Rethink Your Credit Facilities: A Lender-Neutral Approach
Across 85 credit facility reviews, we've found an average 0.72% available rate reduction when competitive terms are sought. That's real money — $7,200 per year on every $1M borrowed. And your bank isn't going to volunteer the discount.
We Don't Lend Money. We Make Sure You Borrow It Well.
Most businesses accept the first offer from their existing bank. It's comfortable. It's also expensive. The gap between posted rate and negotiated rate in Canadian commercial banking can be 100–200+ basis points. That gap is where we work — and it's where our team's combined 19+ years of insider banking experience becomes your advantage.
We review covenants, rate structures (fixed vs. variable, posted vs. negotiated), prepayment penalties, and personal guarantee requirements. Then we go to market — soliciting indicative terms from multiple lenders using anonymized financials — and present you a comparison matrix. Every number side by side. Every covenant spelled out. Every fee visible. The same methodology we apply to business banking audits, extended into the credit facility layer where the dollar amounts are larger and the stakes are higher.
We receive zero origination fees. Zero referral commissions. Our conflict-of-interest register is published quarterly and available on request. Every dollar we earn comes from advisory fees — paid by you, for advice that serves you. That independence is verified across all 14 financial institutions in our proprietary database, and it's the reason our recommendations follow the math instead of a referral cheque.
Save More on Every Dollar You Borrow: Our Credit Advisory Services
Credit Facility Review & Sourcing
We review existing lines of credit, term loans, commercial mortgages, and equipment financing. We evaluate covenants, rate structures, prepayment penalties, and personal guarantee requirements — the details that determine what you actually pay, not what the rate sheet says you pay.
Then we solicit competitive terms from multiple lenders using standardized financial packages and present you a comparison matrix — side by side, with every number visible. The process typically involves four to six lenders, including Big Five banks and Manitoba credit unions, benchmarked against our proprietary database of real pricing at 14 institutions. We don't use advertised rates. We use indicative term sheets — the rates institutions actually offer to borrowers with your financial profile.
Rajan Dhadwal leads most credit facility engagements, drawing on eleven years of commercial lending experience at TD where he managed 160+ business accounts. He knows how banks price risk internally, which means he knows where the margin is negotiable.
Average finding: 0.72% available rate reduction across 85 reviews.
Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) Advisory
Your home equity is likely your biggest asset. Banks compete aggressively for HELOC business — and that competition is your advantage, if you know how to use it.
We benchmark your current HELOC terms against what's available across our database of 14 Manitoba financial institutions. We evaluate your current rate (posted vs. negotiated), the collateral charge structure, sub-limit flexibility, and whether your lender allows interest-only payments during the draw period. Many clients don't realize their HELOC was priced at origination and hasn't been revisited since — even as their equity position and creditworthiness improved significantly.
We then determine whether refinancing or restructuring makes sense, factoring in discharge fees, legal costs, appraisal requirements, and any penalties or costs of switching. The recommendation includes specific dollar projections — net savings after all switching costs — so you can see the math before you move. If the numbers don't justify a switch, we'll tell you that too and document your position for when your renewal comes up.
Auto Loan & Personal Credit Review
Dealer financing is rarely the best rate. The convenience of signing at the dealership comes at a measurable premium — typically 1.5–3.0% above what a direct lender would offer for the same vehicle and borrower profile. We've seen clients locked into 7-year auto loans at 8.99% who qualified for 5.49% at their own credit union.
We review existing auto loans, personal lines of credit, and credit card balances, and identify consolidation or renegotiation opportunities. For clients carrying balances across multiple high-interest products, we model consolidation scenarios — moving revolving debt to a lower-rate personal line, or refinancing an auto loan mid-term when the math supports the break fee.
We cross-reference your current rates against our database of 14 Manitoba financial institutions to find real alternatives — not advertised rates, effective rates. This pairs naturally with our personal banking audit, which reviews your full product suite for unnecessary fees and bundled features you're not using.
Banking Due Diligence for Business Acquisition
Buying a business means inheriting its banking obligations — outstanding loans, personal guarantees attached to the business, merchant processing contracts with auto-renewal clauses, security interests registered against assets, and sometimes undisclosed liens filed under previous owners. Most buyers discover these after closing. That's too late.
Our due diligence engagement examines every banking relationship the target business holds. We review all credit facilities and their covenant requirements, verify whether personal guarantees from the seller will be released upon closing, check for General Security Agreements and UCC filings that encumber the business's assets, audit merchant processing contracts for early termination penalties and auto-renewal clauses, and identify any dormant accounts still incurring fees. We also assess whether the target's existing banking structure is appropriate for the business post-acquisition, or whether restructuring would reduce costs from day one.
