Forward Financing Review 2023

Forward Financing offers small-business funding in the form of merchant cash advances. Like many online lenders, it promises a fast application and fast funding. As an added bonus, it has flexible borrower requirements and rave customer reviews.

That said, Forward Financing isn’t all sunshine and roses. It has some definite downsides (like the cost).

So should you get working capital from Forward Financing? We’ll explain the good, the bad, and the confusing to help you decide.

Our biggest problem with Forward Financing is that it offers just merchant cash advances (MCAs)―one of the most expensive and confusing types of small-business financing out there.

Sure, Forward Financing calls its MCAs “revenue-based financing” (supposedly because that’s a more accurate and clear term, though we can’t help but notice it makes it harder for small-business owners to Google information about the product). But at the end of the day, they’re cash advances.

Given how expensive merchant cash advances are (in comparison to traditional term loans or lines of credit), we really don’t recommend them for most businesses. So you can see why Forward Financing’s choice to offer only MCAs doesn’t make it our favorite business lender.

But if you’ve decided on getting a merchant cash advance, you can do worse than Forward Financing.

It has fairly low borrower requirements, making a Forward Financing advance easier to qualify for than many other kinds of business financing.

Forward Financing has a very low minimum credit score of just 500―so you can qualify even if you have bad credit. (That’s one of the few advantages of MCAs.)

And Forward Financing will fund businesses as young as one year old, which is on the low side of standard for online lenders. Its revenue requirement ($10,000 a month, or $120,000 a year) is also in line with what we’ve seen from other cash advances providers.

Borrower requirements aside, Forward Financing stands out from other cash advance providers because of its excellent customer reviews. Seriously, Forward Financing has high customer ratings, even for an online lender.

So while we still don’t, as a rule, recommend merchant cash advances, Forward Financing isn’t the worst place to get one.

Still, before you apply, you need to make sure you understand what you’re signing up for. Let’s break down how Forward Financing advances work.

Forward Financing offers only revenue-based financing―which, as we said, is just a merchant cash advance.

That means that your payments will be a percentage of your revenue. Interestingly, though, Forward Financing says it takes payments from your business bank account. (Most MCA companies take their cut directly from your credit card sales.) You can end up with either a daily or weekly payment schedule.

One good thing about Forward Financing’s advances? The speed. You can get approved the same day you apply. You may even be able to get your money the same day (though you’ll have to pay an extra wire transfer fee to do so ). Otherwise, you’ll get your advance the next business day.

Unfortunately, Forward Financing offers absolutely no pricing information. Merchant cash advances come with a flat fee, rather than interest. (This is why MCAs don’t count as small-business loans, though they are a type of working capital.) And according to reviews we saw, Forward Financing’s fee ranges from 35% to 97% of your advance. That’s pricey―but that’s what you get from merchant cash advances.

Now, you can get a discount on your fees if you repay your advance early. (Forward Financing doesn’t charge prepayment penalties.) As a Forward Financing rep explained to us, you can get 2% off your owed balance for every 30 days between your early (full) repayment date and your original repayment date. But there are a lot more rules and details to it than that, so make sure you read and understand your contract before you bank on that discount.

If you end up liking Forward Financing, you may be able to get another loan once you’ve paid off 60% to 80% of your advance. We recommend you don’t do this (merchant cash advances are known for causing debt spirals), but you do have that option.

That pretty much sums up Forward Financing’s advance. Again, we’re not fans of any MCAs, and Forward Financing’s cash advances don’t especially wow us either. But Forward Financing’s small-business customers see things a little differently.

Forward Financing can help your company with its cash flow needs―but make sure you understand its pros and cons before you apply.

Forward Financing has great customer reviews and offers fast funding times. Plus, it has pretty reasonable borrower requirements. But, well, it only offers merchant cash advances―complete with the very high fees that come standard with those.

Those cons keep Forward Financing from ranking as one of our favorite lenders. If you decide to fund your business through Forward Financing anyway, we simply urge you to borrow carefully and make sure you understand what you’re committing to.

Compare Forward Financing to other small-business lenders with our rankings of the best working capital loans.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.