Methodology for rating business loans

You may have noticed that some of our business loan pages and tables come with scores. What do these scores mean? Well, they let you see at a glance how good a business loan is. We explain below what goes into making the business loan ratings.

What is the Finder score?

Our expert team evaluates various products in our database, assigning each one a score out of 10. A higher score means the product is more competitive and may offer better value.

If you want peace of mind, this rating will give it to you. These products offer the best value and outcomes considering various product features, terms, conditions and price.

Well-balanced products that provide what you need, offering a healthy mix of competitive features at a good price. However, they’re not quite the best in class.

Bottom line: You can find better, but these products still offer reasonable value and have the basics sorted.

These products may not offer much value in the long run, and there are better options available.

What factors do we take into account?

We dive into the details of each loan, including:

• Amount range. How little or how much can you borrow?
• Term range. How short or long can you borrow for?
• Repayment holiday. Does the provider let you take a break whilst repaying back the loan?
• Early redemption penalty. Will you be penalised if you repay the loan before your contracted term agreement?
• Repayment changeable. Can you change how much you want to repay?
• Overpay without penalty. Can you overpay when repaying back the loan?
• Same day funds. Can you potentially receive funds the same day you apply?
• Lump sum payments. Can you repay in lump sums?
• Existing customers only. Is the loan only available to existing customers?
• Ethical or green lending. Does the provider reduce its impact on the environment or help the local community?
• Open-banking. Does the loan use open-banking to help decide whether or not to approve your loan application?
• Transparency. Is the provider transparent with their fees and features?

From these details, we can get a good picture at which lenders offer the best flexibility and transparency. We then rate how these loans against the average market performance to get the overall Finder Score.

Your reviews and our customer survey

In January 2025, we ran a customer satisfaction survey on business loan providers. The survey asked 420 respondents how satisfied they are with their business loan provider on a scale from 1 to 5, and also whether they would recommend it to a friend or not.

You can see review stars at the top of our review pages, if we’ve received more than 10. These are from consumers just like you who use our site and want to review the products and providers they use. We include ratings out of 5 and responses we’ve received in our annual customer satisfaction surveys.

★★★★★ – Excellent

★★★★★ – Good

★★★★★ – Average

★★★★★ – Subpar

★★★★★ – Poor

We also show the percentage who would recommend each provider in a league table in guides and on our awards pages.

Written by

Emily Herring

Publisher

Emily Herring is a Publisher at Finder specialising in credit-based products including credit cards and business and personal loans. Emily has recently joined the Investments team. She has a Masters in Creative Writing & Publishing and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication & Media. See full bio

Emily's expertise

Emily has written 133 Finder guides across topics including:

• Loans & credit cards
• Building credit