For many small business owners, the traditional small business loan doesn’t work. They might experience occasional revenue dips or extreme activity bursts followed by slow periods that prevent consistent cash flow. This makes it very difficult to make fixed payments month after month. Maybe they don’t have the credit score or perfect cash flow required to qualify for traditional options. If this sounds like you, Credit Card Factoring might be the business financing tool you’ve been looking for.
Like a business term loan, you receive a lump sum that you can use for virtually any purpose. However, the requirements and repayment structure differ significantly from traditional products. Your eligibility and ability to repay depend on your debit and credit card sales.
Credit card factoring is sometimes called a Merchant Cash Advance or a Credit Card Processing Loan: same product, different name. It’s also a type of business cash advance. A small business owner will receive a lump sum based on the revenue you draw from debit and credit card transactions. Instead of fixed monthly payments, your payments are deducted as a percentage of your debit and credit card sales. To clarify, your payments fluctuate with your sales volume.
Credit card factoring automatically deducts payments whenever you batch your debit and credit card transactions (daily, weekly, etc.). The percentage of sales that gets deducted never changes. This percentage is called a Holdback Rate. Each borrower is also assigned a Factor Rate based on their credit score, cash flow, and sales volume. This determines the total amount you have to pay back. Factor rates typically range from 1.09 to 1.5.
For example, let’s say you get approved for $50,000 with a factor rate of 1.4. This means you’d owe $70,000 in total.
As part of this arrangement, you allow the company to deduct 10% of your monthly debit and credit card sales. If your business averages $100,000 in debit and credit card sales per month, you will pay back $10,000 per month, with daily payments of $333. If your average sales dropped to $70,000 monthly, you’d make daily payments of $233 instead.
Credit card factoring is one of the most accessible small business financing products. Unlike other products, you don’t need excellent credit or perfect cash flow to qualify. These loose requirements allow companies to approve and distribute funds in less than 48 hours. This might be the best choice if you need cash quickly and can’t qualify for other options.
Another significant advantage is the repayment structure. With traditional small business loans, you must make monthly fixed payments, regardless of how well your business is doing. On the other hand, with Credit Card Factoring, your payment size depends on your sales volume. Thus, when you have a slow month, you pay less. You only pay what you can safely afford at the time. This repayment structure is particularly ideal for seasonal businesses. You could use the funds during the slow season and most of the money back during the busy season when sales volume increases.
Credit card factoring is designed for business owners and companies that cannot meet the requirements for traditional small business loans. These business owners might have poor credit or unstable cash flow. This suggests they might be unable to pay off a loan on time. To offset this risk, credit card factoring carries high rates and fees. Other business financing products are much less expensive but more challenging to qualify for.
High interest rates can put severe pressure on your cash flow when combined with the repayment structure. You might pay high rates even if you have made strong sales for several months.
And though you don’t have a minimum monthly payment, you have to pay back your total amount by a specific date. Every company has its policy for dealing with borrowers who aren’t on track to fulfill their terms.
Lastly, since you have to repay a fixed amount of fees, you wouldn’t save on interest by paying early, and with traditional loans, paying early means paying less interest or fees.
| LOAN TYPES | MAX AMOUNTS | RATES | SPEED |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Cash Advances | $7.5k – $1m | Starting at 1-6% p/mo | 1-2 business days |
| SBA Loan | $50k-$10m | Starting at Prime + 2.75% | 8-12 weeks |
| Business Term Loan | $10k to $5m | Starting at 1-4% p/mo | 1-3 business days |
| Business Line of Credit | $1k to $250k | Starting at 1% p/mo | 1-3 business days |
| Receivables/Invoice Financing | $10k-$10m | Starting at 1% p/mo | 1-2 weeks |
| Equipment Financing | Up to $5m per piece | Starting at 3.5% (SBA) | 3-10+ business days |
| Revenue Based Business Loans | $10K – $5m | Starting at 1-6% p/mo | 1-2 business days |
The application takes just a few minutes if you have the required information. Funds can appear in your bank account in under 24 hours. Here’s how to get started:
Before you begin the application process, take some time to make sure this is the right product for your individual needs. Will you be able to use the funds for your desired purpose? Will the repayment structure do more good than harm to your cash flow? Do you know exactly how much funding to request? Answering these questions ahead of time will make the rest of this process much smoother.
