The Five Steps
Request → match → compare → sign → fund. Total elapsed time for a prepared borrower: about one business day, with the money typically arriving the morning after signature.
Step 1: Submit one request
Five minutes: identity, state, income, checking account, amount. No documents needed yet, no fee ever, and the credit check at this stage is soft — invisible to other lenders and harmless to your score.
Step 2: Licensed lenders review in parallel
Your request reaches every network lender licensed in your state simultaneously. Interested lenders respond within minutes; the screening is automated and the competition is the point.
Step 3: Compare written offers
Each offer states APR, monthly payment, term, and total repayment — fixed, in writing. Compare on total repayment, break ties with the prepayment clause, and take your time: offers hold for days.
Step 4: Verify and sign
Accepting an offer moves you to the lender's site: upload ID and income proof, confirm the bank account, e-sign. Answer the verification email quickly and this step finishes the same day.
Step 5: Receive funds
An ACH transfer lands in your checking account, typically the next business day after signature — same-day at some lenders before their cut-offs. Weekends and bank holidays pause the rails.
The Realistic Timeline
Prepared borrowers routinely compress the process to its physical minimum: form at 9am, offers by 9:30, signed by mid-afternoon, funded next morning — with your own inbox response speed as the biggest variable.
| Stage | Typical duration | Whose clock |
|---|---|---|
| Request form | 5 minutes | Yours |
| Lender responses | Minutes | Automated |
| Offer comparison | 10–60 minutes | Yours — take what you need |
| Verification & signature | Same day if documents ready | Shared |
| ACH funding | Next business day typical | Banking rails |
The full hour-by-hour breakdown, including the Friday trap and the same-day funding conditions, lives in the funding-speed guide. The preparation that compresses everything — documents photographed, offer-reading rules decided — is the application guide's three-item checklist.
Where You Stay in Control
Every step before the e-signature is reversible and free: decline any offer, decline all offers, let them expire, resubmit next month — nothing costs anything and nothing is held against you.
The control points, explicitly: the request commits you to nothing; offers are invitations, not contracts; verification can pause mid-stream if plans change; and only the signature creates obligation. After signing, the relationship is with your lender — payments, due-date changes, payoff quotes all run through them — and SeedFi's part is complete. If you want the full mechanics of any step, the FAQ's twenty answers and the glossary cover every term this page uses.