The Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced a policy change to help businesses weather the financial hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic by significantly increasing loan limits up to 24 months of economic injury with a maximum loan amount of $500,000.
These loans were previously limited to six months of economic injury up to a maximum of $150,000.
The SBA’s new increased loan limits for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program are now in effect. For loan amounts over $25,000, SBA will continue to take a security interest in business assets evidenced by a general security agreement and UCC filing. SBA will also require an unsecured personal guarantee for loan amounts over $200,000 from any individual with 20% or more ownership. Real estate collateral will not be required for any loans of $500,000 or less.
SBA announced last month that it is extending the first payment due date for all loans until 2022. For COVID-19 EIDL loans made in calendar year 2020, the first payment due date is extended until 24 months from the date of the note, and for loans made in calendar year 2021 the first payment due date is extended until 18 months from the date of the note.
Loan interest continues to accrue during the deferment period, and a loan increase will not further extend the first payment due date.
Companies that wish to request a loan increase should:
- Send an email to CovidEIDLIncreaseRequests@sba.gov.
- Use subject line “EIDL Increase Request for [insert your 10-digit application number]”.
- Be sure to include in the body of your email identifying information for your current loan including application number, loan number, business name, business address, business owner name(s) and phone number.
- Do not include any financial documents or tax records with your initial request. SBA will send a follow up email notification if it needs additional documents.
Due to high volume of incoming requests, SBA reports it may be several weeks before a response is received from the agency on the next steps to follow. Those who request a loan increase should not resend multiple requests if they do not hear back right away from the SBA as the extra emails could slow down the overall response time.