You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
By Travis Yule — CEO & Founder, Full Send Funding
Published 2026-09-30
The questions that separate one merchant cash advance company from another — who funds it, liens, credit pulls, charges, defaults and renewals — each answered for our advance.
In one sentence: The funder you choose sets the contract you live with for months, so ask every merchant cash advance company the same questions and get the answers in writing; each question is answered here for a Full Send Funding advance.
Choosing a merchant cash advance company is choosing the contract you will live with for the next several months, and the price on the first page is only part of that contract. Two offers at the same factor rate can come from funders who behave very differently when a debit is returned, when sales slow or when you want to renew. The way to tell them apart is to ask every funder the same questions, get the answers in writing, and walk away from any funder that will not give them.
This guide is those questions. Each section says what to ask and why the answer matters with any funder, then gives our own answer under "For a Full Send Funding advance", in the same words we use everywhere else on this site. An advance is one structure of several, and a stronger file often qualifies for a different structure or for less cost; the questions apply to whichever one you are offered.
Two things this guide does not do. It does not explain the mechanics of the product — how a merchant cash advance works covers the purchase, the remittance and the term — and it does not read the agreement line by line, which the merchant cash advance agreement, clause by clause does. Those two answer "how does it work" and "which clauses matter". This one answers "which funder".
The first question separates the company you are talking to from the company whose money arrives in your account. Some companies sign the agreement and wire the funds themselves. Others — brokers and independent sales organisations — take your file and place it with a funder. Plenty of businesses reach their funder through one, and a good one can save you time by matching your file to the right place. The route is not the problem; not knowing where your file went is.
So ask what you would ask any direct lender: whose name is on the agreement, whose account the money comes from, and who you will call when you need something after funding. If your file is going to more than one funder, ask how many and which ones, because each of them reads your bank statements and your application, and you are entitled to know who holds them. The answer should be a name, not a category. "Our funding partners" is not an answer to "who is funding this".
For a Full Send Funding advance: We fund deals in house wherever we can. For specialized products and premium offerings we may place a deal with a direct lending partner, but only after talking through the options with you and only if you choose to; we never shop a file widely or pass it on to a broker. Placement is free: we charge no fee for arranging it, and the partner’s written terms state its full cost before you sign.
These are the two clauses that most change what an advance can do to you after it funds, and neither shows up in the factor rate.
A UCC-1 is a public notice claiming your business assets, and it can complicate any financing you seek afterward: the next lender who searches your business finds it and has to decide what it means for them. Ask whether one will be filed, and if it will, whether it covers specific assets or everything the business owns. What a UCC-1 filing is and what it does to later financing goes through the filing in detail.
A confession of judgment is a clause that lets a funder obtain a court judgment against you without a lawsuit and sometimes without notice, which removes the defences a lawsuit allows. It is the practice behind much of this industry's bad reputation. Ask directly whether the agreement contains one, and read the signature pages for an affidavit you are being asked to sign separately.
Ask both questions before an offer is issued, and check the answers against the agreement itself. A spoken "no" and a written clause saying otherwise are not a disagreement; the clause is what you signed.
For a Full Send Funding advance: On deals up to $2 million, we file no UCC-1 lien against the business and our agreements contain no confession of judgment. Above $2 million, what the agreement includes is set per deal and shown to you in writing before you sign. On every deal we fund, there is no lockbox account and no control of your card processor: payments are debited from your own business bank account.
There are two kinds of credit inquiry. A soft pull leaves no mark on the score and is visible only to the person whose file it is. A hard inquiry is recorded when a lender pulls a file to decide a formal application, and the next lender to read your report sees it. One hard inquiry is rarely the end of anything; several in a short period, from shopping one file around, tell the next underwriter a story you did not mean to tell.
Ask whether the pull is soft or hard, and ask about every stage — to pre-qualify, at approval and at funding — not only the first one. Ask as well how many credit files will be pulled, which matters most when a file is being sent to more than one funder. Soft versus hard credit pulls explains what each inquiry records and who can see it.
For a Full Send Funding advance: Full Send Funding does not run a hard credit inquiry at any stage. Applying never affects your credit either way: we use a soft credit pull only. Credit is read alongside the business itself — four months of business bank statements, the deposits in them and what is already being repaid out of them — so the soft pull is one input to the decision, not a pass-or-fail gate.
The factor rate is the price of the money. It is not necessarily every charge. Ask for a list of every charge that can appear over the life of the agreement: at funding, on each payment, on a returned debit, on a wire, on a change to your payment account and at payoff. Then ask two follow-up questions about each one: what it is in dollars, and whether it is deducted from the wire or billed separately.
The second question matters because a fee deducted at funding means the money that reaches your account is smaller than the face of the advance, while the total payback is still calculated on the whole face. Two offers at the same factor, one with a fee taken out of the wire and one without, are two different prices. The only way to see that is to ask for the amount that will actually be disbursed, in dollars, next to the total payback.