The application requires the following documents and information:
You can begin the application process by calling us or filling out our one-page online application. At this stage, you’ll be asked to enter the information from the previous section along with your desired funding amount.
Once you apply, a representative will contact you to explain the repayment structure, rates, and terms of your available options. This will ensure that there are no surprises or hidden fees during repayment.
If approved, you’ll hear back from us within 24 hours. Funds should appear in your bank account in 1-2 business days.
If your application gets declined, it might be because you don’t have the sales volume to withstand the repayment structure. Your cash flow might be better suited for the monthly payments of a short-term working capital loan.
There’s also the possibility that your business cannot handle too much additional debt at this time. In this case, we might recommend a different financing tool. Possible examples include business credit cards or personal loans, both of which can be accessed through UCS. These alternatives are usually easier to qualify for than business loans.
If you were declined for poor credit, consider credit repair services as well. Credit repair professionals can help you boost your credit score by identifying the issues keeping your score down and creating a plan for eliminating them.
Though you receive a lump sum you must pay back, credit card factoring is technically not categorized as a “loan” or even “debt.” Instead, it is referred to as a “cash advance.” This becomes more confusing when people use the term credit card processing loan.
This is primarily because you are selling the company a portion of your future sales rather than taking out a loan. In other words, you are receiving an advance of cash that you will eventually earn on your own.
You can technically use the funds in any way you like. The intended purpose of the funds will likely have no impact on your application. However, specific initiatives and investments can lower your rates and minimize the effect on cash flow.
For example, rates are usually lower when payments are spread out. Since payments fluctuate with sales, you could use the funds during your slow season without having to make large payments. For this reason, a seasonal business might use the funds to order inventory during the slow season and save their largest payments for the busy season when they actually sell the items.
Instead of credit score, annual revenue, or time in business, credit card factoring’s main requirement is your debit and credit card sales volume. You probably won’t have trouble qualifying for this product if you have consistent debit and credit card sales.
As you know, a business term loan comes with interest. On the other hand, credit card factoring involves a factor rate and a retrieval rate. The factor rate works like regular interest. It’s the percentage on top of the principal balance that you’ll have to pay back. Your original funding amount multiplied by your factor rate = the amount you’ll pay back. The retrieval rate is the percentage of future credit card sales that go back to the lender until you pay off the entire balance.
For example, let’s say that you factor $50,000 in credit card sales. If you have a factor rate of 1.15%, then your ultimate cost is $115,000.
That is, this is the amount that you will pay your lender once you’ve paid off your entire merchant cash advance. $100,000 x 1.15 = $115,000. Your retrieval rate is the percentage of your daily credit and debit card sales that your lender will receive until you’ve paid off the full amount. For example, let’s say that you make $1,000 in credit card sales on a given day. If your retrieval rate is 10%, your lender will receive $100 that day. $1,000 x 0.10 = $100. You can easily calculate your costs once you know your funding amount, factor rate, and retrieval rate.
Credit card factoring makes sense when you need cash quickly, cannot qualify for other options, and have high debit and/or credit card sales volumes. Also, since rates are lower when you take more time to pay, it’s probably best to pursue this product when you know you won’t pay off the total amount in a matter of months.
These two terms often get mixed up because yet another name for merchant cash advances is “Credit Card Factoring.” Yes, both options technically involve obtaining financing based on your sales. But with Invoice Factoring, an invoice factoring company purchases your accounts receivables. You don’t owe any money. With merchant account loans, the company buys a portion of your future debit and credit card revenues.
Yes, this product is available to borrowers with bad credit. Remember, your borrowing amount is based almost entirely on your monthly debit and credit card sales. Since credit card factoring’s repayment structure is expensive by nature, borrowers are expected to have bad credit. However, your credit score will impact the product’s cost and terms. Thus, if you want to access the lowest possible rates, consider our credit repair services before applying.
Fraud Disclosure:
Please be aware that individuals have been fraudulently misrepresenting to business owners (and others) that United Capital Source, Inc. (“UCS”) can assist small businesses in receiving government grants and other forgivable business loans, when in fact those grants or loans do not exist or are not available. These individuals have ulterior motives and are engaging in the unauthorized use of the names, trademarks, domain names, and logos of UCS in an attempt to commit fraud upon unsuspecting small business owners.
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