What a business cash advance costs
Advances are priced as a factor rate, typically 1.1 to 1.5, and collected as a holdback on your daily card takings, typically 5% to 20%. Neither figure tells you the annualised cost on its own. These pages show the conversion, the fees that sit outside the factor rate, and what the same deal looks like at different card sales volumes.
Factor Rate vs APR
Factor rate versus APR explained: the conversion maths, worked tables showing how the same 1.25 factor rate produces very different APR equivalents, and why no APR is quoted.
CostsMerchant Cash Advance Examples
Three worked merchant cash advance examples: a cafe borrowing 8,000 pounds with a month by month schedule, a restaurant at 30,000 and a retailer at 60,000, with real costs.
CostsMerchant Cash Advance Rates
What merchant cash advance rates really mean: factor rates of typically 1.1 to 1.5, holdback percentages, worked examples and the fees to ask about.
CostsWhat Is a Factor Rate?
A factor rate is a decimal multiplier that fixes the total repayable on a cash advance. The formula, the typical 1.1 to 1.5 range, worked examples and why funders use it.
The rule we apply to every figure on this site: a cost is only comparable if you know the advance, the factor rate, the total to be delivered and the holdback. Ask a provider for those four numbers in writing before you sign. If any of them is missing, the quote cannot be compared with anything.
Have a factor rate you want sense-checked?
Send us the advance, the factor rate and your monthly card takings. We will tell you what it costs in cash and in annualised terms, and whether the market would price it differently.