Does Lendio lend its own money?

No. Lendio says it does not make loans directly; it works with more than 100 lenders and funders and passes your application to them [2].

Does Lendio sell or share my information?

Its privacy policy says applying means Lendio will share your information with lenders, financing providers, banks and brokers, and that they may keep it even if you do not sign [10][11].

Will applying on Lendio hurt my credit?

Lendio says submitting the application does not affect your personal credit score, but accepting an offer may lead to a hard inquiry [21].

How does Lendio make money?

Lenders pay it for referrals or funded loans, and Lendio says that pay may affect where offers are placed [1].

Can Lendio put me in a merchant cash advance?

Yes, if that is the offer you accept. Lendio lists revenue-based financing repaid by a fixed daily percentage [6], and several 1-star reviewers say they received an MCA when they expected a loan [17].

How do I stop Lendio calls?

Use its opt-out form or call (855) 853-6346; opting out suspends any active file [14][15]. Ask for the list of funders that received your data and contact them too [12].

Can I get an SBA loan through Lendio?

Lendio lists SBA loans up to $5 million priced at prime plus a margin, with funding in one to three months [5]. An SBA lender you approach yourself follows the same SBA rate caps, so compare at least one direct application.

Lendio review 2026: how the marketplace is paid, who sees your file, and our score

Item: Lendio
Rating: 2.7
Author: Business Funders

Lendio review: one application, many funders, and a file that travels

Lendio scores 2.7 out of 5 on our method: a quick way to see several offers at once, but it is paid by lenders, shares your file widely, and can steer you toward costly products [1][10].

By Business Funders editorial teamUpdated Oct 21, 2026

Advertiser disclosure

Batch Capital and BatchOut are affiliated with Business Funders and appear on this site. We earn money when you get funded or sign up through them. How we make money

Worried Lendio is a lead mill that will flood your phone?

Lendio is a real company, licensed in California as a finance lender and broker through a subsidiary, and it says plainly that it does not make loans or credit decisions [1][2]. It matches your one application to lenders and funders, and it is paid by them [1].

The phone worry is fair. Its privacy policy says your information goes to the lenders, banks and brokers you are matched with, and that they may keep it even if you never sign [10][11]. You can still use Lendio well: know that going in, apply only when you are ready to compare, and judge each offer in dollars, not by how friendly the rep was.

Criterion	Weight	Score	Why
Cost disclosure	20%	3.0	Lendio lists starting rates or ranges for each product, such as 8% to 60% on lines of credit and "as low as 6%" on term loans [4][7]. Fees and payment schedules are left to each lender [9], so you learn the real cost only from each offer.
Contract matches the quote	15%	2.0	Lendio does not write the contract; the lender does. On the 1-star page, reviewers describe being placed in a merchant cash advance instead of a loan, and promises by a rep that the lender did not keep [17].
Post-signing conduct	25%	2.5	Not enough public evidence. After funding, your lender services the deal, not Lendio, and the funders you might be matched with range from SBA banks to daily-debit providers [5][6].
Payoff treatment	10%	2.5	Not enough public evidence. Prepayment terms belong to each lender and are not published by Lendio [9].
Total cost	15%	3.0	Published ranges match the market: lines of credit 8% to 60% [4] against a market range of 10% to 99% [24], and products repaid by a fixed daily percentage from 18% [6]. Lendio says lender pay may shape which offers you see [1].
Customer evidence	10%	3.5	TrustScore 4.5 on 21,922 reviews, 90% five-star [16]. In our 60-review sample 25% were Verified (invited); the 45 organic averaged 4.8, but 36 of them praised a named rep. BBB A plus [18]. A 2020 FTC warning letter, no action followed that we found [19].
Lead handling and support	5%	2.0	Your file is shared with lenders, banks and brokers who may keep it [10][11], and applying means consenting to autodialed calls and texts [13]. Phone support runs on weekdays [15].

Criterion

Weight

Score

Why

Cost disclosure

20%

3.0

Lendio lists starting rates or ranges for each product, such as 8% to 60% on lines of credit and "as low as 6%" on term loans [4][7]. Fees and payment schedules are left to each lender [9], so you learn the real cost only from each offer.

Contract matches the quote

15%

2.0

Lendio does not write the contract; the lender does. On the 1-star page, reviewers describe being placed in a merchant cash advance instead of a loan, and promises by a rep that the lender did not keep [17].

Post-signing conduct

25%

2.5

Not enough public evidence. After funding, your lender services the deal, not Lendio, and the funders you might be matched with range from SBA banks to daily-debit providers [5][6].

Payoff treatment

10%

2.5

Not enough public evidence. Prepayment terms belong to each lender and are not published by Lendio [9].

Total cost

15%

3.0

Published ranges match the market: lines of credit 8% to 60% [4] against a market range of 10% to 99% [24], and products repaid by a fixed daily percentage from 18% [6]. Lendio says lender pay may shape which offers you see [1].

Customer evidence

10%

3.5

TrustScore 4.5 on 21,922 reviews, 90% five-star [16]. In our 60-review sample 25% were Verified (invited); the 45 organic averaged 4.8, but 36 of them praised a named rep. BBB A plus [18]. A 2020 FTC warning letter, no action followed that we found [19].

Lead handling and support

2.0

Your file is shared with lenders, banks and brokers who may keep it [10][11], and applying means consenting to autodialed calls and texts [13]. Phone support runs on weekdays [15].

Is it a fit for you?

