What is a merchant cash advance and who is it for?

A merchant cash advance gives you a lump sum now, which you repay automatically as a share of the card payments your customers make. Because repayment moves with your takings, it flexes with how busy you are.

It is built for consumer-facing businesses that take card payments at the point of sale:

• Shops and retailers
• Pubs, restaurants and cafes
• Salons, gyms and similar service businesses

These businesses sell to the public and get paid on the spot, so they have no sales ledger of unpaid invoices to fund. That rules out invoice finance, and a merchant cash advance fills the gap instead. In our own book, every merchant cash advance we have arranged has gone to a consumer-facing business, split between hospitality and retail. That is not a coincidence, it is exactly the profile the product suits.

It is genuinely not the right tool for a business that invoices other businesses on terms, that is what invoice finance is for. And because repayment comes out of card sales, it works best where card volumes are steady and strong.

If your customers pay you by card at the till and you need a quick injection of cash, this is usually the product to look at. We will check it is the right fit and compare providers on cost.