Business financing in San Bernardino County.
County-by-county financing guides. No paperwork. No social. No ID.
11 institutions are headquartered inside the San Bernardino County line, and 10 more keep a branch here. Below, we say which is which.
Not this lane? Home FinancingPersonal Financing
The doors in San Bernardino County.
The CDFIs, credit unions, and microlenders that actually say yes — county by county, in two languages. We are not a lender. Nobody paid to be listed. And where a county has no good doors, we say so.
- 21
- DOORS HERE
- 11
- BASED HERE
- 49
- CA COUNTIES WITH DOORS
- Lane
- Business Financing
- People
- 2.2Mresidents of San Bernardino County
- Elsewhere in CA
- Los Angeles County →66 doors — the biggest list of any other county in California
- State
- California →49 of 58 counties hold a door in this lane
Certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not. Nonprofit, patient, and used to a file that is not clean.
AmPac Tri-State CDC Inc. · Financial Partners Credit UnionOwned by their members, not by shareholders. They look at your whole story rather than a score, and that is the difference when a bank says no.
Alta Vista Credit Union · America First Credit Union- Alta Vista Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- AmPac Tri-State CDC Inc.SBA microlenderCommunity lending · Business capital
- Arrowhead Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Chaffey Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire, Inc.Community lending · Business capital
- IN THIS LIST
6 of the 21 doors inside the county line are CDFI-certified.
The U.S. Treasury certifies them to lend to the people banks pass over. It is a loan, not a favour.
- Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services, Inc.Community lending · Business capital
- Thinkwise Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Fontana Credit UnionPersonal
Show the other 3Show fewer
- Inland Valley Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- U.p.s. Employees Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Vida Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
Based elsewhere, with a member-facing office inside the San Bernardino County line. You can walk in.
- America First Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Collegedale Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Credit Union of Southern Ca, APersonal · Home · Business capital
- Financial Partners Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Frontwave Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- NO AGENDA
Nobody paid to be on this list.
The 21 doors inside the county line come off public data, and 18 of them are owned by their own members. We do not ask for your name, and we earn nothing if you knock on one door rather than another.
- Global Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
Show the other 4Show fewer
- Orange County's Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Rize Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedPersonal · Home · Business capital
- The Golden 1 Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home · Business capital
- W S S C Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Accion Opportunity FundAccepts ITIN
Nonprofit small-business lender. Accepts ITIN in place of SSN. Serves most states, in English and Spanish.
Business capital - Grameen AmericaAccepts ITIN
Microloans for women entrepreneurs. Requires photo ID and proof of address — no SSN requirement. Branches in major metro areas.
Business capital - Mission Asset FundAccepts ITIN
Zero-interest lending circles and credit building. SSN or ITIN accepted. Works through nonprofit partners across the country.
Personal
How to read this list.
We do not ask for your name, your email, or your number. Nothing on this page changes based on who you are.
A door is headquartered here when its head office sits inside the county line. The rest are based elsewhere and keep a branch you can walk into. We list both, and we label which is which.
Every institution on this page comes from public federal data — the CDFI Fund certified list (Aug 2026), NCUA credit union data (Jun 2026), and the SBA microloan intermediary list (Sep 2026) — plus a short national tier we verified by hand. We refresh each list as its agency publishes. No listing is paid.
San Bernardino County is the largest county in the United States by land area, and its small-business economy is built on the freight corridor: owner-operator trucking, warehouse services, construction crews, and the trades that keep both running. This guide explains what business financing looks like here, how lenders read an income made of load settlements and per-job invoices, what documents to gather, and which CDFIs, credit unions, and nonprofit lenders actually serve this county. It also names the funding patterns that have hurt owner-operators worst, and it asks nothing of you in return.
It's a process, not a rejection.
Business financing means money you use to start, run, or grow a business: a term loan with fixed payments, a line of credit you draw on when you need it, a microloan too small for a big bank, equipment financing secured by the asset itself, an SBA-backed loan where a government guarantee lets a lender say yes to a file it would otherwise decline, or occasionally a grant.
San Bernardino County holds roughly 2.2 million people across an area larger than several states, and that geography creates four distinct small-business economies. The west end — Ontario, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland — is the freight corridor: warehouses, cargo terminals, the drayage and regional trucking that moves containers inland from the ports, plus the mechanics, tire shops, and yard services that keep it moving.
The valley around San Bernardino and Redlands runs on services, healthcare, and the construction trades.
The high desert, out through the Victor Valley toward Barstow, is long commutes, truck stops, highway services, and contractors covering enormous distances. The mountain communities live on seasonal work: building windows, tree service, property maintenance, tourism that peaks and empties.
The signature borrower here is the owner-operator.
One truck, one authority, one person doing the driving, the invoicing, and the repairs.
If that is you, the financing question is almost always cash-flow timing — you delivered the load and the broker pays in thirty days or sixty. That is solvable, and the wrong solution to it is the most expensive mistake made in this county.
Forget what the banks say.
Lenders are answering one question in several ways: can you repay this, and can you show it. They look at cash flow, credit history, time in business, and whether the work has durable demand.
What makes files here look unusual on paper: load settlements from brokers rather than paychecks, netted after fuel advances; thirty- to sixty-day invoice terms, so a profitable month looks empty in the bank; seasonal swings through peak shipping season, the mountain building window, and the desert summer slowdown; a single truck or machine that is both your production capacity and your largest liability; and tax returns showing low net income after legitimate fuel, depreciation, and maintenance deductions.
That last one deserves saying plainly: lenders read net income, not gross revenue. Heavy legitimate deductions lower your taxable income and therefore the income an underwriter will count. If you plan to borrow within a year, talk to a free business advisor about how your returns will look before you file the next one.
