Financing equipment when your credit is strong enough not to need it

Plenty of businesses finance equipment because the bank said no. This is for the ones the bank would say yes to. If your credit is strong, the question was never whether you can get approved. It's whether the terms that come with the approval are worth it.

Who you're dealing with

iFinancial Group has funded equipment since 1997, roughly $600 million of it, in all 50 states. We're a direct lender, not a broker, so the file is underwritten in house and not shopped around. Our customers have ranged from independent manufacturers to global technology companies. We've barely advertised in almost three decades. The business came from repeat customers, referrals, and vendors sending us their customers.

Why a strong credit finances equipment at all

An operator who can write the check or draw on a line doesn't finance equipment because he has to. He finances it to keep his capital and his credit where he can use them, and to keep a single purchase from dragging his whole balance sheet into someone else's conditions. The equipment pays for itself over the time it's used. Paying for it all at once, or parking it on the bank line, ties up money the business could be putting to work.

The question that actually matters

A strong credit already knows the rate is only part of the deal. The real terms live in the paperwork. Have you ever seen negative covenants in your loan agreements?

We don't do that.

No financial covenants. No annual financial statements to deliver after the deal funds. No ongoing financial monitoring. A borrower whose payments are current stays in good standing, and nothing in our agreement puts a business in default because a ratio on its books moved the wrong way while every payment was made on time.

The capex approval gate

Bank credit facilities often carry a capital expenditure restriction: above a set threshold the borrower needs the lender's sign-off before buying equipment, or there's an annual cap on what can be spent at all. For an operator who needs to move when the equipment or the opportunity is in front of him, asking permission is the cost. Financing the equipment on its own keeps the purchase out from under that gate. The decision to buy stays where it belongs.

Keeping the line clear

Financing the equipment by itself keeps your working capital and existing credit lines open for what they're meant for: payroll in a slow month, inventory, an opportunity that shows up on short notice. And because the financing claims the equipment and not everything the business owns, it doesn't blanket the company's other assets. More on that in how equipment-only financing avoids a blanket lien.

Where the bank usually wins

Honest about the trade: on rate, a bank is often cheaper, especially for a business that qualifies easily. This isn't a claim that we beat the bank on cost. It's that the number on the rate sheet isn't the whole price. The covenants, the capex approvals, the annual financial package, the claim on everything you own, those are costs too, and they don't show up as a percentage. For an operator who values keeping his options open and moving fast, the trade is often worth it.

How it works with iFinancial Group

It's the same one-page application whether the machine is small or the deal runs to $1,000,000: no tax returns and no audited financial statements to apply, no minimum and up to $1,000,000. Decisions typically come back within 24 hours, and an approval holds up to 60 days. New and used equipment, terms up to 84 months, and soft costs up to 30% so freight, installation and training can go in the same deal. Payment structures beyond level payments are there when the equipment earns unevenly. We've been doing this since 1997, in all 50 states.