness, and collateral. To ensure the applicant can pay back the loan, most lenders don’t lend more than a company can handle at the time based on their financial health.

But some lenders are more interested in profit and instead try to attract current loan holders with offers of additional capital.

How to Spot Unscrupulous Lenders

Loan stacking makes business owners vulnerable to unscrupulous lenders who target companies with unsecured loans from other lenders. These unscrupulous lenders have organized their businesses to allow for — and even encourage — stacking by struggling business owners. They capitalize on another lender’s underwriting work by targeting people or businesses that have already gone through the first lender’s approval process. They care little for your financial well-being or about growing a strong business relationship.

Sometimes referred to as predatory lending, the goal of this practice is to write loans that might lure a borrower into a cycle of debt. They trick or trap borrowers into loans they can’t afford or don’t really understand. That often includes imposing abusive or unfair loan terms on borrowers.

Predatory lenders set a very high APR on loan packages, often lend too much money, and do scant or “soft” credit checks. A soft credit check is looking at information on a person’s credit report without impacting their credit score to prevent other lenders from seeing the full details of a borrower’s existing debt load.

The automated systems many of these lenders use can provide almost instantaneous loan denials or approvals based on the soft credit checks. A borrower can use the automated systems to take out multiple loans in succession without another lender finding out.

By contrast, honest and responsible lenders prohibit borrowers from stacking loans as part of their contract. They run in-depth credit checks on your company’s finances to ensure you aren’t borrowing more than you can handle. They only lend what fits into your business’s budget, making sure you can repay the loan according to its terms. They provide all the information you need to make a fully informed decision about the loan. And they do all they can to earn your trust and build a good working relationship.

Reputable banks and most other financial institutions also have systems in place to guard against loan stacking. However, it can take up to 30 days for their hard credit inquiries to show up on a credit report. That means a borrower can take out multiple loans during this period without another lender knowing.

Why Loan Stacking Is Bad for Business

You need working capital to manage daily business operations, and some smaller or newer businesses need loans until their cashflow is sufficient to cover their expenses.

Responsible lenders are hesitant to lend large amounts of money to companies without a history of creditworthiness. And because lenders often file blanket liens — a lien on all or nearly all a business’s assets — stacking loans can violate the terms of your loan contract, forcing your loan into default.

For example, a struggling small business applies for credit and receives multiple loan offers. The first offer from Acme is for $30,000 — only half the money the business needs. The loan from Acme specifically restricts the borrower from applying for another loan until the $30,000 is paid in full. If the business accepts another loan from FasterLoans for the rest of the money, it’s in breach of its contract with Acme.

In times of need, it can be tempting to take as much as you can get. However, with each new loan comes an increased debt burden on your business. That increases the likelihood of default, which can damage your credit score, put your business and personal assets at risk of liquidation, and make the full balance of your loans due immediately.

Fortunately, if you can’t get approved for a loan as high as you need, you have better options than loan stacking.

Alternatives to Loan Stacking

Seeking additional financing can be frustrating, especially if you’re a new business with little credit history. But stacking isn’t the answer. If your company needs more funds, work with your primary lender to explore additional financing options.

Asking Your Lender for More Money

If you’ve proven to be a good risk by paying off a decent chunk — typically around 50% — of your loan or you have a history of timely payments, many lenders are willing to extend you additional credit. You can use the extra funds to pay off old debt or finance a sudden expense, like a new roof on your current building.

If you do this, ask your lender if they can waive any remaining fees or interest charges on your existing loan. If not, you can get stuck “double-dipping” — paying new interest on new loans used to pay off old loans, or paying interest on interest.

Refinancing Your Loan

Let’s say you’re struggling with a high-interest loan you took out when you first opened your business. Your credit score was less than perfect, and you had a scant credit history. Fortunately, your business is now booming, and you’re sure you can qualify for a low-interest loan. You can probably refinance your loan through a lender like BlueVine by taking out a new loan with better rates and fees to pay off your existing high-interest loan.

The advantages of refinancing include:

• Shorter loan term
• Lower payments
• The ability to switch from a fixed-rate loan to a variable loan or vice versa
• Paying off the old high-interest loan

But refinancing can have some disadvantages:

• High transaction costs
• Higher interest payments if you stretch out the loan payments over a longer period

Make sure you weight the pros and cons of this strategy to decide if it’s right for you.

Apply for a Line of Credit

Much like small business credit cards, lines of credit are there to help when you need a little extra cash to pay a few bills or hire your first employee. You can’t always count on your customers to pay on time, so a line of credit through BlueVine ensures you never find yourself squeezed for cash.

A line of credit gives you access to funds on demand. You can draw on it up to a maximum amount over a set period. You pay interest only on the money you use, and once you pay it back, that amount is available to draw on again.

Unlike credit cards, your credit line is generally much higher, although both set limits based on creditworthiness. And a loan doesn’t offer as much flexibility as a line of credit does when it comes to how you make monthly payment. You choose when to borrow, when to pay it back, and when to borrow again — just as long as you stick to the terms of the line of credit.

Final Word

Loan stacking can be tempting. But the promise of significant sums of money spread over a few loans is usually too good to be true. High interest rates and mounting debt are difficult to manage for most small businesses. In most cases, loan stacking places your business in serious financial jeopardy.

Some higher-risk lenders even promote loan stacking for debt consolidation. But most legitimate lenders believe it puts small businesses at risk of default while undermining the entire industry.

Even with the pitfalls and risks laid out, some small-business owners continue to borrow on multiple loans as long as lenders grant approval. But at some point, you must pay back the principal. That’s when your hard work and dreams for success can hit a dead end.

Have you ever stacked loans? If so, how did it work out, and what do you wish you’d done differently?