Funding Advice

[RaspberryFish]

Hi all,

As you can see from my post count I am new around here but would like to get more involved.

I would have liked to come to this site with positive posts rather than a question but that is what led me here after all.

I own a small shop and have been selling goods for over a year now but would like to expand as an opportunity has risen. I have been looking into financial options and have stumbled across a company called 'Merchant Financing' who offer me a unsecured cash advance in exchange for 20% of all future card transactions until the amount is paid off, however I would need to switch to their terminals which I find acceptable as they offer lower terminal rates than what I was paying before. I prefer the initial outset of this funding source as they offer a very quick decision (48 hours) and there are no late repayment fees as they take 20% of the terminal income be it £10 or £10,000.

So this brings me to my question; is this a good source of funding or are there other alternatives that offer me the same benefits?

(The benifits I require are:

Unsecured Funding
Quick Processing Times
No Late Repayment Fees
The Ability To Borrow Up To £20,000)


Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

[Tom McClelland]

£20,000 unsecured! Wow.

The information missing from your post is what the interest rate is once you've got the £20k. ie how fast do you have to run just to stand still?

And cynically I'd say there must be more to the offer than meets the eye. Otherwise they're wide open to being ripped off for £20k by someone who takes out the loan and then just shuts their business down.

I see the interest rate is missing from their website too. As is for example the typical cost of default insurance which is probably added on to the debt.

[RaspberryFish]

They do preliminary checks into things such as; the user must have been operating with payment terminals for at least 1 year, processing at least £3,000 per month through card terminals, have at least 1 year left on the lease of the premises, processing 20+ card transactions per month and must have no open bankruptcies. They also look into the applicants personal credit.

I am assuming the rate is fairly high as it is for unsecured lending, I will get them to ring me tonight to find out for sure.

P.S

I also like the fact of it not being a loan that it will not go against my credit rating which I am fairly concious of.

I am unsure whether I am allowed to post the URL on here for someone to check it over and make sure I am not missing any vital information?

[Tom McClelland]

It sounds as if you're switched on enough to be aware of what you're getting into. Just make sure that the rate isn't stupid and that the startup fees aren't stupid. But I can imagine this kind of product being just right for some businesses.

[RaspberryFish]

I will get back to you on what rates they come up with later tonight or tomorrow. If they are not crazy then I can also see this type of lending useful to a lot of small companies like mine.

Thanks for your time and help Tom!