Does applying for business financing affect my credit score?
Applying does not. Most Canadian non-bank funders run a soft inquiry to assess a file, which is not visible to other lenders and does not affect the score. A hard inquiry generally happens only at the point of a firm offer or a bank application.
Start an applicationThe distinction is between a soft pull, used to evaluate, and a hard pull, recorded on the consumer file and visible to others. Soft inquiries carry no scoring impact and no limit. Hard inquiries carry a small, temporary effect and accumulate — which is why applying to eight lenders individually in a fortnight is a genuinely bad idea, while having one broker assess a file across many funders is not.
Chartered banks typically pull hard at application. Non-bank funders usually assess on bank statements and cash flow first, pulling hard only when a firm offer is being issued. If you are unsure which is about to happen, ask directly — a straight answer is reasonable to expect before authorising anything.
Business credit files sit separately from personal ones in Canada, and reporting differs by funder: some report to commercial bureaus, many do not report at all. It is worth asking whether a facility will build business credit if that is one of your goals, because the answer is frequently no.
What happens, in order
- Application — under ten minutes, no fee, no credit impact
- Documents — six months of business bank statements is the standard request
- Lender review — the file is matched to the products it actually qualifies for
- Funding — 24 to 72 hours for working capital once a structure is signed