The self-employed and freelancers do not receive a classic loan , since the acceptance criteria of the few banks in this segment only provide commitments to employees. If a business is only practiced as a part-time job and the main job fulfills the requirements, lending to the self-employed is possible.
A necessary condition for Swiss loans is an unlimited and permanent employment relationship with a monthly net income of at least approx. $ 1,150. It must be attachable income. The minimum income is a requirement for single people without maintenance obligations – it increases by a fixed amount for each person who has such obligations.
Why don’t self-employed people get credit from many banks?
Self-employed and freelancers are also much more difficult to obtain loans than employees and civil servants in the conventional lending business. This is due to several circumstances. First, banks are faced with a higher processing effort when it comes to checking the application of the self-employed, which also has to be largely done manually. While employees only have to submit a few pay slips, the self-employed require a current business analysis as well as a review of the latest tax assessment and advance payments. Many banks also use questionnaires. B. advance to the development of the order situation.
Secondly, credit agencies such as Credit Bureau rate the credit default risk of the self-employed (especially traders in the narrower sense) much higher than that of employees. The reasons are obvious: Income is more difficult to plan and the operating profit of small companies is subject to major individual risks such as: B. the default of an important customer, etc.
Third, Swiss loans are specifically tailored to borrowers with a manageable financial need: the maximum available net loan amount rarely exceeds $ 5,000. However, the (private) financing needs of many self-employed people go beyond this level. Last but not least, self-employed people tend to repay the loan early after overcoming financial bottlenecks, which the banks no longer see as an attractive contract profile since the statutory upper limit for early repayment penalties.
How can self-employed people and freelancers increase their credit opportunities?
Since the market for Swiss loans on the part of the providers is quite narrow and the acceptance criteria of the few foreign banks are very homogeneous, there is no realistic chance for the self-employed: it is not worthwhile for these target groups to apply for a Swiss loan and the (foreseeable negative) Waiting for answer.
In relation to the regular credit market, there are some basic rules that can be used to increase the chance of a loan. In particular, the lowest possible fluctuations in income are important, which is a frequent problem especially for traders with actual taxation: if the business evaluation shows months with no or negative income, the risk of a payment disturbance increases significantly from the bank’s point of view. Unfortunately, the German credit market has so far not been able to produce installment loans with a quarterly repayment (in sufficient numbers).
Start-ups in particular should make sure that they file their tax returns as early as possible: Most banks require more than one income tax assessment for the income check. Residual debt insurance – theoretically conceivable as a kind of credit default swap for small businesses – is also not suitable in practice to increase the chance of a loan: where the policies can be taken out separately, they only address permanent employees. Residual debt insurance can also protect the self-employed against unemployment – the standard is usually an income below X% of the contribution ceiling for statutory pension insurance.
Loan for self-employed with negative characteristics
The self-employed and freelancers with existing negative characteristics have only limited chances of getting a loan. The two main alternatives are loans against collateral and Peer2Peer credit marketplaces. The latter have somewhat more relaxed admission criteria, so that interested parties with negative Credit Bureau entries can also make an inquiry on the credit marketplaces. The nature of the credit report is known to the other market participants, so that borrowers either have to reject the loan (or the financing of a loan project that has not been completed) or face significant risk premiums on the interest rate.
Loans against collateral are widespread in the commercial sector and can also be used by self-employed and freelancers for loans with a private purpose. Securities (securities loan with payment option), life insurance (policy loans from a bank or insurer), building society contracts, real estate and motor vehicles are considered as collateral.
New criteria for Swiss credit coming soon?
In particular, the loan of largely unencumbered real estate promises success: With mortgage loans with a low loan-to-value ratio, low-interest financing can also be realized with existing negative characteristics – possibly in connection with a larger debt rescheduling and / or initial suspension of repayment. Unlike mortgages, mortgage loans do not relate to a specific loan and can therefore be used as a kind of “credit line”: after you have repaid the loan, it is relatively uncomplicated to borrow and with much lower land registry costs than with a mortgage. Real estate loans promise a much greater scope in terms of loan amount and term and significantly lower interest rates than Swiss loans.
So far, there is no reliable evidence that the acceptance criteria for Swiss loans will change in the foreseeable future in favor of the self-employed and freelancers. Such developments would, however, be conceivable in the course of further development of “social lending” and / or in connection with the Europeanization of the consumer credit market: Not only in Switzerland and Liechtenstein are other acceptance criteria for a loan.
The Swiss loan for entrepreneurs
While the self-employed and freelancers often have the chance to get a Swiss loan, the chance for entrepreneurs is rather slim. Because the Swiss loan primarily serves to finance private expenses and is in principle not intended as a kind of business loan. In addition, most credit brokers have set themselves the task of brokering Swiss loans almost exclusively to private individuals. On the other hand, if you, as an entrepreneur, want to finance an investment in your company with a Swiss loan, for example, the chances of finding a suitable lender are usually relatively poor, although we can recommend the entrepreneur loan from Lite lender .