Merchant cash advance
The fastest money on this site.
Also the most expensive.
A merchant cash advance is not a loan. It is a sale of a slice of your future credit and debit card sales for a lump sum today, priced with a factor rate instead of an interest rate, and collected daily or weekly straight out of your deposits. Busy Bee Services places these files with lenders who can fund in 24 hours or less, no minimum credit score, every industry eligible. Read the next few sections before you sign anything. Speed like this is worth paying for once in a while. It is not something to lean on every month.
The mechanics
What you are actually buying and selling
Start with the name. It is called an advance, not a loan, because that is what it legally is. The company funding it is not lending you a principal that accrues interest while you carry a balance. It is purchasing a fixed slice of your future credit and debit card sales for a lump sum paid today. That difference is not a technicality. It changes how the cost is calculated and what happens if a week runs slow.
A term loan is priced with an interest rate that accrues over time on a shrinking balance. An advance is priced with a factor rate, a flat multiplier applied once. Take $30,000 at a factor of 1.30 and the total owed is $39,000, fixed on the day you sign, no matter whether you pay it back in three months or nine. There is no amortization schedule and no declining balance the way a term loan has one.
Repayment comes out daily or weekly, either as a set ACH pull from your business bank account or as a percentage split off each card transaction as it processes. Either structure assumes money keeps moving through that account on a normal schedule. A slow week does not pause the payment. That is the part worth sitting with before you apply.
Right tool, wrong tool
When this is the right call, and when it is not
The speed is real. So is the cost. What separates a smart use from a bad one is what the money is actually for.
Right for a real opportunity or a real emergency
- A supplier discount or bulk buy that pays for itself faster than the advance costs
- A contract or job that pays well but needs payroll and materials covered before the invoice clears
- Equipment that failed and is costing you revenue for every day it sits broken
Wrong for a recurring shortfall
If rent or payroll has come up short for a few months running, an advance does not fix that. It adds a daily payment on top of a gap that was already there, and the gap does not close on its own. The same is true if the plan is to use this advance to make the payment on a different advance, or if you already expect to need another one next quarter. That pattern has a name, and it is not a good one. It is called stacking, and the next section is about why it is dangerous.
Stacking
Why a second advance is worse than it looks
Stacking means taking a second cash advance while the first one is still being collected. Two daily or weekly debits now hit the same account instead of one, and both were sized against a business that, on paper, had only the first payment to make. Once the second advance starts, the math behind the first one no longer holds, because the cash flow it was calculated against now has a bigger claim on it than it did the day you signed.
Almost nobody sets out to stack. It usually starts with an advance that felt manageable in the application and tighter once the daily pulls actually started. A second advance covers that gap for a few weeks, and then the combined payment is tighter than the first one ever was alone. That is the recurring shortfall problem from the section above, compounding itself.
Say so when you apply. A lender needs to know what is already coming out of that account before pricing a second file, and you should know exactly how the two payments stack against your actual deposits before agreeing to either one.
The specifics
What is available right now
Funding in 24 hours or less
Merchant cash advance
- Credit minimumNone
- PaymentsDaily or weekly
- IndustriesAll eligible
Busy Bee Services is a financing intermediary, not a lender. We do not fund advances ourselves. We take the file, match it to lenders whose programs fit a business like yours, and bring back the structures actually available so you can compare the real cost against the real need.
Figures above are third party lender program ranges. They are subject to underwriting and approval and are not an offer or commitment to lend.
Common questions
Before you apply
Is a merchant cash advance a loan?
No. It is a purchase of a fixed slice of your future credit and debit card sales in exchange for a lump sum today. It is priced with a factor rate rather than an interest rate, and there is no amortization schedule the way a term loan has one.
What is a factor rate?
A factor rate is a flat multiplier applied once, not a percentage that accrues over time. An advance of $30,000 at a factor of 1.30 means $39,000 owed in total, fixed on the day you sign, regardless of how quickly you pay it down.
How do the payments actually come out?
Daily or weekly, either as a set ACH pull from your business bank account or as a percentage split off each card transaction as it processes. The structure depends on the lender and the file.
Does my credit score or industry rule me out?
There is no minimum credit score for this program, and every industry is eligible. Approval turns on your deposits and sales history, not on a credit file.
What if I already have an advance running?
Tell us before you apply. Two payments pulling from the same account is called stacking, and it can turn a manageable payment into one your deposits cannot support. We would rather talk through it honestly than submit a file that sets you up to fail.
Is this ever the wrong choice?
Yes, and we will tell you so. If the need is a recurring shortfall rather than a one time opportunity or emergency, a daily payment on top of that gap usually makes things worse, not better. Programs available elsewhere on this site may fit that situation better.
Know what you are signing before the money moves.
One application, no credit pull, no fee. If an advance is the wrong tool for your situation, you will be told that plainly instead of being pushed into one.