Construction & Contracting Loans, Matched to Your Crew
Bonding costs, retainage holdbacks, and a payroll that runs weekly regardless of when a draw clears — general business lenders rarely account for any of it. This matrix filters 92 lenders down to the ones who actually underwrite contractors, then lines up their real rates and terms so you're not guessing which one fits.
Lenders who actually underwrite contractors
Each entry below cleared the same screen: does it lend against construction receivables, does it understand a draw schedule, and how quickly can it move once a job needs cash. Loan size, minimum credit score, and monthly revenue thresholds are pulled straight from each lender's published criteria.
AI-powered underwriting with no minimum credit score requirement. Decisions issued in as little as 3 hours based entirely on monthly business revenue, with a rate-match guarantee and zero paperwork.
- Max Amount
- $10K – $5M
- Funding Speed
- Same Day
- BBB Rating
- A-
Working capital loans, MCAs, equipment financing, and SBA products available from a single lender. 4-hour approval with transparent fees and no hidden costs. In operation since 2010.
- Max Amount
- $5K – $600K
- Funding Speed
- 24 Hours
- BBB Rating
- A+
10-minute application with no hard credit pull. OnDeck reports to all three business credit bureaus, helping you build business credit as you repay. Renewal available after 6 months.
- Max Amount
- $5K – $400K
- Funding Speed
- Same Day
- BBB Rating
- A+
Over $3 billion funded to US small businesses since 2006. Offers term loans, lines of credit, revenue-based financing, equipment leasing, and SBA loans — all with no prepayment penalties.
- Max Amount
- $10K – $5M
- Funding Speed
- 24–48 Hours
- BBB Rating
- N/A
Revenue-based approval accepts credit scores from 500, focusing on business cash flow rather than personal credit history. Early payoff discounts reduce your total cost of capital.
- Max Amount
- $5K – $1.5M
- Funding Speed
- 72 Hours
- BBB Rating
- A+
Sets no minimum credit score and still turns applications around in about four hours, with funding as fast as the same day terms are accepted. All costs are disclosed upfront before signing.
- Max Amount
- $5K – $2M
- Funding Speed
- Same Day
- BBB Rating
- A+
Contracting income lands in bursts. Expenses don't.
A job's revenue arrives in a handful of draws, sometimes months apart. Fuel, crew wages, and material orders arrive constantly in between. Four moments account for most of the friction contractors run into over a typical year.
Weather shuts down the calendar
Frozen ground and short daylight halt exterior work across much of the country. Loan payments on the excavator and the crew truck still post on the same date they always do.
Every project starts at once
Permits clear in a rush and a season's worth of backlog breaks loose together. Lumber, rebar, and labor all have to be committed weeks before the first draw hits the account.
Every job runs at full tilt
Multiple sites, multiple crews, multiple material orders overlapping — and a lumber or steel price jump mid-project can wipe out a bid's margin before the job is even half finished.
Retainage sits on the books
A job can close out on paper while 5 to 10 percent of its value stays withheld until final inspection signs off, sometimes not until well into the following quarter.
Six moments where a lender lined up in advance changes the outcome
None of these are hypothetical. They're the recurring points where a contractor with financing already arranged keeps moving, and one without it doesn't.
General contractors bid at 2 to 8 percent net margin
At that range, one late change order or one price hike on rebar between bidding and breaking ground can consume the entire profit built into a job before the first invoice is even due.
Downtime on a job site costs more than the repair itself
Every hour a crew stands around a dead skid steer is an hour billed against a schedule the client is watching. The replacement or repair cost is rarely the real problem — the delay penalty is.
The crew's pay cycle and the client's payment cycle rarely match
A framing crew expects Friday's check regardless of whether the GC's net-30 invoice has cleared. That mismatch, multiplied across a dozen employees, is where owners quietly run out of runway.
You pay for a bid whether or not you win it
Bond premiums, insurance certificates, and estimator hours are sunk the moment a proposal goes out. A larger contract often raises the bonding threshold before a single dollar of it is signed.
A second crew opens up capacity, but not on your timeline
The chance to add a crew, take on a new trade, or buy a competitor's fleet at auction shows up on its own schedule, not whenever a business happens to have cash saved up.
Retainage sits withheld by design, not by accident
Owners hold back 5 to 10 percent of a contract until final sign-off, a protection for them that becomes a cash-flow hole for the contractor, often for months after the crew has demobilized.