For a Full Send Funding advance: An advance carries its financing cost and, where the agreement has one, a disclosed origination fee — the only two charges on any offer of ours — and never an NSF, wire, collection or stamp charge. There is no application fee, no fee to receive a quote, and no charge for checking your eligibility.
The total payback — every dollar you will repay under the agreement — is the number that decides whether an advance is affordable. A factor rate, a holdback share and a term are all ways of arriving at it. The dollars are the answer.
Ask for these on the offer itself, before you sign: the amount that will reach your account, the total payback, the total cost in dollars, the payment amount and schedule, the date of the first payment and the date of the last. Several states now require commercial financing providers to put the cost on the offer before signature, New York and California among them; the commercial financing disclosure laws by state sets out which states and what each requires. A funder willing to put the numbers in writing does not need a statute to make it do so, and one that will only quote them over the phone is telling you something.
Ask, too, how long the offer stays open. The honest answer is long enough to read it.
For a Full Send Funding advance: Every Full Send Funding offer states the total payback in plain dollars before you sign, and every offer also carries a SMART Box disclosure stating the APR equivalent. The SMART Box sets out the APR, Total Cost of Financing, Cents on the Dollar, Avg Monthly Payment, Total Repayment, Amount Disbursed, Origination Fee, Payment Frequency and Maturity Date on one panel, so two offers can be read side by side. An offer is open for 72 hours from the time we issue it, and the expiry is printed on the offer document itself, so you are never guessing at it.
An advance is sized against the revenue your business is expected to bring in. The question that separates funders is what happens when revenue falls short of that: whether the payment can be adjusted to what you actually took in, how you ask, how quickly you get an answer, and whether asking counts against you.
Ask where the adjustment right sits in the agreement, and read its verbs. An agreement under which the funder "shall" adjust on request is a different promise from one under which it "may" adjust at its sole discretion; the clause-by-clause guide reads that clause for exactly this: whether the funder "shall" or "may" adjust, what evidence and response time it specifies, and whether a reconciled slow period counts as a default. Ask what evidence a request needs — usually recent bank statements — and whether there is a deadline for the answer.
For a Full Send Funding advance: If your sales slow, you can ask us to adjust your payments to your actual revenue; we answer a request within 5 business days.
Every agreement has a list of events of default, and it is worth reading before you need it. Ask what is on the list and whether a returned debit, a slow month or an unanswered phone call is treated as a default. Ask what notice you get, how long you have to put a problem right before anything escalates, and what a returned debit costs.
A returned debit is ordinary. A deposit clears a day late, a customer pays in the wrong week, a bank holds a large check. What matters is whether the funder's first move is a phone call or a notice.
For a Full Send Funding advance: We send a default notice only if the agreement is breached — never because sales slowed — and it gives you 10 business days to put it right. If a debit is returned, we call you first and agree a catch-up — there is no returned-payment fee. Questions about a payment go to Travis Yule on our main number, 518-312-0382.
If you already think you may miss a payment on an advance you hold today, what to do before a payment is missed walks through the call to make and what to have ready.
The schedule shapes your cash flow as much as the price does. A weekly payment and a payment taken every banking day can add up to the same total and feel entirely different in a slow week, because one gives you five days of deposits to cover it and the other gives you one. Ask which schedules the funder offers, whether the one proposed is the only option or one of several, which day of the week the debit lands, and when the first payment comes out.
Ask as well whether the schedule can change later — if you would rather move a weekly payment to the day after your largest deposit, for example — and what that takes. Daily versus weekly payments compares the schedules in detail.
For a Full Send Funding advance: Payment schedules are set per deal, and which options are available depends on qualifications: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly for qualified clients or, if desired, a percentage of sales. Daily payments are available on request, but they are not our preferred payment method. To change the account or day your payments are debited, send us a signed change form; it takes effect within 2 business days.
Ask whether the offer carries a personal guarantee, who has to sign it, and — the question that matters — what it guarantees. A guarantee of performance and a guarantee of payment are very different promises. A performance guarantee holds the owner to running the agreement honestly. A guarantee of payment makes the owner personally liable for the balance if the business cannot pay it, which turns a business agreement into a personal debt without changing the factor rate.
The word "guaranty" appears in both kinds of document, so ask for the answer in a sentence: if the business genuinely fails, do I owe the balance personally? Personal guarantees goes through the difference and the questions to ask about each.
Does a Full Send Funding advance carry one? Yes, from every owner of 20% or more, and what it covers depends on the product. On a merchant cash advance it is a performance guarantee: a promise that the business will carry out the agreement honestly, keeping its deposits in the agreed account and not closing or selling to avoid the remittance. It is not a promise to repay if the business genuinely fails.
Renewal is where a good first advance can turn into a long relationship or an expensive habit. Ask when a renewal opens, what the threshold is measured against — the amount advanced or the total payback — and how much of a renewal goes to the balance you still owe rather than to your account. A renewal that mostly pays off the old advance is a new cost on money you have already paid for, and the offer should show you both figures.
