PNC Bank

• Financing Options
• Unsecured Options
• Funding Amounts
• Secured Financing

Financing Options

PNC Bank offers several business loan and line of credit options for small businesses seeking financing, and they are an approved SBA lender with five available types of SBA loans:

• SBA 7(a)
• SBA 504
• SBA Express
• SBA Export Express
• SBA Veterans Advantage

SBA loans are available to new and existing businesses and will require documentation not needed for traditional financing, such as a resume and a detailed business plan

Unsecured Options

For established businesses, PNC Bank offers two unsecured business financing options: a business term loan and a line of credit. For both of these opportunities, no collateral is required.

Funding Amounts

Funding amounts range from $10,000 to $500,000, although the actual time until funding is available in unknown. PNC's interest rates are unavailable but will vary according to the prime rate reported in The Wall Street Journal for the previous month.

Secured Financing

PNC Bank also offers secured financing choices for business owners using non-real estate business assets as collateral. The advantages of choosing a secured loan or line of credit are longer repayment term lengths (up to seven years for a loan), lower interest rates, and higher loan amounts. These amounts extend from $10,000 to $1 million for a line of credit and up to $3 million for a loan. For financing secured with real estate (residential or commercial), the repayment terms and interest rates can improve even more.

• PNC Checking Account Required
• Time in Business
• Fees
• Reputation
• Limited Service Area

PNC Checking Account Required

Although small business owners do not need to already be a PNC Bank customer in order to submit an application, a PNC business checking account is required for every type of loan and line of credit, and automatic payments must be set up from that checking account. While automatic payments can be convenient and hassle-free, it can be difficult to stop the payments or alter the payment schedule or amount if a business's financial situation requires it.

Time in Business

PNC Bank requires established businesses to provide two to three years of business tax returns and one year of personal tax returns, and may also ask for a personal financial statement. (Companies must be in a business a minimum of three years before applying). While there are no specific limits or cut off amounts for a business's annual sales revenue, evidence of steady cash flow is necessary. PNC Bank also subjects all loan and line of credit applications to credit approval, and while there is no minimum requirement to meet, the better personal credit an applicant has, the more likely their application is to be approved.

Fees

There are upfront and annual fees that may apply to each of the loan and line of credit types. Also, closing and origination fees were not disclosed, so while not exorbitant, the fees should be taken into consideration when applying for a loan.

• $175 annual fee for lines of credit, which is a little higher than the renewal fees at other banks, and most line of credit types also require an annual review
• 1 percent of the loan amount for an unsecured loan
• 0.5 percent fee, plus any out-of-pocket costs that may be incurred, for a secured loan

Reputation

PNC Bank has many negative reviews online, and the reviews regarding customers' experience center mainly on the bank's seemingly slow system of processing payments. The delay often results in high or multiple overdraft fees for customers. While most complaints were specific to the reviewer's experience, there were some repeated negative feedback regarding:

• The difficulties of using the online banking system
• Problems that go unresolved with ATMs
• Promotions that are difficult to receive or never received by the customer
• Uninformed, unhelpful, or absent customer service

Limited Service Area

Finally, PNC only has physical locations in 29 states. Most companies in the industry offer their services nationwide, and some are available internationally.