It fits when

You want to see what several lenders will offer from one application
You are not sure which product fits and want someone to sort the options
You can judge offers in dollars and walk away from a bad one
You need speed and accept that fast money usually costs more

Look elsewhere when

You do not want your data passed to many funders and brokers
You already qualify at your own bank or an SBA lender
You want a lender that services your loan itself
You will feel pressured by follow-up calls and texts

Our verdict: useful for comparison, risky if you let the rep choose

Lendio earns 2.7 out of 5. Scoring a marketplace means judging the offers it routes, how clearly it explains them, and what happens to your data. It shows ranges for every product, it is open that lenders pay it, and most reviewers like their rep. But Lendio's own fine print says that pay may affect which offers you see [1], its partners include products repaid daily, and its 1-star reviews describe high-cost offers, MCAs and calls after applying [17].

Pros

One application reaches 100+ lenders and funders
Applying does not hit your personal credit score
Ranges published for every product type
Will tell you which funders received your file, on request

Cons

Paid by lenders, which may shape the offers shown
File shared with lenders, banks and brokers who can keep it
Consent to autodialed calls and texts comes with applying
Some reviewers ended up in costly daily-debit products

What you can get through Lendio, and the cost ranges it publishes

Lendio says it works with more than 100 lenders and funders and does not make loans itself [2]. Its loan-types page lists each product with an amount, a speed and a starting cost. These are Lendio's numbers, not ours:

Selected products on Lendio's loan-types page, as published [4][5][6][7][8]
Product	Amount	Speed	Cost as Lendio lists it
Business line of credit	$1K to $500K	1 to 2 days	8% to 60%
Business term loan	$5K to $2M	As soon as 24 hours	As low as 6%
SBA loan	Up to $5M	1 to 3 months	Prime plus
Equipment financing	$5K to $5M	As soon as 24 hours	As low as 7.5%
Revenue-based financing	$5K to $1M	As soon as 24 hours	Lendio says "as low as 18%"; repaid by a fixed daily percentage

Read the last row carefully. A product repaid by a fixed daily share of revenue works like a merchant cash advance, which is a purchase of future receivables priced with a factor rate, not a loan. If an offer like that arrives, ask for the factor rate, the total payback in dollars and the daily debit, then run it through our offer comparer. Market data puts online term loans at 14% to 99% APR [22], so "as low as" figures tell you little about your own price.

Lendio's headline numbers, 520,000+ businesses funded and $17 billion+, include Paycheck Protection Program loans [3][23]. That matters because PPP loans were forgivable government loans, very different from what Lendio routes today.

How applying works, and where your file goes

You fill out one online application. Lendio says submitting it to funding partners does not affect your personal credit score; accepting an offer may bring a hard pull [21].
A Lendio rep reviews it and sends it to matched lenders. Under its privacy policy you agree that Lendio will share your information with lenders, business financing providers, banks and brokers [10].
Offers come back. Time to fund ranges from as little as 24 hours for some products to one to three months for SBA [20][5].
You sign with the lender, who then collects payments and handles payoff. How and how often you pay depends on that lender and product [9].

Your data does not come back

Lendio's privacy policy says the funders you are matched with may keep your information even if you never sign with them [11]. Its opt-out form warns that opting out suspends any active file and may delete it [14]. If you want fewer calls, ask Lendio for the list of funders that received your data, which it says it provides on request [12], and contact each one.

By giving a phone number you agree to receive prerecorded and autodialed calls and texts from Lendio and those acting for it [13]. Reply STOP to texts and keep a log of who calls.

Five habits make a marketplace work for you instead of against you:

Decide the product first. If you qualify for SBA, say so up front and ask the rep to show SBA lenders before anything faster.
Ask who the lender is by legal name before you share bank statements a second time.
Get every offer as total payback in dollars, the payment amount and how often it is debited.
Ask whether there is a prepayment discount, and get the answer in the contract, not on the phone.
Say no to any offer that asks you to change facts on the application. That risk lands on you, not the rep.

What reviews and regulators show

Trustpilot gives Lendio a 4.5 on 21,922 reviews, with 90% at five stars [16]. In our sample of the 60 most recent reviews, 15 carried the Verified label and 45 were unprompted. The unprompted ones averaged 4.8 stars, yet 36 of those 45 thanked a rep by name, a pattern that usually follows a rep asking for a review at funding. Only 2 of the 45 were negative: one said a rep pushed the owner to misstate facts on an application, one got no offers after three weeks [16].

So we also read the 20 newest 1-star reviews, from March to September 2026 [17]. Eight described very high-cost offers or a merchant cash advance where a loan was expected, eight described no offer or a decline late in the process, four described spam calls and texts after applying, and four described pressure from a rep. None of those themes shows up in the five-star stream.

On the regulator side, the FTC and SBA sent Lendio a joint warning letter on May 14, 2020, saying Lendio and its lead generators may have misled small businesses about PPP loans [19]. A warning letter is not a finding or a penalty, and we found no later action. BBB rates Lendio, Inc. A plus [18].

Alternatives to Lendio

Going straight to one lender keeps your file in one place: SmartBiz or Live Oak Bank for SBA loans.
OnDeck or Bluevine if you need fast money and want to know the lender before you apply.
Balboa Capital for equipment, if you want the lender to decide in house.
See our best small business loans list to compare lenders side by side.

Business Funders's quiz takes a different route: it matches you to kinds of funding, not to a funder, and the rules are published on our methodology page.

Frequently asked questions