About Business Cash Advances

We publish independent research on UK business cash advances: what they cost, how the factor rate and the holdback actually work, and how the providers compare. We also arrange advances as a broker, which is set out in full below.

Why the site exists

Merchant cash advances are sold on convenience and speed, and priced in a unit that does not compare with anything else on the market. A factor rate of 1.25 sounds modest next to a double-digit interest rate. Converted properly it is usually not. Most of what is written about the product online is either provider marketing or a broker landing page dressed as a guide, and neither shows the arithmetic.

So we show it. Every cost page carries a worked example, every calculator exposes its inputs, and every provider review states what we checked and when. If the honest answer to an enquiry is that a cash advance is the wrong product, we say that instead of quoting.

How we review providers

Reviews follow the same method every time, and we would rather be slow and correct than fast and vague.

Where the facts come from

We use three sources and no others. First, the provider's own website and published terms, including the pre-contract summaries and any product documentation they make available. Second, Companies House, for the registered entity, incorporation date, filing history and group structure, so a brand that reads as long-established can be checked against the company actually behind it. Third, the Financial Services Register, where a firm holds FCA permissions, so we can state the exact permission rather than repeat a badge.

We do not rely on aggregator listings, affiliate roundups or press releases for pricing. Where a provider does not publish a figure, we say the figure is not published rather than estimating one and presenting it as fact. Where we quote a market range, for example factor rates of 1.1 to 1.5, it is labelled as a typical range and not as any particular provider's pricing.

What each review covers

How the provider prices, including whether fees sit outside the factor rate. What the eligibility criteria look like in practice. The kind of business it genuinely suits, and the kind it does not. How funds are collected, and whether that ties you to a card acquirer. And the three closest alternatives worth quoting alongside it, because a single quote is not a comparison.

Ratings

We do not publish star ratings or aggregate scores. A number implies a precision we cannot evidence from public information, and invented ratings are exactly the problem this site was built to avoid.

How often we update

Every provider review is reviewed at least twice a year, and sooner if a provider changes its published pricing, its eligibility criteria or its corporate structure. Cost pages and calculators are checked quarterly against the ranges we see in live enquiries. Each page carries the date it was last checked, and that date changes only when the content has genuinely been re-verified, never as a byproduct of a site rebuild.

If you find a figure that has moved or a fact that has gone stale, email enquiries@businesscashadvances.co.uk and we will check it and correct it.

Editorial independence

No provider pays for coverage, for a position in a comparison, or for the wording of a review. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting for any provider named on this site, and provider names are used descriptively to identify the companies being compared. Reviews are editorial opinion based on publicly available information at the date shown; they are not financial advice and not a recommendation to use any particular provider.

Rankings are set on cost transparency, eligibility breadth and how clearly a provider states the four numbers that matter: the advance, the factor rate, the total to be delivered and the holdback. Commercial arrangements play no part in ordering.

How the site makes money

Openly, and in one way. When a reader enquires and we go on to arrange an advance, the funder pays us a commission on completion. You pay us nothing, and the fee does not increase the cost of your advance. Some pages carry links to our sister site merchantservicescashadvances.co.uk, which is part of the same business.

That is a real commercial interest and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The mitigations are the ones you can check: we publish the maths rather than asserting conclusions, we tell readers when an advance is the wrong product, and no provider can buy its way into or out of a comparison. If a page ever reads as though it were written to generate an enquiry rather than to answer a question, tell us.

Who writes this

Business Cash Advances is run by Matt Lenzie, founder of Lenzie Consulting Ltd, company number 08174104. Matt Lenzie has 25 years in UK commercial finance and has arranged more than £500m of funding. Much of that career was spent on the lender side, which is where you learn how a headline number is constructed and what it leaves out.

I spent most of my career on the lender side of commercial finance, which is where you learn what a headline number actually hides. Factor rates are the clearest example: 1.25 sounds small next to a double-digit interest rate, and it very often is not. This site exists to show the working.

What we do commercially

We are a finance arranger and introducer, not a lender or funding provider. We compare the market and arrange business cash advances, merchant cash advances and revenue-based funding for UK businesses, typically £5,000 to £500,000 against card takings. There is no charge to enquire and no obligation to proceed.

Legal and regulatory position

Business Cash Advances is a trading name of Lenzie Consulting Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 08174104, registered office Lynch Farm, Kensworth, Dunstable, LU6 3QZ. A merchant cash advance is the purchase of an agreed amount of your future card receivables at a discount. It is not a loan, so there is no interest rate and no fixed monthly repayment. Advances to limited companies are unregulated commercial agreements that sit outside the Financial Conduct Authority's consumer credit perimeter; agreements with sole traders and smaller partnerships can fall within the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and where an agreement would be regulated we refer it to an appropriately authorised firm. We are a finance arranger and introducer, not a lender or funding provider, and we do not give financial, legal or tax advice. Our comparisons and provider reviews are editorial, prepared from publicly available information at the date shown, and are not financial advice or a recommendation to use any provider. Indicative figures and calculator outputs are illustrative only and are not an offer of finance.