Cardiff small business loans: A cautionary story
Posting my experience with Cardiff for others to comment about. They promise a business loan decision within minutes and seemed to generally have good reviews. They also appear to fund directly and not be a broker.
I filled out the online forms and made my funding amount request. I was then prompted to connect my business account via Plaid. Not entirely unusual but odd that their site did not first prompt me to create an account. Connected plaid and awaited a response. Next screens tell me I've made it past the first stage and they needed a photo ID and copy of a voided check uploaded. Done. More seconds go by and a screen appears with a video to watch that stars the founder of Cardiff. The video says I'm "approved" and will be contacted shortly to finalize funding.
This was last Friday so then today (Monday) I got a text asking for four months of bank statements. Also odd since Plaid would have had that information for them. Received an email too. The sender did not sign the email nor was there a callback number. They also asked for bank statements and also how much I wanted to borrow and what type of loan I wanted. That was information that was all provided online prior to the "approval."
Since the email was not signed, I called the phone number on their website but they close at 4PM it says. So I replied to the email and asked for a call back. My phone rings a minute or so later and it says "suspected spam" so I didn't answer. A 9 second voicemail was left with a lot of background noise of people talking - sounded like a household. Up pops another email that just says "call now." Phone rings again so I answer and this person identifies them as being from Cardiff.
I explain that I'm confused because the site had all the information I provided and I had an approval. I played him the video over the phone. He said that "approved" meant I was approved to apply. I conveyed that that doesn't make sense since I had already applied, connected Plaid and uploaded my ID and voided check, and the video was displayed to me after the screen said I was approved and the dialog in the video confirmed that. I also mentioned their site promises a fast decision one way or another. No response to that.
This went around in circles for a minute and he kept asking for copies of bank statements. I told him to kindly withdraw my application and disconnect Plaid. He said Plaid was a "one-time" use and would not remain connected but my Plaid account still shows Cardiff as connected.
Just thought I'd post this because I'm genuinely confused by their claims vs their actual process. Also the lack of proper business form in his emails to me makes me uncomfortable.
I've dealt with On-Deck, PayPal Working Capital and other lenders in the past and this is far from a routine experience. Look forward to comments.