A single bank relationship rarely covers a full construction balance sheet
Equipment loans, bonding-adjacent working capital, and retainage financing usually come from different types of lenders entirely — going one at a time means learning that the hard way, application by application.
Going lender by lender
Matching against the whole matrix at once
Six recurring line items, six different financing fits
Contractors rarely borrow for one reason. Here's how the six most common uses on our matrix typically map to a loan type, drawn from the deals we track across the network.
Weekly crew and subcontractor pay
Framers, laborers, and subs are owed on a fixed weekly rhythm regardless of where a job's billing cycle happens to sit. A short-term advance covers that gap without missing a Friday.
Material orders locked in at quote
Lumber, steel, and concrete pricing can shift meaningfully between bid and pour. Contractors draw against a credit line to lock in materials at the quoted price rather than absorb the increase.
Bonding premiums and bid packages
Surety premiums, permit fees, and estimator hours are due before the client decision, win or lose. Contractors typically front this cost through working capital rather than skip the bid.
Heavy equipment and fleet vehicles
An excavator, a boom lift, or a work truck can serve as its own collateral, which is generally why this category clears underwriting faster than an unsecured product would.
Adding a crew or entering a new trade
Standing up a second crew, buying out a smaller competitor, or moving into a new specialty needs a lump sum committed up front, then repaid over the years it takes to pay off.
Consolidating short-term advances
A contractor who took several quick advances to stay afloat during a rough stretch often comes back a year later to roll them into one lower-cost term loan.
Pick the product that matches the problem
Each card links to a dedicated ranking built specifically around construction and contracting borrowers — not a generic small-business list with the same six lenders reshuffled.
Equipment Financing
Finance an excavator, a skid steer, or a full fleet upgrade with the asset itself as collateral, preserving working capital for everything else a job needs.
Working Capital Loans
Keep payroll, materials, and daily operations running through a slow stretch or a winter dip, with most contractors approved within 24 hours.
Business Line of Credit
A revolving buffer against uneven draw schedules, drawn only when needed and repaid as each job pays out, rather than reapplying every time cash gets tight.
SBA & Long-Term Loans
Lower rates and longer terms for a planned expansion, a new crew's worth of equipment, or buying out a partner, in exchange for a slower, more document-heavy approval. The SBA 7(a) program remains one of the largest sources of long-term financing for construction and contracting businesses.
Invoice & Retainage Financing
Built for contractors waiting on a slow-pay general contractor or a retainage release. Turn an unpaid draw or a held-back retainage into cash now instead of waiting 30, 60, or 90 days to collect.
Small Business Loans
Not sure which type fits your business yet? Compare general small business loan options across every size and lender, then narrow down from there.
Term loan or line of credit: the problem decides which
A term loan hands over a fixed amount for a known cost. A line of credit sits idle until a job actually needs it, then draws down only what that moment requires. Most contractors eventually use both, just for different jobs.
Term loan
- How it worksOne lump sum, repaid on a fixed schedule over a set term
- Best fitA specific, one-time cost like new equipment or an SBA-backed expansion
- PaymentsSame amount every month, easy to plan around
- Once it's fundedYou can't draw more without applying again
- Typical range on this page$25,000 to $2,000,000, longer terms for SBA
Line of credit
- How it worksA revolving limit you draw from and repay, then draw from again
- Best fitRecurring, unpredictable needs like payroll between draws or a materials order
- PaymentsYou only pay interest on what you've actually drawn
- Once it's approvedIt's there for the next job's gap without reapplying
- Typical range on this page$10,000 to $500,000, renews as you repay
The underwriting criteria, broken down by product
Every lender weighs credit, time in business, and revenue slightly differently, but the pattern below holds across most of the matrix.
Best for a major, planned purchase like a fleet expansion where total cost matters more than speed, if your business can wait two to six weeks for funding.
Best when the equipment itself can secure the loan, which tends to offset a thinner credit file or shorter track record.
Best for payroll, a materials order, or bridging the gap before a draw clears, where revenue matters more than a clean credit history.
Best for a fast, revenue based need with little to no credit history to underwrite against.
Ranges reflect typical published criteria across the lenders in our matrix and can shift by lender; exact requirements are confirmed at the offer stage, not before.
Typical qualification criteria
- Time in business: Most lenders want 6 or more months of operating history; newer contractors have fewer, revenue-weighted options.
- Monthly revenue: Commonly $15,000 to $30,000 per month, though several lenders in our matrix set no fixed floor.