Community development financial institutions — CDFIs, meaning nonprofit or mission-driven lenders — are built to read this kind of file. So are Certified Development Companies, which package SBA-backed loans for borrowers who cannot qualify conventionally. Both usually meet with you before you apply.
Start there rather than with an online funder.
And if you file taxes with an ITIN instead of a Social Security number, you can still borrow; the list gets shorter, and it is two sections down.
Get your papers in order.
Lenders keep their own checklists, but this set covers most applications in this county:
- 01Government-issued photo ID
Your ITIN or SSN, and your business EIN if you have one
- 02Fictitious business name (DBA) filing from the county, or LLC and corporation paperwork from the state
- 03Personal tax returns for two years
Plus business returns if the business files separately
- 04Three to six months of business bank statements
If business and personal money share one account, open a separate one now — it changes how your file reads
- 05Simple profit-and-loss summary
Even one you built yourself, and a short written description of what you do, who pays you, and where the payment comes from
- 06For trucking
Your operating authority, insurance certificates, broker or carrier settlement statements, and the title or lien information on the truck
- 07For construction and the trades
Your state contractor license, current contracts or purchase orders, and a customer list
- 08California seller's permit if you sell taxable goods
Payroll records if you have employees, and a list of vehicles and equipment if you are offering collateral
The doors worth knowing.
This county has a genuine local lending network.
ALL 21 DOORS, BY NAME AND BY TOWN- 21
- DOORS HERE
- 155
- ACROSS CA
Based in Ontario, California. A community development financial institution, certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not, and used to a file that is not clean. It lends SBA microloan money.
BEST FORCommunity lending where a bank has already said no, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in San Bernardino, California. Treasury-certified as a CDFI, which is a mandate rather than a courtesy: reaching borrowers the mainstream market passes over is the job.
BEST FORWorking capital, equipment and payroll for a small business, and community lending where a bank has already said no.Based in Rancho Cucamonga, California. A CDFI — a mission lender, not a branch network. It is measured on who it reaches, which is why a thin file is not the end of the conversation.
BEST FORCommunity lending where a bank has already said no, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Anchorage, Alaska. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.
Don't fall into these traps.
Owner-operators and small contractors here get pitched constantly, and the pitches are polished. Walk away from these.
Not loans. A funder buys a slice of your future receipts at a discount and pulls money from your account daily or weekly. The effective cost routinely runs far above what a CDFI or credit union would charge, and because it is structured as a purchase, ordinary protections are weaker. California now requires a cost disclosure on these — read it, and compare the total you will repay against a real loan.
Taking a second and third advance on top of the first is how profitable trucking operations fail. Each one takes its cut before the broker pays you.
Paid on sixty-day terms and repaid on daily terms, one slow customer breaks the business.
Read who holds the title, what happens if you miss a payment, and whose obligation maintenance is. Many are structured so the truck comes back and the payments do not.
A wire before you see money is a scam, full stop.
If you cannot learn who holds the loan you cannot verify a term of it, and real underwriting takes days.
Ask plainly whether your house or personal vehicle is attached, and get the answer in writing.
False. It shortens the list, and honest lenders say so directly.
Everything below is set by California, and it reads the same in every county in it. The 21 marks above are this county's own doors — who opens one is decided by them, not by the state.
The rules where you are.
California requires providers of most small-business financing — including merchant cash advances — to give you standardized cost disclosures before you sign, so two very different products can be compared on the same terms. If a funder will not hand you that disclosure, you have learned something important about the funder.
An LLC or corporation registers with the Secretary of State; a sole proprietor operating under another name files a fictitious business name with the county. Taxable sales require a state seller's permit. Construction work above a small threshold requires a state contractor license, and lenders here will ask for it.
California is strict about when someone doing work for you is a contractor rather than an employee, and construction and trucking have their own rules. Getting it wrong creates a liability that surfaces when a lender reviews you. Once you have employees, state payroll registration and workers' compensation are mandatory and lenders look for both.
California runs loan-guarantee programs for small businesses that cannot qualify on their own, delivered through partner lenders rather than directly. Ask any CDFI or Certified Development Company whether they participate — it is often the difference between a decline and an approval.
The short version.
- 01
If you run a business in San Bernardino County — a truck, a crew, a shop, a service route — you have real options, and the best of them are headquartered inside this county rather than in an ad on your phone.
- 02
A sensible order: get your documents into one folder, separate your business bank account from your personal one, sit down with a free advisor through the SBDC or SCORE, then approach a CDFI, a Certified Development Company, or a local credit union. Ask whether an SBA guarantee could make your file work. If you borrow with an ITIN, start with the verified ITIN-friendly nonprofits above and ask every other institution directly — many CDFIs do lend to ITIN holders.
- 03
Before you accept anything, get the standardized cost disclosure California entitles you to, and get two written offers side by side. Compare the total you will repay, not the payment.
- 04
Origen Capital is a directory, not a lender. We do not collect your information, we do not sell it, and we are not part of any application you make. Use this as a map, then deal directly with the licensed lender, credit union, or CDFI you choose.
Same county, another question.
Home FinancingPurchase, renovation, HELOC, and bridge loans for homeowners and investorsSEE IT IN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY →
Personal FinancingPersonal loans, credit building, and ITIN-friendly financing optionsSEE IT IN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY →49CA COUNTIES WITH DOORSThe whole stateEvery county in California, in this same lane.155 institutions fund small businesses inside California county lines.OPEN THE STATE →Still don't see your situation?
Ask Iris. She'll explain it the way it should have been explained the first time.