I want to share this new information from the local SBA office regarding the existing Economic Injury Disaster Loans as we’ve heard that people have had trouble accessing their system:
SBA was having issues with the portal for folks to apply. It was down all day yesterday, but now they have an alternative solution where folks can register, fill out the application and click and drag it to a Box file.
They have call service numbers, but folks are experiencing long waits as you might imagine.
For the economic injury disaster loans, payments are deferred for a year. They are trying to disburse loans of $25,000 as quickly as possible (triaging) though the loans can go up to $2 million. They look at about 6 months’ worth of expenses, and what that business needs to stay afloat from a working capital perspective. Businesses don’t request a certain number, rather SBA makes an offer that the business can accept or reject. Smaller loans have a 15 year term, 30 year for larger loan.
As of today, they have a new program operational called an express bridge loan, where a business goes to their existing bank and can get $25k within 3 days with no collateral required. Then if they get an SBA emergency loan they can use that to pay off the bridge loan. If they don’t do that it’s a 7 year term—good way to get quick cash.
This program is not offered at all banks. Applicants should check with their bank beforehand.