Glossary
Seasoning
How long something has existed in its current state — funds in an account, a business in operation, a credit account open, a loan being paid. Lenders use it as a proxy for whether a situation is real or recently arranged.
Seasoning: How long something has existed in its current state — funds in an account, a business in operation, a credit account open, a loan being paid. Lenders use it as a proxy for whether a situation is real or recently arranged.
Why lenders care
Seasoning is a fraud and risk filter. A balance that appeared last week may be borrowed and about to leave. A business that started trading two months ago has no track record. Time makes a claim credible in a way documentation alone does not.
Where it shows up
| Context | What is being tested |
|---|---|
| Funds seasoning | Money for an equity injection that has sat in your account for months raises fewer questions than money that arrived days ago. Large recent deposits attract a request to explain the source. |
| Business seasoning | Time in business, which is a hard gate at many lenders. See time in business requirements. |
| Credit seasoning | How long accounts have been open. A thin file is not a bad file, but it is a less predictive one. |
| Payment seasoning | A history of paying an existing obligation on time, which is often what unlocks a refinance. |
| Deposit seasoning | Consistency of revenue deposits across months, which lenders read directly from your bank statements. |
Working with it rather than against it
- Move your injection funds early. Getting the money into the business account months before applying removes an entire line of questioning.
- Do not shuffle money between accounts before applying. It looks like exactly what seasoning rules exist to catch, even when it is innocent.
- Document any large deposit — a gift letter, an asset sale, a settlement. Be prepared to show it without being asked twice.
- Wait, where waiting is cheap. A business three months short of a lender's time in business floor is often better off waiting than paying substantially more elsewhere.