Funding renewals explained walks through how a renewal is priced and the comparison that shows what it costs.
For a Full Send Funding advance: A funded client may apply to renew once half of the total payback has been paid (the full amount repaid under the agreement, including the cost). What a renewal saves you is set deal by deal and stated in writing before you sign, and renewal terms are often better than a first advance because the file now has a repayment record.
A decline with no reason leaves you guessing, and guessing is how a business applies to five more funders with the same problem in its statements. Ask up front whether the funder explains its declines, and ask how quickly you will get a decision at all. Why applications are declined covers the reasons that come up most and what each one means for the next application.
For a Full Send Funding advance: If we decline, we tell you why: always if you ask, and often without being asked. A decision comes within 24 business hours of a complete submission.
Some answers settle the question on their own. If you hear any of these, stop and ask for everything in writing; if the funder will not put it in writing, you have your answer.
None of these needs a name to recognise it, and none of them is specific to one kind of company. Brokers, independent sales organisations and funders can each be good or bad at this; the answers are what tell you which.
Once you have written offers, put them into the same shape before you compare anything:
Compare cost in dollars first, and compare it against the money you actually receive rather than the face of the advance. A factor rate on its own hides the term: the same factor over a short term and a long one are very different prices per month of use, which is why an APR on a short advance can look high while the dollar cost is modest, and the reverse. Factor rate versus APR explains how to put the two on a common basis, and the Offer Comparison Tool lays out offers you enter side by side, using your numbers rather than ours.
Then check each offer against the terms to verify before signing any advance, which lists what to confirm in the document itself. If an offer would sit alongside an advance you already hold, read the stacking trap first; the combined payment is the number that has to fit.
For our own pricing: cost is quoted as a factor rate — a flat multiplier on the amount advanced — rather than as an APR. Across everything we fund, cost of capital runs from 4.5% to 45% depending on your qualifications and the term length, and every Full Send Funding offer states the total payback in plain dollars before you sign.
Ask every merchant cash advance company the same questions: who funds it, whether there is a UCC-1 lien or a confession of judgment, whether the credit pull is hard at any stage, how many charges there are, what the total payback is, what happens when sales slow or a payment is returned, which schedules are available, what the guarantee covers, when you can renew and whether you will be told why if you are declined. Get every answer in writing, compare offers on the dollars you receive and the dollars you repay, and walk away from pressure, from promises made before anyone has read your file, and from anything that will not go on paper.
If you would like to put these questions to us, check what you would qualify for in about a minute, apply once and let underwriting price the structures you qualify for, or call Travis Yule on 518-312-0382.
Ask every company the same questions and choose on the written answers rather than on the factor rate or the speed of the first call. The answers that separate one funder from another are who funds the advance, whether a UCC-1 lien or a confession of judgment is in the agreement, whether the credit pull is hard at any stage, every charge in dollars, the total payback, what happens when sales slow or a payment is returned, and what the personal guarantee covers. Then compare offers on the money that reaches your account and the total you repay.
Ask who funds the advance and whose name is on the agreement; whether a UCC-1 lien will be filed or a confession of judgment included; whether the credit pull is soft at every stage; how many charges there are and what each costs in dollars; what the total payback is; how payments are adjusted if sales slow; what triggers a default notice and what a returned payment costs; which payment schedules are available; what the personal guarantee covers; when renewal opens and what it is measured against; and whether you will be told why if you are declined.
Either can work. A broker or independent sales organisation can save time by matching your file to a funder, while going direct means the company you speak to is the one that funds and services the advance. Whichever you choose, ask who funds it, whose name is on the agreement and how many funders will see your file. We fund deals in house wherever we can. For specialized products and premium offerings we may place a deal with a direct lending partner, but only after talking through the options with you and only if you choose to; we never shop a file widely or pass it on to a broker.
A legitimate offer is in writing and names the funder, the amount that will reach your account, the total payback, every charge in dollars, the payment amount and schedule, and the date of the last payment. It stays open long enough to read and compare. It does not ask for a fee before it exists, and it does not promise approval before anyone has read your bank statements. If the agreement you are sent says something different from what you were told on the phone, the agreement is what counts, so ask for the difference in writing before you sign.
Pressure to sign the same day; a promise of approval before anyone has read your bank statements; a quoted factor rate with no total payback in writing; an application, processing or deposit fee asked for before there is a written offer; a promise that your credit will not be looked at in any form; and answers that change between the phone call and the contract. Any one of them is a reason to ask for everything in writing, and a funder that will not put its answers on paper has answered the question for you.
Travis Yule worked in business funding before starting Full Send Funding in 2021, and has more than five years in business funding in all. He leads the company from Middle Grove, New York, and writes about working capital from the underwriting side of the table — what the numbers actually have to say before a business gets funded.