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Merchant cash advance settlement in New Hampshire: the forum clause, the lien, and the number

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Your funder is not in New Hampshire. It is in or near New York, its contract names a New York court, and it is counting on the fact that a Portsmouth restaurant or a Nashua machine shop will not defend a case four hours south. That assumption is what the settlement number is built on.

Two things undercut it here, and neither has anything to do with the factor rate. The forum clause is not self executing in this state, and the lien the funder filed carries a twenty day duty and a price tag.

Stop counting APR. New Hampshire has no cap to exceed

RSA chapter 336 is the entire New Hampshire interest chapter and it is two sections long. Paragraph I sets the annual rate in business transactions at 10 percent, unless otherwise agreed upon in writing. Your funding agreement is that writing. It is a gap filler, and the gap closes the moment anyone signs.

The same paragraph pushes consumer credit transactions out to RSA 358-K:1, V, and RSA 358-K:1, III defines a consumer as a debtor other than an organization. An LLC is an organization. The one real number in the statutes is 36 percent at RSA 399-A:16, I, and RSA 399-A:1, XX puts it out of reach: a small loan must be $10,000 or less and for personal, family, or household use. A business advance fails both on purpose.

There is no criminal line either. Title LXII is the whole criminal code, chapters 625 through 651-F. No usury chapter, no loan sharking chapter, no extortionate credit chapter. A 180 percent effective rate on an ACH contract is not a crime in this state, and no rate makes it one. Any firm that opens on criminal usury is reading a New York script into a New Hampshire file.

Why the New York forum clause is not automatic here

New Hampshire adopted the Uniform Model Choice of Forum Act. Under RSA 508-A:3, when the parties agreed in writing that an action shall be brought only in another state and it is brought here, the court dismisses or stays the case unless one of five things is true.

Read paragraph IV. The agreement as to the place of the action was obtained by misrepresentation, duress, the abuse of economic power, or other unconscionable means. Paragraph V is a catch-all: it would for some other reason be unfair or unreasonable to enforce the agreement. Paragraph II reaches a plaintiff who cannot secure effective relief in the chosen state.

Abuse of economic power is not a metaphor when the counterparty is a business signing a twelve page adhesion contract in an afternoon to make payroll on Friday. This does not automatically void a forum clause. It gives a New Hampshire court a statutory reason to decline enforcement, and it gives the file a value the funder did not price in. No New Hampshire decision applying paragraph IV to a merchant advance was opened for this page, so treat it as a statutory argument rather than settled authority.

If a New York judgment is filed against you here

New Hampshire has no confession of judgment statute and no rule permitting one. The published Superior Court Rules return zero hits for confession of judgment, cognovit, or warrant of attorney. The one statute that names the device, RSA 399-A:15, VI and VIII(b), bans it only for licensees in small loan contracts, which do not reach a business advance.

So the funder takes the judgment where it can and files it here. RSA 524-A:2 lets an authenticated foreign judgment be filed with the clerk of any district or superior court, treated as a New Hampshire judgment, and, in the words of the statute, subject to the same procedures, defenses and proceedings for reopening, vacating, or staying as a judgment of a court of this state.

1. Fifteen days. RSA 524-A:3, III bars execution or other enforcement process for 15 days after filing. That is a real window and it is short. Calendar it the day you learn of the filing.
2. Ten days. Superior Court Rule 43 gives ten days from the court's written notice to move to set aside a verdict or decree.
3. An affidavit, not a letter. Rule 42(a) strikes a default only on motion plus an affidavit of defense that specifically sets out the defense and the facts it rests on. A general denial does nothing.
4. Twenty years. RSA 508:5 gives actions of debt on judgments twenty years. Ignoring a domesticated judgment is not a strategy.

The lien, the twenty day clock, and the New Hampshire wrinkle

The blanket filing on your accounts and general intangibles sits with the Secretary of State under RSA 382-A:9-501(a)(2). It is what a bank sees when you go looking for real financing, and it survives a settlement that never mentioned it.

RSA 382-A:9-513(c) gives the secured party twenty days after receiving your signed demand to send or file a termination statement, where nothing is owed and no commitment to give value remains. Subsection (e) is the part New Hampshire wrote that the uniform text does not have: the demand is deemed received if it is sent to the record address of the secured party of record. Send it there and the clock runs whether or not anyone opens the envelope.

If the twenty days pass, RSA 382-A:9-509(d)(2) lets you file the termination yourself, provided it says you authorized it. RSA 382-A:9-625(e) adds $500 per case against a party that filed what it was not entitled to file or failed to terminate, and subsection (b) prices the real loss, naming the inability to obtain, or the increased cost of, alternative financing. The declined refinance is a named category of damages here, not a theory.

What a New Hampshire advance settles for

Typical settlement runs about 46 cents on the dollar, against an average advance of $25,000 and an average timeline of about six months across all file types. Attorney-led work on a single advance runs 2 to 8 weeks. A stack of three to five funders runs 3 to 12 months, because order matters and each funder watches what the last one accepted.

One documented Granite State file: a salon carrying $55,000 in advances settled for $23,100. That is 42 cents and $31,900 off the balance.

Retail and e-commerce account for the largest share of MCA use in this state at 28 percent, restaurants next at 25 percent, construction and trades at 23. Those are seasonal receipts businesses, which is exactly why the reconciliation clause matters more here than the rate does: a funder that will not adjust the draw when February arrives has ignored its own contract, and that record is what moves the number.

What to do before the next draw clears

1. Pull every agreement and read three clauses: reconciliation, the forum and choice of law paragraph, and the security interest grant.
2. Look for a written statement of the finance charge in dollars. RSA 399-B:2 required one at consummation.
3. Run a UCC search at the Secretary of State and print what is filed against your entity.
4. If a judgment has been filed here, note the date. Fifteen days under RSA 524-A:3, III, ten days under Superior Court Rule 43.
5. Do not take another advance to cover this one, and do not close the account the debits hit without advice.
6. Have the contracts read. Two days, no charge.