A new site devoted to merchant cash advance reviews, news, and information has been launched – http://www.merchantcashadvances.org.
A merchant cash advance is a method of private lending whereby the lender purchases future credit card receivables at a discounted rate. The transaction is actually not a loan, because there is a purchase and sales agreement. The lender makes his return on the investment by charging a flat rate fee for the money advanced, and collects this through the merchant's credit card machine by taking a percentage every time he batches out.
There has not been an informative site about the industry that educates the merchant on what really is involved in the process when taking out a merchant cash advance. Merchantcashadvances.org gives a step by step guide that explains all the different options that merchants have. Because this industry is so new, most merchants don't know yet of this form of financing and so they don't even know what questions to ask. These questions are asked and answered on this new site. Furthermore merchant's are encouraged to post their questions about merchant cash advances, and they will be answered.
In addition lenders and brokers are competing in an unregulated industry with no real standards. Merchantcashadvances.org aims to create these standards in this relatively new and unknown industry. The online marketing in the industry has simply turned into a Google Adword's competition, as lenders are purchasing more and more keywords and ramping up the prices of advertisement. In reality, the consumer, the merchant in this case, does not really know which companies can provide them with the best lending for their industry, at the best rates and with the best customer support. Private lenders are encouraged to submit their programs to Merchantcashadvances.org for review. Each lender is given an overall ranking score after having been evaluated for various criteria.
