Frequently asked questions
If your question is not here, email us and we will answer it properly rather than send you a brochure.
What is a merchant cash advance, and is it a loan?
It is not a loan, and the distinction is legal rather than cosmetic. A loan lends you principal and charges you for the time you hold it. An advance is a completed sale: you sell us a stated dollar amount of receivables you have not collected yet, we pay you less than that amount today, and we collect the stated amount out of your settlements as they arrive. There is no interest rate, no annual percentage rate and no maturity date, because none of those concepts apply to a purchase.
How does a factor rate work?
It is one multiplier, applied once. On $75,000 at a factor rate of 1.32 the total we collect is $99,000, and that $24,000 difference is the entire cost of the money. It does not compound, it does not accrue day by day, and it does not change if the term runs longer than expected. Everything you owe is knowable before you sign, in dollars.
Is there a minimum credit score, and how much does credit matter?
Yes, there is a floor: a personal credit score of 500 or above. Below that we cannot fund, and we would rather tell you in the first minute than after you have sent statements. Above it, credit is one input among several and rarely the one that decides the file. What decides it is the bank account — how much is coming in, how regularly, and what the balance looks like in the days between deposits. We do pull credit as part of underwriting, so nobody should be surprised by it.
What happens in a month when sales are down?
Less is collected, automatically, because the remittance is a percentage rather than a fixed figure. Nothing is missed, nothing is late, and the term simply extends until the purchased amount has been delivered. That is the structural advantage of an advance over a fixed monthly payment, and it is the main reason seasonal businesses use one. If trading falls off a cliff rather than dipping, call us — see the last question.
I already have an advance out. Can you still fund me?
Possibly, and we will look at it, but only with full disclosure. Tell us who holds the existing position, the balance and the daily remittance before we price anything. We will take a second position where the deposits genuinely support two, and in some cases the better answer is consolidating what is outstanding into a single position rather than stacking a third one on top. What we will not do is fund a file where an open advance was left off the application; that is where merchants get themselves into real trouble.
Can I renew, and can I pay it off early?
Most accounts become eligible for a renewal once roughly two thirds of the purchased amount has been delivered and remittance has run clean. Eligibility means we will look again with current statements, not that more capital is automatic. On early payoff: the purchased amount is a fixed figure, so delivering it faster shortens the term without reducing the total. If you want a discounted early-delivery figure, negotiate it into the agreement before signing — it cannot be added afterwards.
What documents do you need?
Four months of business bank statements as PDFs, photo ID for the person signing, a voided business check and your EIN letter or formation filing. That is the whole list. We do not ask for tax returns, a business plan or accountant-prepared financials, because none of them tell us what the bank statements already tell us.
How fast is funding, really?
A complete file submitted in the morning is usually approved within two hours and funded within 24 to 48 hours of the agreement being signed. The delays that do happen are almost always the same two things: statements arriving as photographs instead of PDFs, and an open position that surfaces at verification rather than at application. Send a clean file and the clock behaves.
Which industries will you not fund?
Gambling, adult entertainment, firearms, cannabis, and any business whose activity is unlawful under federal or state law. Everything else lawful and US-based is in scope, including trades that banks routinely decline. Ask on the first call rather than after you have gathered documents; you will get a straight answer in a sentence.
Will an advance affect my ability to borrow later?
It can, so it is worth understanding before you sign. An advance is not reported as a loan, but the agreement is typically secured by a UCC filing against your receivables, and that filing is visible to anyone underwriting you afterwards. Some banks treat an open advance as a reason to decline. A clean delivery history helps — with us, on a renewal, and with others reading the file.
How is the remittance actually collected?
One of two ways, decided by how your money arrives. If your takings run through a card processor, an agreed share of each day’s batch is split off before it reaches you. If they arrive as mixed deposits, we debit an agreed daily amount from the business account by ACH, reconciled against your actual deposits. Which method applies to you is written into the agreement, and so is the percentage.
Who do I contact if trading changes?
Your funding manager, and before a problem rather than after one. Email contact@consistentfundinggroup.com or call the number on your agreement. If a location closes, a processor changes, a major account goes quiet or the season turns early, there is a great deal we can restructure while an account is performing and very little we can do once it is not. Nobody here is annoyed by an early phone call.