Every equipment funder finances one list of gear for one type of borrower. If your equipment or credit falls outside it, you're declined. The Broker Shop works with equipment funders — financing everything from work trucks to medical lasers — and negotiates the rate.
Equipment financing is the cheapest way to buy business gear because the equipment itself is the collateral. But every funder has a list of what they will and won't finance, and a credit box to match. The right funder funds you in 24-72 hours at a low rate; the wrong one declines you or wants 30% down. Here's how to land the right one.
Why one equipment funder isn't enough
Equipment funders specialize. One only does titled vehicles. Another won't touch restaurant equipment. A third wants 650+ credit for soft costs like software. Apply to a funder whose list doesn't include your gear — or whose box doesn't fit your credit — and you're declined, even though a dozen other funders would have funded it gladly.
One funder = one equipment list
They finance the gear they like, for the borrowers they like. Wrong equipment type or a slightly low score and you're out — or stuck with a big down payment.
The right funder = your gear, funded
One application reaches funders that finance trucks, kitchen equipment, lifts, lasers, machinery, and tech. We match your equipment to the funders that fund it and negotiate the terms.
Going to one funder vs. The Broker Shop
| What matters | Going to one funder | The Broker Shop |
|---|---|---|
| What equipment they finance | Their one approved list | Trucks, machinery, kitchen, medical, tech — the right funders |
| Down payment | Often 10-30% | As low as 0-10% with the right funder |
| If your gear isn't on their list | Declined | Routed to a funder who finances it |
| Who negotiates your rate | No one | We do, across the right funders |
| Cost to you | Varies | $0 — the funder pays our fee |
The equipment is the collateral — use that leverage
Because the equipment secures the loan, equipment financing is often the lowest-cost capital a business can get — 7-25% APR, far below an MCA. But that's only true if you reach a funder that finances your specific gear at a competitive rate.
The Broker Shop matches your file to the equipment funders whose guidelines you meet, matches your equipment to the ones that fund it, and negotiates the rate down. Funded in 24-72 hours, free to you.
Match My Equipment to a Funder →What actually determines your cost
When financing equipment, these factors decide your cost:
- Equipment type & resale value — gear that holds value (trucks, machinery) gets the best rates.
- New vs. used — used equipment may need a slightly higher down payment.
- How many funders compete — one funder's rate vs. 50+ bidding for the deal.
- Your credit & revenue — 550+ credit and $10K+/month open most equipment funders.
- Whether anyone negotiates — a broker pushes the rate and down payment down.
Compare how equipment financing works, or financing vs. leasing.
How do you choose an equipment financing company?
Choose on fit, not on brand. Compare six things across funders: whether they finance your specific equipment type, the down payment they require, whether the term matches the gear's useful life, whether the lien is on the equipment alone or on your whole business, what an early payoff costs, and how much paperwork they need. The best funder is the one whose answers line up with your file.
That list matters because equipment funders are specialists, not generalists. A funder built around Class 8 trucks prices a title it can repossess and resell through an established auction market. A funder that finances dental chairs or CNC machinery is underwriting a much thinner resale market and prices accordingly. Send the same application to both and you will get two very different answers — not because one is better, but because only one of them wants your collateral.
The lien question is the one owners most often miss. Some equipment funders file a lien limited to the financed gear; others file a blanket lien covering all business assets, which can block or complicate a business line of credit or working-capital facility later that year. Ask which one you are signing before you compare rates, because a cheaper deal with a blanket lien can cost you the next deal. As a broker rather than a funder, The Broker Shop puts your file in front of funders that finance your category and lets them compete on those terms.
What do equipment financing companies require to approve you?
Most equipment funders want three things: a quote or invoice for the specific equipment, evidence you can carry the payment, and a business old enough to have a track record. Below roughly $150,000 many funders work application-only — no tax returns, decision in a day or two. Above that threshold they generally ask for full financials.
The equipment itself is doing most of the work in that decision. In U.S. commercial law, financing that a business incurs to acquire specific goods creates a purchase-money security interest in those goods — the funder's claim attaches to the gear it paid for, which is why equipment deals underwrite more loosely than unsecured working capital and why a mid-500s credit profile is often workable when the collateral is strong. If your credit is the weak point in the file, our guide to business funding with bad credit covers what actually moves a decision.
Time in business is the other lever. Under a year, most equipment funders want a larger down payment or a personal guarantee with real substance behind it; past two years with clean deposits, application-only pricing opens up. Used equipment is financed routinely, but expect a shorter term, since funders will not amortize past the point where the collateral is worth less than the balance.
What types of equipment financing companies are there?
