Displaying items by tag: EIDL grants

“While PPP has gotten the bulk of media attention, millions of small business owners are just as upset about EIDL Advance payments”, says Duncan MacDonald-Korth, co-creator of COVID Loan Tracker. “The problem was so bad that we decided to build a tracking tool to help small business owners understand where their application stood”.

COVID Loan Tracker, which started last month to help small business owners find out when and where PPP money was flowing, says that the SBA has not been paying EIDL Advances on the “first come first serve” basis that they promised. “We have mountains of evidence showing that the SBA is not paying these in the order they were received”.

EIDL Advances were supposed to be $10,000 paid to each applicant within three business days. Fast forward around seven weeks and most have still not received it, and those who do only get $1,000 per employee.

As a response, COVID Loan Tracker has built a tracking tool that helps small business owners see where they are in the SBA’s process. In particular, it shows whether others who applied at the same time have been paid, or if those who applied later have been paid ahead of you.

Find the tracker here

Instructions for the EIDL Advance Tracker:
1. Fill out the survey
2. Refresh the page
3. Enter your application number into the tracker and it will automatically show results (note: you may have to wait 10 seconds or so for the tracker to reflect your survey submission)

(New York)

PPP has been nothing short of a disaster. Big companies gobbled up all the money first, leaving small businesses without the capital they needed to survive. Those big businesses then had the rules changed so that the capital is no longer attractive. By the time that small businesses could really access money, the terms around forgiveness have grown so uncertain that many don’t even want it, according to COVID Loan Tracker, a site that tracks PPP loan disbursement. Now, for those who have already accepted a loan there is a new problem—workers don’t want to be hired back. In many cases workers are getting more on unemployment than they are from being re-hired, and coupled with the fact that many can’t find childcare right now, it makes little economic sense to return to work. This has very bad ramifications for small business owners, as if they cannot rehire their workers, then the forgive-ability of their loans is seriously in question.

FINSUM: This program has been full of mismanagement and unintended consequences, and businesses all over the country are feeling the brunt.

A few days ago COVID Loan Tracker launched an EIDL advance tracking survey. After 96 hours, we are alarmed at the results.

Our data is showing that the SBA is not paying EIDL advances on a first come first serve basis, despite that being the bedrock of the entire program. Application numbers are sequential, and are supposed to be paid in order of application.

Please submit your EIDL Details Here to Help Keep the SBA Accountable
 
However, our data is showing that these are not being paid in order, with some applications made days ahead of others not being paid, while later applications are. We now have thousands of data points on this from the survey, but we can further prove this because of when we received (and did not receive) our own EIDL advances. For example, our co-founder Duncan received his EIDL advance on Monday April 27th, with application number 3301458241. However, close friends of the company who applied earlier (and have lower application numbers) have NOT been paid. So not only is crowdsourced data proving this, but there is first party proof.
 
If you have any relevant details (especially in relation to your application timeline versus Duncan’s), please fill out the EIDL survey or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Paycheck Protection Program landscape has been beyond challenging for small business owners. According to COVID Loan Tracker, as of April 30th, only 10.2% of small business owners report actually receiving PPP loans. That compares to the 30% that say they have already received “approval” for the loan by the SBA. That is a huge lag when you are trying to pay employees.

However, for some, that is not even the biggest issue, as just applying itself is a major headache. Not only are the forms one must submit difficult, but many banks won’t let you apply if you are not a customer, so many are stuck in seemingly hopeless queues at giant banks. With that mind, below is a list of sources where you can apply WITHOUT being a customer.

1. COVID Loan Tracker has partnered with Fundera to offer its own PPP app. Applying with online lending platforms like Fundera increases your chances of success because they are connected to a multitude of lenders and only place your application with banks ready to process them. CLT can see in its data that online lending platforms have had very high success rates in getting PPP loans approved.

APPLY FOR PPP with COVID Loan Tracker/Fundera

2. First State Bank: https://1st.bank/ppp/
3. Banc First: https://www.bancfirst.bank/cares/ppp-apply
4. Eastern Bank: https://www.easternbank.com/ppp-request
5. People’s Bank and Trust: https://www.peoples.bank/ppp
6. TCF Bank: https://commercial.tcfbank.com/sbappp/s/application?

COVID Loan Tracker was started by small business owners Duncan and Rita MacDonald-Korth to help their fellow small business owners understand where PPP and EIDL money is flowing. We are empowering the business community and journalists with the data they need to keep the government accountable.

COVID Loan Tracker was founded by small business owners to help fellow entrepreneurs understand when their PPP and EIDL loans will be paid. The SBA has provided very poor leadership and information, and the need for real data about when loans are actually being disbursed has never been higher. Please help yourself and fellow small business owners by filling out our survey so we can all understand when we will get our loans.

FILL OUT THE SURVEY TO HELP SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

The SBA has been very short on details throughout the Paycheck Protection Program. While they have released “approval” numbers, there is no data on how many loans have actually been disbursed. If you are a small business owner, approval means nothing and disbursement means everything—you cannot pay employees with an approval, you need cash. With that min mind, COVID Loan Tracker has launched live stats which track the disbursement rate of PPP loans right on its home page.

You can instantly see what percent of loans have been disbursed, the median processing time, the total volume of loans processed, the median size of loan, the median employees of successful applicants and more. For a deeper dive, view the DATA page, which includes more in-depth charting.

And if you still need to apply for PPP, you can do it here.