Credit sets the price, deposits set the approval
On short term food service programs, personal credit is a pricing input. The approval decision leans on 3 to 6 months of business bank statements: average daily balance, deposit count, and how many days the account went negative.
A 580 score with 90 clean days and consistent deposits is a stronger file than a 700 score with 6 overdrafts last quarter.
What is actually available below 600
Three programs approve regularly in that range, at different costs.
- /Equipment financing: the equipment secures the transaction, so this is the most accessible option. Expect 10 to 20 percent down.
- /Merchant cash advance: priced with a factor rate, funds in 1 to 3 business days, and costs the most in total dollars. Right for emergencies, wrong for growth.
- /Short term working capital: available at some programs with strong deposits, at shorter terms and higher cost than a clean file would see.
The 3 things that get files declined
Negative balance days. More than 3 in a month reads as an operation that cannot absorb a payment. This is fixable in 90 days.
Undisclosed advances. Underwriting sees remittances in the bank statements regardless of what the application says, and a missing disclosure ends the file on trust rather than math.
An unfiled tax year. It blocks SBA outright and raises questions on everything else.
A 90 day plan to move up a tier
Stop the overdrafts first. Even a small buffer that prevents negative days changes the file more than a score increase would.
Consolidate or pay down any existing advance rather than adding a second one. Stacked remittances are the single strongest decline signal in food service underwriting.
Deposit every day you operate. Batching card settlements and cash deposits weekly makes revenue look thinner than it is.
What it costs to borrow now instead of later
The premium for a weak file is real, and it is worth paying when the alternative is lost revenue. A dead walk-in or a payroll that has to clear tomorrow does not wait 90 days.
Planned growth is different. Expansion has time on its side, and time is exactly what makes cheaper capital available.
Calculator
Merchant cash advance true cost
A factor rate is not an interest rate. Enter the advance, the factor, and how long repayment realistically takes at your card volume. The total dollars are fixed. The annualized cost is not, because paying it back faster raises it.
Typically 1.15 to 1.50. Ask for it in writing.
Daily weekday remittance is 5. Weekly is 1.
Repayment scales with card volume, so a strong month shortens the term without lowering the total. Faster repayment of the same fixed cost raises the APR.
Your numbers are ready
Tell us about the operation and the results open up.
The math above runs on your inputs. Send the request and the figures unlock on this page, a specialist reviews what you entered, and you get written options to compare. No credit application, no hard pull.
We email you a copy of these figures. They are estimates for planning, not an offer, a quote, or a preapproval of any kind.
The arithmetic
Total repaid = advance x factor. Cost = total repaid - advance. Payment = total repaid / number of payments. APR is solved from the payment stream by internal rate of return, then annualized as periodic rate x payments per year.
Sources
- 1Factor rates are not interest rates and do not disclose an APRFederal Trade Commission. FTC guidance on merchant cash advance and small business financing marketing, on cost disclosure and the difference between a factor rate and a periodic interest rate.
- 2Annual percentage rate definition, 12 CFR 1026.22Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation Z. APR is the nominal annual rate that discounts a payment stream back to the amount advanced. We solve it numerically from the payment schedule and multiply the periodic rate by the number of periods per year.
- 3California and New York require APR disclosure on commercial financingCalifornia Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Commercial Financing Disclosure Regulations under SB 1235 require an annualized rate disclosure on sales based financing, which is why an estimated APR is the right comparison across offers.
Estimates, not offers: Amounts, terms, and funding times are estimates based on programs commonly available in food service. Actual terms vary by program, lender underwriting, time in business, revenue, and credit profile. Nothing here is an offer of credit or a guarantee of approval.