How much can you borrow unsecured? How turnover sets the limit

Where does an unsecured lender start?

With your deposits. Without property to lend against, the most reliable evidence of what a business can repay is what already flows into its account. Most unsecured lenders take several months of business bank statements, strip out anything that isn’t trading income, and work out an average monthly figure.

According to business.gov.au, an unsecured lender’s main test is the financial health of the business and its ability to repay. Average turnover is the first and biggest input to that judgement.

What counts as turnover, and what gets stripped out?

Usually counted	Usually removed
Customer payments, card settlements, marketplace payouts	Transfers between your own accounts
Invoice payments from clients	Loan drawdowns and advances received
Regular contract or subscription income	Tax refunds and one-off rebates
	Capital injections from owners
	Refunds reversed back to you

This is why the turnover a lender calculates can be lower than the figure you’d quote. If your deposits include regular transfers from a personal account, or last month included a loan drawdown, the assessor will take them out. Knowing your true trading deposits before you apply avoids surprises.

How do risk factors move the number?

Once a lender has average turnover, it applies judgement. The adjustments below aren’t a formula any one lender publishes, but they reflect how unsecured lenders commonly think:

• Time trading. A longer record supports a larger multiple of turnover. Very young businesses get smaller amounts.
• Consistency. Steady deposits support a higher figure than volatile ones with the same average.
• Account conduct. Dishonours, overdrawn days and a balance that regularly hits zero before rent all reduce the figure.
• Existing repayments. Every weekly debit to another lender reduces what’s left to service a new facility.
• Industry. Some industries are treated more cautiously because revenue can swing sharply.
• Credit file. Recent defaults or judgments on directors’ files can reduce or end the conversation.

Our unsecured borrowing estimator applies a simplified version of this thinking so you can see how each factor moves your indicative range.

Why is the typical ceiling around $500,000?

Because unsecured lending relies on cash flow over a relatively short term. To support a very large unsecured amount, a business needs very high, very consistent turnover, a long history and few other commitments. That describes some businesses, but not most. The RBA’s October 2025 Bulletin put unsecured lending at under one-twentieth of all SME credit, a reminder of how heavily business lending still leans on property.

When a need is larger than cash flow alone can support, the options widen to equipment finance, invoice finance, staged funding or, for owners who choose it, property security. Our page on outgrowing unsecured covers that decision.

If you’d like a human view on your number, a quick enquiry gets you a call without any credit check.

How can you raise your limit?

Most of the levers are within your control, though some take time:

1. Lift and steady your deposits. Route every sale through one business account.
2. Clear small advances before applying for a larger facility.
3. Fix account conduct. Three clean months after a rough patch makes a visible difference.
4. Wait for a trading milestone if you’re close to one, such as 12 or 24 months.
5. Split the need. Put equipment on equipment finance and receivables on invoice finance, leaving unsecured capacity for what only unsecured can fund.

The page on existing debts is worth reading if you already have facilities running, and our bank statements guide covers conduct in detail.

A worked example (illustrative)

Two landscaping businesses each average $80,000 a month in deposits.

• Business A has traded for four years, has no other advances and no dishonours in the past year.
• Business B has traded for 14 months, has two short-term advances with weekly debits, and had four dishonours last quarter.

An unsecured lender would likely offer Business A a considerably larger facility than Business B, despite identical turnover. For Business B, the smarter move might be to consolidate or pay down one advance and clean up three months of conduct before asking for more.

What about GST-registered versus non-registered businesses?

The ATO requires GST registration once GST turnover reaches $75,000. If your deposits show a business well above that level but you’re not registered, an assessor will ask why. Being correctly registered and lodging BAS on time is a quiet signal of an organised business.

How can you check your own turnover the way a lender will?

Before you apply, run the numbers yourself:

1. Download six to twelve months of business statements.
2. Total the deposits for each month.
3. Remove transfers between your own accounts, loan drawdowns, tax refunds and owner injections.
4. Average what’s left, and note the lowest month.
5. Add up the weekly or monthly repayments already going to other lenders.

That gives you the same starting point an assessor uses. If the result is well below the figure you’d normally quote, it’s better to know now, and to plan around the real number.

Find out where your turnover lands

Your turnover is the best argument you have for unsecured funding. Tell us about it. Enquiring won’t trigger a credit check, we won’t sell your enquiry to the highest bidder, and a real person will explain what your figures support.

Please give your actual average monthly deposits on the form, not your best month. Your quiet months matter as much as your best one. Check what you could borrow.