Contractor license bonds, issued fast by a licensed surety brokerage.

You pay a premium that is a small percentage of the bond amount per year — and the bond amount itself is set by the state license board or statute, not by you. The percentage is driven primarily by personal credit: strong credit lands in the lowest rate tier, weaker credit pays a higher percentage of the same bond amount. Final rate is subject to surety underwriting and varies by state, bond type, and carrier.

No, and the difference matters. Insurance transfers your risk to the carrier. A surety bond is a guarantee for someone else’s benefit — the state, the project owner, your subs. If a valid claim is paid on your bond, the surety pays the obligee and then collects the full amount back from you under the indemnity agreement you signed. A bond protects the public from you; insurance protects you. Most contractors need both, and we place both.

License and permit bonds are the fast lane of surety — underwriting is credit-based with no financial statements required at most bond amounts, and our live surety carrier integrations issue most of them same day, often within the hour. Performance and payment bonds are a different process: they are underwritten on financials and capacity and take longer. If a license renewal deadline is the reason you are here, tell us — that is the exact case the fast path exists for.

Usually, yes. License and permit bonds have dedicated programs for challenged credit — you pay a higher percentage of the bond amount, and in some cases the surety asks for collateral or a co-indemnitor, but a decline is the exception rather than the rule. Performance bonds are harder with weak credit because the underwriting leans on financial strength. Either way, approval and rate are subject to surety underwriting.

They cover three stages of the same project. A bid bond backs your bid — it assures the owner you will sign the contract and post final bonds if you win. A performance bond guarantees the work gets completed per the contract. A payment bond guarantees your subs and suppliers get paid, which keeps liens off the owner’s property. On public work, federal and state statutes generally require performance and payment bonds above certain contract thresholds, and many private owners and GCs require them too.

Surety underwriters look at the three Cs: capital (your financial statements and working capital), capacity (whether your track record and current work-in-progress support a job this size), and character (credit, references, how past projects closed out). CPA-prepared financials, a clean WIP schedule, and a sensible job size relative to your history are what move an approval. We package the submission so the underwriter sees that case clearly. Terms and capacity are subject to surety underwriting.