Intersect Fund Offers Credit Building Loans for Locals

Are you an entrepreneur in New Brunswick who dreams of starting their own business, but your credit is a hurdle? A city nonprofit group wants to help you. 

The Intersect Fund held an event on Wednesday at Belky's Hair Salon to publicize their loan programs and their partnership with the city of New Brunswick to support local businesses in the city. 

The Intersect Fund is a New Brunswick-based microlender and certified Community Development Financial Institution. It provides microloans, business training and financial help to small business owners and entrepreneurs in central New Jersey, with particular focuses on businesses owned by minorities, women and those considered low-income, according to the Intersect Fund website.

Belky's Hair Salon, one of those businesses involved with the Intersect Fund, hosted the gathering, where people affected by and involved with the Intersect Fund spoke to Mayor James Cahill and representatives from local banks about the organization's Credit Builder Loan.

The $600 loan is designed specifically for people without credit history, or with damaged credit history, said Rohan Mathew, Executive Director of The Intersect Fund. 

The loan is paid back over 12 monthly installments of $60 each through a credit card for the purpose of generating positive lines of credit and improving their credit score as much as 70 points in six months, he said.

Luis De La Hoz, Senior Loan Officer for the Intersect Fund, said that the loan is not meant to compete with the banks, but to serve as a way to assist entrepreneurs who need to establish credit or repair their credit.

"We love referrals from commercial lenders," he said. 

The application takes minutes to process and can be done remotely, he said. 

Additionally, anyone wishing to use the loan is scheduled a 45 minute counseling session with Intersect Fund staff to look at their credit history and devise a plan for the best way to improve on it, he said. 

The Intersect Fund is partially funded through grants from the City of New Brunswick, and uses that money to fund its staff, said city Planning Director Glenn Patterson.

The organization uses its own capital to fund the loans it grants, which have totaled nearly a million dollars in the last five years, Cahill said.

"Their success rate is phenomenal," he said. 

For more information on The Intersect Fund, visit http://www.intersectfund.org.