Equipment financing companies fall into four groups: captive finance arms owned by an equipment manufacturer or dealer, bank and bank-affiliated equipment finance divisions, independent non-bank finance companies, and vendor programs offered at the point of sale. Each group underwrites a different slice of the market, which is why the same application can come back four different ways.
Captive finance arms exist to move their parent’s product. They finance that brand, they know exactly what the machine is worth used, and they will sometimes subsidise the rate because the margin is in the equipment rather than the paper. That makes them frequently the cheapest option for new, single-brand purchases — and useless if you are buying a mixed cart of gear or a used unit from a private seller.
Bank and bank-affiliated equipment finance groups price the most sharply on the strongest files. They want time in business, filed returns and a clean balance sheet, and they generally want the relationship rather than the one transaction. The trade-off is speed and scope: a full document package takes longer, and a bank is more likely to want a lien position across the business rather than on the machine alone.
Independent finance companies are the largest and most varied group, and they are the reason a thin-credit file still gets funded. They are not tied to a manufacturer, so they will finance used equipment, mixed carts and private-party sales that a captive will not touch, and they price on collateral and cash flow rather than on the depth of the relationship. The scale here is easy to underestimate: the Federal Reserve’s G.20 release shows finance companies held $359.3 billion in business equipment receivables as of June 2026 — $194.7 billion in loans and $164.6 billion in leases — up from $276.2 billion at the end of 2021. That is the non-bank equipment channel alone, before a single bank loan is counted.
Vendor and dealer programs are the financing offered on the invoice while you are standing at the counter. They are convenient and often genuinely competitive, but the paper is usually written by a captive or an independent behind the scenes, and the dealer has an interest in closing the sale rather than in finding you the lowest payment. It is worth treating a vendor quote as one offer to compare, not as the offer.
How the four types of equipment funder compare
The differences that matter are not marketing differences. They are what each group will finance, what it needs to see before deciding, and what it takes as security — and those three answers largely determine both whether you are approved and what it costs.
| Type of funder | What they typically finance | What they need to decide | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Captive (manufacturer or dealer owned) | New equipment of their own brand, sometimes certified used | Application and the invoice; the collateral value is already known to them | Brand-locked — no help on mixed carts, private-party or off-brand used gear |
| Bank / bank-affiliated equipment finance | Broad equipment categories, larger tickets, established borrowers | Filed returns, financials, often a debt schedule and a banking relationship | Slower to close, and more likely to want a lien beyond the financed equipment |
| Independent finance company | The widest range — used, mixed, private-party, thinner-credit files | Bank statements and the invoice; application-only under roughly $150,000 | Pricing varies enormously between independents, so one quote tells you very little |
| Vendor / dealer program at point of sale | Whatever is on the invoice in front of you | Usually just the application — the dealer submits it for you | The dealer is paid to close the sale; compare the quote against at least one outside offer |
Read the table as a routing problem rather than a ranking. A new tractor from a franchise dealer and a five-year-old CNC machine bought from a closing shop are not competing for the same funder, and an owner who only ever asks one of these four groups will conclude that equipment financing is expensive or unavailable when the real answer was simply in a different column. The Broker Shop is a broker, not a lender: one application goes to the funders across these groups whose guidelines your file and your equipment actually meet, so the offers arrive together instead of one at a time. It is free to apply, and checking your options won’t affect your credit score.
Is there a public list of equipment financing companies?
No. There is no federal registry of equipment financing companies and no government ranking of them. The closest thing to a public record is the UCC-1 financing statement a secured funder files with a state filing office when it takes an interest in equipment — those filings are searchable, and they show which funders are actually writing equipment paper in your state.
That matters because most published “best equipment financing companies” lists are advertising inventory rather than research: the ordering usually reflects who pays for placement, and none of them can see your invoice, your deposits or your credit. Under UCC § 9-501, financing statements are filed in a designated state office, which is why a UCC search against a business name returns the funders that have actually secured equipment against it. It is a far better signal than a listicle, and it is the search a broker runs on your own file before submitting it, since existing liens change which funders will take the deal.
A genuine public dataset is coming, but not yet. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s small business lending data rule will require covered institutions to report application-level data on business credit; equipment loans are not among the excluded transactions listed at 12 CFR 1002.104(b), which carves out trade credit, insurance premium financing, agricultural lending, merchant cash advances and transactions of $1,000 or less. Reporting for the largest covered institutions begins January 1, 2028. Until then, the practical substitutes are a UCC search, the funder’s own answers to the six questions in the section above, and putting more than one of them in front of your file at the same time.
