The specs
OnDeckBankers Healthcare Group (BHG)
Product typeMulti-productTerm
Amount range$5K – $400K (term); $6K – $200K (LOC)$20K – $500K (professional loans); up to $200K credit cards
Cost (factor / APR)Term APR 27%+; LOC APR 30%+APR 9 – 25% (term loans); business credit cards separate
Speed to fundSame-day for approved files3 – 7 business days after document review
Min time in business12 months24 months
Min monthly revenue$8,000Practice / professional income basis — not monthly revenue
Min credit score600+700+
Products
- Term loan
- LOC
- Professional term loans
- Practice acquisition loans
- Business credit cards
- Patient financing
Verdicts by use case
- Licensed healthcare or professional borrower with 700+ FICO and 24+ months practice income — Winner: Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG). As of 2026-06-28 BHG's professional term loan at 9 – 25% APR over 5 – 10 years is materially cheaper than OnDeck's 27%+ APR term loan over 12 – 24 months for the same capital need. A $100K BHG loan at 13% APR over 7 years costs roughly $42K total interest with $1,800/mo payments. A $100K OnDeck term at 30% APR over 18 months costs roughly $25K in absolute interest but requires $7,000/mo payments — 4× the cash-flow burden of the BHG equivalent. Licensed pros with 700+ FICO should always price BHG first.
- Non-professional SMB (restaurant, retail, contractor, services, trucking) — Winner: OnDeck. BHG only funds licensed professionals — restaurants, retail, contractors, services, and trucking are structurally ineligible. OnDeck's bank-statement underwriting covers all these verticals with 12+ months TIB and 600+ FICO. For non-professional SMBs OnDeck is the only viable option in this pair.
- Same-day funding on approved files — Winner: OnDeck. OnDeck offers same-day funding on approved files (their core direct-lender pitch and a key advantage for established merchants with existing OnDeck relationships). BHG's 3 – 7 business days is fast for professional lending but slower than OnDeck for renewal files. For genuine same-day needs OnDeck wins.
- Practice acquisition or multi-year capital deployment ($150K – $500K) — Winner: Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG). BHG's 5 – 10 year amortization at 9 – 25% APR is purpose-built for multi-year capital deployment — practice acquisitions, equipment over 5+ years, expansion capex. OnDeck's 12 – 24 month term at 27%+ APR is wrong product shape — too short and too expensive for any acquisition or multi-year deployment. Forcing a multi-year need into an OnDeck term creates cash-flow strain that BHG's amortization would have absorbed cleanly.
- Established merchant with existing OnDeck relationship and renewal capital need — Winner: OnDeck. OnDeck's renewal economics for repeat borrowers (faster underwriting, slightly improved pricing, established servicing relationship) reward incumbents. A merchant with 2+ years of OnDeck history gets faster same-day funding on a new draw than starting fresh at BHG. BHG's professional focus also excludes most OnDeck-typical borrower categories, so the comparison only applies to the small subset of OnDeck borrowers who are also licensed professionals — and for those merchants BHG should usually be price-shopped first regardless of OnDeck renewal convenience.
The honest takeaway
OnDeck and Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG) solve overlapping but distinct problems. The right choice depends on three things you already know about your business: how fast you need the money, how long you've been operating, and whether the capital need is one-time or recurring.
Frequently asked questions
- I'm a dentist with 720 FICO and an established OnDeck term loan — should I refinance into BHG?
- Almost certainly yes, if the BHG refinance covers the OnDeck payoff and provides additional capital you need. The math: an existing $80K OnDeck term at 30% APR with 12 months remaining is costing roughly $13K in remaining interest with $7,500/mo payments. A $120K BHG refinance at 13% APR over 7 years would cost $50K total interest with $2,150/mo payments — $40K of which retires the OnDeck balance, $40K is fresh capital, and the monthly cash-flow burden drops by $5,000+. Run the breakeven with any prepayment penalty on the OnDeck balance; for clean files the refinance almost always wins. Get BHG to issue a payoff-and-disbursement structure so OnDeck is retired at the closing rather than carrying both loans simultaneously.
- Why does OnDeck cost so much more than BHG even for the same merchant?
- Different borrower-pool risk pricing. BHG underwrites against a professional license + practice income + 700+ FICO — the default rate on that borrower category is structurally low enough to support 9 – 25% APR pricing on 5 – 10 year amortization. OnDeck underwrites against bank-statement cash flow across all SMB verticals with 600+ FICO and 12+ months TIB — the broader, higher-risk borrower pool requires 27%+ APR to clear underwriting math. A 720-FICO dentist applying to OnDeck gets priced against the broader pool rather than the specialist pool that BHG accesses — meaning the dentist overpays at OnDeck by 15 – 20 APR points for the same risk profile.
- Can a licensed professional ever genuinely prefer OnDeck over BHG?
- Three narrow scenarios. (1) Recent BHG decline despite clean credit — rare but happens on edge-case professions or specific underwriting concerns; OnDeck is the fallback. (2) Genuine same-day need where BHG's 3 – 7 day timeline won't meet a hard deadline; OnDeck's same-day funding on approved files is the only solution. (3) Existing OnDeck relationship with renewal pricing advantage and a short-term capital need under $50K where the 12 – 24 month term shape is acceptable — sometimes the renewal speed and relationship convenience outweighs shopping BHG fresh. Outside these scenarios a 700+ FICO licensed professional should always price BHG first.