We've twice uncovered undisclosed liens during acquisitions that our clients would have inherited — one a $42,000 equipment lien that wasn't in the disclosure documents, the other a personal guarantee the seller had co-signed that would have transferred with the operating line. This service pays for itself if it catches even one. A single missed personal guarantee can follow you for years.
This service pairs with our business banking architecture work — once the acquisition closes, we can build or restructure the combined entity's banking from the ground up.
See How a Competitive Analysis Puts Money Back in Your Account
The Old Way
Bank offers you prime + 2.75%. You accept because you've banked there 14 years and it feels like a relationship. Nobody tells you the rate was set when your business was a three-person shop. Nobody tells you new clients get better terms. Nobody tells you the credit union two blocks away is offering prime + 1.25% for borrowers with your revenue profile. The bank calls it loyalty. The spreadsheet calls it $10,125 a year on an $810K facility — money that compounds in their favour every single year you don't ask questions.
Our Way
We prepare a competitive rate analysis, solicit indicative terms from four lenders using anonymized financials, and present you a side-by-side comparison matrix. Your existing bank, faced with the documented analysis showing what competitors will offer, drops to prime + 1.50%. Annual savings on a $200K line: $2,500. On a $500K line: $6,250. On Prairie Iron Fabrication's $810K facility: $10,125.
That's exactly what happened. Their rate hadn't changed since they were a three-person shop. The bank didn't lower the rate out of goodwill — they lowered it because Rajan walked in with a binder showing four competing term sheets. Banks respond to data, not requests.
Case Study: How Prairie Iron Fabrication Recovered $16,065 Per Year
14 Years of Loyalty. $16,065 Left on the Table Every Year.
Grant Fehrman had banked at the same institution since he opened Prairie Iron as a three-person shop. His operating line was priced at prime + 2.75% — a rate that hadn't been revisited since the business was new and risky. In those 14 years, the company had grown to 22 employees with $3.6M in annual revenue, maintained consistent profitability, and never missed a payment. None of that was reflected in his rate.
His company also held an average daily balance of $180K in a non-interest-bearing commercial chequing account because Grant believed business accounts couldn't earn interest. That's a common misconception — and an expensive one. At even a modest 3.3% savings rate, that idle cash represented nearly $6,000 in forgone annual interest.
- Operating line at prime + 2.75% for 14 years — unchanged despite significant business growth
- $180K average daily balance earning zero interest in a non-interest-bearing chequing account
- No competitive analysis ever conducted — no benchmarking against other lenders
- Personal guarantee scope hadn't been reviewed since the original facility was established
Rajan Dhadwal prepared a competitive rate analysis, soliciting indicative terms from four lenders using anonymized financials. He presented Grant's bank with the documented alternatives. He also restructured the company's cash position, recommending a sweep arrangement that automatically moved balances above $25K into a business savings tier — a product Grant's bank offered but had never mentioned.
- Existing bank reduced operating line to prime + 1.50% — saving $10,125 annually
- Sweep arrangement generated $5,940 in annual interest on previously idle cash
- Personal guarantee scope reduced from unlimited to capped at facility amount
Grant is now on our annual business review subscription ($750/year), which ensures his rates stay competitive as market conditions shift. The review has already flagged one additional fee adjustment in year two.
"It was like finding money in my own couch cushions. I'd been with that bank since we were three guys in a rented bay. Nobody ever told me I could negotiate. Nobody ever told me my cash could earn interest. Rajan showed me I was paying $4,100 a year more than I needed to — not in some hypothetical way. He showed me the exact products, the exact fees, the exact alternatives. I tell every business owner I know to call SCU Advisor before they call their banker."
Every Credit Review Covers These Six Critical Areas
Every credit facility review covers the same core elements, regardless of facility size. We document findings in a written report with specific figures — no verbal-only advice, ever. This is the same documentation-first approach we use across all our advisory services, because recommendations without paper trails aren't recommendations — they're opinions.
Rate Structure Analysis
Fixed vs. variable. Posted vs. negotiated. Prime-based vs. cost-of-funds. We compare your current effective rate against what lenders actually offer clients with your financial profile — not the rate on the website, the rate in the term sheet. We calculate your all-in borrowing cost including facility fees, standby charges, and renewal fees that inflate the effective rate beyond the stated interest. The difference between advertised and effective borrowing cost can be 0.25–0.75% — and most borrowers never see it.
Covenant Review
Debt-to-equity ratios, minimum cash balances, reporting requirements, material adverse change clauses. We evaluate whether your covenants are standard for your industry or unnecessarily restrictive. Overly tight covenants limit your flexibility and can trigger default provisions you don't expect — including acceleration clauses that make your entire facility due immediately. We've seen businesses operating profitably but technically in default because a covenant threshold was set based on year-one projections that no longer reflect the company's scale.