- Credit score: Ranges from no minimum on revenue-based products to 650+ for the lowest advertised rates.
- Collateral: For equipment financing, the equipment itself typically serves as collateral, which can offset a thinner credit file.
Documents to have ready
Underwriters move fastest when this stack is already assembled — missing paperwork is the most common cause of a delayed offer.
Four steps, built around a contractor's schedule.
Describe the job, not just the loan
Loan purpose, amount, and how long you've operated. The intake takes about two minutes and runs on a soft check, so nothing here touches your score.
Only see lenders you'd actually qualify with
The matrix filters out anything below your credit or revenue tier automatically, so the list you get back is short, real, and worth comparing.
Check the number the payment schedule hides
Origination fees, prepayment penalties, and effective APR, laid out next to the monthly figure a lender usually leads with instead.
Fund it and get moving
Working capital and equipment lenders in our matrix can release funds same-day once approved; SBA and larger term loans take longer. You choose the trade-off.
Not a generic small-business list, retrofitted for construction
Screened for construction receivables
A lender who won't touch a draw schedule or a retainage balance never makes this matrix, no matter how competitive their general small-business rate looks on paper.
Total cost, not the monthly headline
Origination fees and effective APR are shown alongside the payment figure, since the payment alone is rarely what a lender leads with when the real cost is higher.
One soft check, not a stack of hard pulls
Matching happens before any lender runs your credit for real, so browsing offers here doesn't put a dent in the score you'll need for the loan you actually pick.
Ranking that ignores referral payouts
Lenders are ordered by fit for your file, not by which one pays this site the largest commission for the placement — a distinction that isn't true of every comparison page in this space.
Criteria pulled straight from lenders
Minimum credit score, revenue floor, and funding timeline are sourced from each lender directly and rechecked monthly, not estimated from old marketing pages.
Data that doesn't sit still
Rates and eligibility windows shift as often as monthly for some products in this space, so the matrix is rebuilt on a rolling basis instead of published once and left alone.
Every trade has its own equipment list
The core financing process is the same, but the equipment and typical deal size shift by trade. Explore the guide closest to your business.
General Contractors
Fleet vehicles, project financing
Electrical Contractors
Vans, testing equipment
Plumbing Contractors
Service trucks, pipe equipment
HVAC Contractors
Units, ductwork tools, vans
Roofing Contractors
Lifts, nail guns, safety gear
Excavation & Grading
Excavators, dump trucks
Concrete & Masonry
Mixers, forms, pumps
Painting & Finishing
Sprayers, scaffolding, materials
What owners actually ask before they apply
Will checking my options here show up on my credit report?
No. Matching against the lender matrix runs on a soft inquiry only. Your credit isn't hard-pulled until you formally accept a specific lender's offer and move into their underwriting.
How quickly can a contractor actually see funds hit the account?
It varies by product. Working capital and equipment-secured loans in our matrix commonly fund same-day post-approval; standard term loans run a few business days; SBA-backed products can take several weeks given the paperwork involved.
Does a slow winter stretch count against an application?
Less than most owners assume. Lenders here generally underwrite against several months of revenue rather than a single quiet period, so normal weather-driven seasonality rarely disqualifies a file on its own.
Can I borrow against a draw or retainage balance I haven't collected yet?
Yes — that's specifically what invoice and retainage financing is built for. It advances cash against money already owed to you rather than requiring you to wait out full payment terms.
Is there a hard credit-score floor across the board?
No single floor applies to every product here. Several revenue-based and equipment-secured options on this page set no fixed minimum at all and underwrite primarily against cash flow instead.
Can a newly formed contracting business qualify for anything?
The list narrows but isn't empty. A subset of lenders waive the standard time-in-business requirement and instead weigh personal credit history and current account deposits more heavily.
How do I choose between a term loan and a line of credit?
A term loan generally costs less when the use of funds is a known, one-time amount. A line of credit costs more per dollar drawn but only charges interest on what's actually used, which suits recurring, unpredictable needs like a late draw or a surprise materials order.
Is collateral required to get approved?
Not universally. Equipment financing is secured by the equipment itself, and larger SBA loans sometimes require real estate or other assets as backing. Working capital and revenue-based products are more often unsecured, guaranteed personally instead.
See your matched lenders before the next bid closes.
A single soft-check submission is all it takes to see which of the 92 lenders in our matrix actually fit your file — no origination markup, no obligation to accept anything.