One of the reasons my last post was about partial business-use vehicles is we (as in Crest Capital) have dipped our toes into this area. In late 2023, we quietly launched a new program to finance business-use vehicles and SUV’s in the company name.
This may not seem like a big deal on paper, but in the real world, it is positively massive. And I know this firsthand.
Before we launched this program, I called around to see if anyone would do this. I called financing companies, banks, you name it… and I was very specific: I wanted to finance a business-use SUV in my company name.
I did not want a personal loan. I did not want a business blanket lien. I wanted to finance an SUV, except on the loan paper I wanted my company name first instead of mine.
The answer I got was the same everywhere: NO.
I was offered plenty of personal loans. I was offered a large business line of credit by a few big banks, or financing for an entire fleet. But nobody would do what I was asking for – a single SUV financed in my company name.
So to us, it seemed like a niche that needed filling. Because we’re asked about this repeatedly. We got to work.
Right away, we found out why nobody offers this: it’s a nightmare. I don’t want to bore you with the details (because they are boring), but all lenders have bosses, and those bosses are not comfortable with small businesses being the lead borrower on paper for an SUV or two.
To overcome these issues, we had to significantly raise the credit requirements for this program. That proved satisfactory, and the program was launched.
This means if you meet the elevated credit requirements, you can finance a business-use SUV in your company name. Sweet, right?
We worked hard to offer this program, and we hope it helps some companies. Click the above link to see the details.