Prepayment & Exit Terms
Prepayment penalties, early termination clauses, break fees on fixed-rate products, and interest rate differential calculations. We quantify the cost of switching so you can weigh it against the savings. Sometimes the penalty makes staying worthwhile for the remaining term. Sometimes it doesn't — and the break-even point arrives sooner than you'd think. We model multiple scenarios with specific timelines so the decision is based on arithmetic, not anxiety about change.
Personal Guarantee Assessment
Personal guarantees are common in small business lending — and often negotiable once the business has established a track record. We review whether the guarantee scope is proportional to the credit exposure, whether the guarantee is limited or unlimited, and whether your business's history of profitability and timely payment warrants reduced or eliminated personal liability. For businesses with $1M+ in revenue and three or more years of clean repayment history, we frequently negotiate guarantee reductions — sometimes to zero on specific facilities.
TRID & RESPA Compliance
For clients with cross-border transactions or U.S. banking relationships, we reference TRID integrated mortgage disclosure standards and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act requirements in our advisory methodology. This matters for Manitoba business owners with U.S. property holdings, cross-border financing arrangements, or commercial real estate loans originated through American lenders. We ensure disclosure requirements are met and that your advisory report accounts for both Canadian and U.S. regulatory frameworks.
Regulation E Protections
For clients with U.S. banking relationships, we address Regulation E electronic fund transfer protections in our advisory reports. This includes reviewing unauthorized transfer liability limits, error resolution timelines, and disclosure requirements for recurring electronic payments. If you maintain accounts at U.S. institutions or make regular cross-border electronic transfers, your rights and exposure need to be documented clearly — ensuring you understand both protections and potential liability gaps.
Your Complete Credit Advisory Package: What You Receive
Every credit facility engagement produces written documentation — the same commitment to paper-trail transparency that runs through every service we offer, from personal banking audits to business banking architecture. Here's what's in the package:
- Competitive rate analysis — your current terms benchmarked against indicative terms from multiple lenders, with each lender's offer detailed including facility fees, standby charges, and renewal costs
- Interest rate schedule — current vs. recommended, with projected savings over 1, 3, and 5 years at your actual borrowing levels, including sensitivity analysis for rate movement scenarios
- Covenant comparison matrix — side-by-side review of covenant terms across lender offers, flagging material differences in flexibility, reporting burden, and default triggers
- Financial health assessment — how lenders see your financials and where you can strengthen your position before approaching the market, including debt service coverage ratio analysis and leverage metrics
- Fee schedule analysis — yours vs. market benchmark, line by line, covering facility fees, renewal charges, administration fees, and any other ancillary costs that inflate your effective borrowing rate
- Escrow account analysis — where applicable, a review of escrow holding requirements and excess balances, with recommendations for rebalancing or restructuring escrow arrangements
- Implementation checklist — step-by-step instructions for executing the recommended changes, including timelines, required documents, and key contacts at each institution
- Full workpapers — retained by you, with every assumption and calculation documented. Our methodology is checkable because we believe it should be. Share them with your accountant, your lawyer, or your next advisor if you ever leave us.
See our complete fee schedule for credit facility review pricing, or contact us for a firm quote based on your specific situation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Credit Advisory
Credit Advisory by the Numbers
These figures come from our 2022–2025 engagement data across all credit facility reviews. The 0.72% average reduction is calculated on the facility amount — meaning a client with a $500K operating line recovers an average of $3,600 per year. On larger facilities, the numbers scale proportionally. Prairie Iron Fabrication's $810K facility generated $10,125 in annual rate savings alone.
The 85% success rate reflects a simple reality: most credit facilities are priced at origination and never revisited, even as the borrower's risk profile improves. Banks aren't incentivized to proactively lower your rate. That's not their job. It's ours.
We publish these figures — along with our full fee schedule and median savings data — because prospective clients deserve to evaluate the math before spending a dollar. If the numbers ever stop justifying the engagement, we'll publish that too.
Your Rate Hasn't Changed. Your Business Has.
If your credit facility terms were set more than three years ago — or if you've never compared them against the market — there's almost certainly money to recover. The average Manitoba business with a 10+ year banking relationship overpays by 0.94% on operating credit. On a $300K facility, that's $2,820 per year. On a $1M facility, it's $9,400.
A 30-minute call with our team will tell you whether a full review is worth your time. No charge for the call. If the math doesn't justify the engagement, we'll say so — about 15% of initial calls end that way, and we mean it. For the other 85%, the average payback period on our fee is 47 days.
Or call us directly at (431) 348-5867 — Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM.