Your credit score has a huge impact on how you run your business, but how does leasing equipment affect credit?

Getting every aspect of your business set up initially is one of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of running a company, because what you do at the beginning can help you get a really good head start with your business. You want your company to have every possible asset at its disposal, and getting the best of the best as far as equipment, employees, and more can be a huge advantage to you.

Many business owners have varying experience as far as managing finances, which is one of the most important parts of running your business, and some have run into issues with it. Credit is one of the more important concepts and can have a major impact on how your business runs simply because companies look at your credit score and use that to determine what they will do for you.

You’re going to need some kind of help in starting your business, whether you’re taking out a loan or you’re leasing equipment. So what does credit do for you as far as these different options?

How does leasing equipment affect credit, and how does credit come into play with loans?

Your Credit as a Factor in Loaning

Credit score is important because it directly affects the kind of loan you get, and this is important as far as interest rates. With a loan, you pay back with interest, and that percentile accumulates more for you to pay back over time.

With a higher percentile, the amount you owe just gets higher and higher; plus, bad credit can actually be made worse with a loan because of the hard credit check. Because you’re taking out a loan, banks will apply a hard credit check which will actually negatively affect your credit score, which can make things worse for you if your credit score is already dipping.

Many business owners have made past mistakes, fallen behind on payments, and their credit score suffers because of it; the issue with this is that those mistakes will follow them in this instance. However, even a good credit score will suffer if you take out a loan to purchase your equipment.

Is Avoiding Loans and Purchasing an Effective Option?

Many business owners will just do their best with the capital they have to buy all of their hardware, and in some rare cases it can work because either they have a low equipment need or the long term repercussions of purchasing equipment are easy to handle. When you buy equipment, it becomes your responsibility, meaning for better or worse over time, that equipment is yours to deal with, and this inevitably becomes an issue when the equipment loses its quality or begins to break down.

When that happens at home with your laptop or refrigerator, it’s no issue: you paid to buy it a few years ago, and you can pay to replace it again. However, if you’re running a restaurant and paid thousands of dollars to have kitchen equipment, or the vehicles break down for your delivery business, paying to replace your equipment becomes an issue, especially when your company is just starting.

Purchasing can be effective; you do get the benefit of owning what you use and you get some funding for the equipment, but in the long run it’s difficult to manage if your equipment is more expensive or more high-end.

How does Leasing Equipment Affect Credit?

There are quite a few benefits to leasing compared to loaning or purchasing: first off, there are no hard credit checks in leasing. Leasing companies will apply soft credit checks instead, not affecting your credit and giving them a better idea as far as what lease to offer you.

A lease is a contract involving you paying a flat monthly rate in exchange for the equipment you need, so there’s no interest rate or huge payments you need to make.

Credit has some impact on factors as far as your lease, but if you have specific desires as far as your lease, you can always shop around leasing companies to find a deal that’s suitable for you.

To learn more about how does leasing equipment affect credit, click here.