How Section 179 changes what equipment financing really costs
Section 179 lets a business deduct the cost of qualifying equipment in the year it is placed in service instead of depreciating it over years. For tax years beginning in 2026, the IRS sets the maximum Section 179 deduction at $2,560,000, reduced dollar-for-dollar once total qualifying property placed in service passes $4,090,000. That timing difference is why the sticker rate is not the whole cost.
The practical effect: a financed purchase can be deductible in the year the equipment goes into service even though you are paying for it over several years, so the deduction and the payments do not line up on the same schedule. Whether that helps you, and by how much, depends entirely on your taxable income, your entity type and what else you bought that year — so treat the figures above as the published limits, not as a calculation of your outcome, and ask a tax professional before you let a deduction drive a purchase decision.
What it does change is how you compare offers. A funder that can close before your year-end and one that closes in January are offering materially different deals even at an identical rate, because "placed in service" is what starts the clock. If timing matters to you, say so up front — it belongs in the comparison alongside the down payment and the term.
What does an equipment finance broker actually do?
An equipment finance broker takes one application and one document set and puts it in front of the funders whose credit box and equipment list actually match it, instead of you applying to each in turn. The broker reads the deal, routes it, negotiates the terms, handles the vendor paperwork, and is paid by the funder that ends up closing.
Most of that work is classification before it is negotiation. Equipment deals get declined on details that have nothing to do with your credit: the gear is used and past a funder’s age limit, the seller is a private party rather than a dealer, the purchase is a mixed cart of titled and untitled items, or the invoice is mostly soft costs — delivery, installation, training, tax — which some funders will not finance at all. Knowing which funder tolerates which of those is the difference between an approval and four declines, and it is not information published anywhere you can look up.
On cost, be precise about what a broker can and cannot change. A broker cannot create an approval that no funder would make; your deposits, your credit file and the resale market for the equipment still decide that. What changes is how many credit boxes your file is measured against and whether anyone is pushing back on the first set of terms. On our side the fee is paid by the funder, so there is no cost to your business for the placement, and the terms you see are the terms after that negotiation rather than before it.
The distinction worth making is between a broker and a lead seller. A lead seller collects your application and sells it on, which is why one form can produce a week of calls from firms you never contacted. A broker submits your file to named funders and tells you which ones. Ask any intermediary a single question before you hand over bank statements: which specific funders will see this file, and will you tell me their names? An answer that stays vague is the answer.
Can you finance equipment through an SBA loan?
Yes — equipment is an eligible use under both main SBA programs, and they work differently. A 7(a) loan goes up to $5 million and can be used to purchase machinery, equipment, furniture and fixtures. A CDC/504 loan runs from $25,000 to $5.5 million at a fixed rate and exists specifically to fund capital assets.
Maturity is where the two separate. A 504 loan carries a maturity of 10 years for equipment and 25 years for real estate. A 7(a) loan is capped at 10 years or less, unless it is financing or refinancing real estate or equipment with a useful life exceeding 10 years, in which case the term can run longer. For a press, a CNC machine or a commercial oven with a long service life, that difference decides the monthly payment more than the rate does.
The honest trade-off is speed and eligibility, not price. SBA-backed equipment money is generally the cheapest available, and the 504 fixed rate removes the repricing risk a variable facility carries. It is also the slowest route in this article: the file goes through a participating lender, and for 504 through a Certified Development Company as well, with financial statements and filed returns that a private equipment funder would never ask to see. If your vendor is holding a build slot or your equipment is being auctioned on Thursday, the SBA timeline does not fit, and that is the usual reason businesses finance equipment privately even when they would qualify.
These are not exclusive choices. A business can finance a long-life production asset through 504 and put a used support vehicle on a private equipment facility in the same quarter, because the two are underwritten on different things. The question to answer first is not which program is best in the abstract — it is which one matches the useful life of the specific machine you are buying and the date you need it delivered. If you want both routes priced against each other rather than choosing blind, that is exactly the comparison we run. Worth reading alongside this: equipment financing vs. leasing, which covers what happens at the end of the term.
Frequently asked questions
Sources: IRS Publication 946 — How To Depreciate Property, Section 179 dollar limits · U.S. Small Business Administration — 7(a) and CDC/504 program terms (7(a) up to $5 million; CDC/504 $25,000–$5.5 million at a fixed rate, 10-year maturity for equipment) · Cornell Legal Information Institute — UCC § 9-103, purchase-money security interest · Federal Reserve Board — G.20 Finance Companies, owned and managed receivables outstanding · Cornell Legal Information Institute — UCC § 9-501, filing office · eCFR — 12 CFR 1002.104, covered credit transactions and excluded transactions
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