Kansas MCA debt relief companies, ranked for the defense2026 rankings, and the arguments that survive K.S.A. 16-207

Defending a Kansas merchant cash advance: the statutes that work here and the one that does not

Most MCA defense writing was drafted for New York and copied everywhere else. In Kansas the copy falls apart at the first sentence. There is no criminal usury statute in this state. The Revisor's own full-text search returns seven sections for usury and not one of them creates an offense. Nobody is referring your funder to a prosecutor over a factor rate.

That is not the end of the file. It is the start of a different one. Three Kansas statutes give a merchant real ground, and two of them are almost never argued because the guides that mention Kansas were not written about Kansas. Here is what a defense is actually built from, in the order you would build it.

Why the rate argument dies before it starts in Kansas

K.S.A. 16-207(a) lets parties to a written instrument stipulate for interest up to 15 percent a year. Read four subsections down. Subsection (e)(5) says (a) shall not apply to a business or agricultural transaction, defined in the same sentence as credit made primarily for purposes other than personal, family or household. That is your advance. Kansas does not lower the ceiling for a business deal. It removes it.

The Revisor prints the case law right under the text: usury laws do not apply to a transaction for business or agricultural purposes, Wight v. Agristor Leasing, 652 F. Supp. 1000, 1014 (D. Kan. 1987). Both roads lead to the same place. Win recharacterization and you have a business loan with no cap. Lose it and there is a purchase of receivables with no interest to measure.

If your merchant entity is a corporation, K.S.A. 17-7105 closes the door twice: no corporation shall plead any statute against usury in a suit to enforce an obligation it issued or assumed. Note the word. Corporation. Not LLC, and it does not name the guarantor. Largely academic here, because (e)(5) already took the ceiling away for every business form.

K.S.A. 16-205(a) and the acceleration clause nobody reads

Kansas wrote one interest statute without a business carve-out anywhere in it. K.S.A. 16-205(a): any bond, note, bill or other contract for the payment of money which in effect provides that any interest or charges or any higher rate shall accrue as a penalty for any default shall be void as to that provision. No exemption for commercial paper. None for a corporation.

The Kansas Supreme Court applied that section to a two million dollar commercial note with a personal guaranty in Wagnon v. Slawson Exploration Co., 255 Kan. 500 (1994), so it reaches business paper the way 16-207(a) does not. Know the line the court drew. A higher rate running forward from the date of default is not a penalty. A charge that reaches back to the date of the paper is.

Now put that question to the clause in front of you. One ACH bounces and the funder demands the entire uncollected premium as of that day. It is asking to be paid a charge measured from funding, triggered by a default. Nobody has run that argument at a merchant cash advance in a reported Kansas case. The statute is broad, the holding reaches commercial paper, and no funder wants a written opinion on it.

The Kansas Consumer Protection Act reaches business purposes, if you are the right entity

Most state consumer statutes end their definition of consumer at the word household. Kansas keeps writing. K.S.A. 50-624(b): consumer means an individual, husband and wife, sole proprietor or family partnership who seeks or acquires property or services for personal, family, household, business or agricultural purposes.

Then read K.S.A. 50-627, which reads like it was drafted for a funding file. It is unconscionable where there was no reasonable probability of payment of the obligation in full, (b)(4), and where the transaction was excessively one-sided in favor of the supplier, (b)(5). Unconscionability is a question for the court. K.S.A. 50-636(a) sets a penalty up to $10,000 per violation and 50-634(e) shifts fees.

The limit is hard, so check it first. The list is individual, husband and wife, sole proprietor, family partnership. CIT Group v. E-Z Pay Used Cars, 29 Kan. App. 2d 676 (2001) holds the act does not extend to a corporate organization, and an LLC is not on the list either. First Nat'l Bank of Anthony v. Dunning, 18 Kan. App. 2d 518 (1993) holds a surety who acquired nothing has no claim of his own, so the guarantee is not the way in. Sole proprietor, yes. LLC, no.

There is no Kansas courthouse counter for a confessed judgment

Kansas neither authorizes nor voids a commercial confession of judgment. Chapter 60 contains no judgment by confession procedure at all. The two statutes voiding such an authorization are both consumer provisions: K.S.A. 16a-3-306 and K.S.A. 9-2225(b). Neither touches a business advance.

So the realistic Kansas fight is a judgment entered somewhere else. The funder takes it in New York, then files an authenticated copy with the clerk of a Kansas district court under K.S.A. 60-3002, which requires a Kansas-licensed attorney to file it. Read the sentence that follows. The filed judgment is subject to the same procedures, defenses and proceedings as a Kansas judgment. Same defenses. That is the opening.

Two clocks then start. K.S.A. 60-3003 requires an affidavit with your last known address and prompt mailed notice, and a defective affidavit is a procedural attack that exists before anyone reaches the merits. K.S.A. 60-260(c)(1) caps a motion for mistake, newly discovered evidence or fraud at one year after entry. A judgment attacked as void under 60-260(b)(4) carries no fixed cap. Which ground you move on decides how long you have.

The lien, the 20 days, and the refinancing you cannot get

The funder's blanket filing sits with the Secretary of State in Topeka, K.S.A. 84-9-501(a)(2). It is there whether the deal is a loan or a true sale, because K.S.A. 84-9-109(a)(3) applies Article 9 to a sale of accounts. Calling it a purchase does not take it out of the filing system.

Send an authenticated demand and K.S.A. 84-9-513(c) gives the funder 20 days. Make the demand under both (c)(1) and (c)(2), because a funder selling a true sale will point at the carve-out in (c)(1) for accounts that have been sold. Subsection (c)(2) covers exactly that case. Blow the 20 days and K.S.A. 84-9-509(d)(2) lets you file the termination yourself.

The penalty is $500 per failure under K.S.A. 84-9-625(e)(4). Small number. Subsection (b) is the one worth pleading: loss caused by the failure may include loss resulting from the debtor's inability to obtain, or increased costs of, alternative financing. The stale lien blocking your next credit line is named in the statute. One Kansas wrinkle, in the Secretary of State's own words: continuations and other amendments are accepted after a termination is filed. Clearing the record does not lock it. Pull the search again a month later.

Which deadline is running, and what to pull together

Three periods control a Kansas file and they are not the same length. K.S.A. 60-511(1) gives five years on any agreement, contract or promise in writing, covering the funding agreement and a written guaranty. K.S.A. 60-512(1) gives three years on anything not in writing. K.S.A. 60-512(2) gives three years on a liability created by statute, which is where a Kansas Consumer Protection Act claim sits. Calendar the KCPA clock separately.

Pull five things this week. Every funding agreement with its signature pages. The acceleration and default sections, marked, so someone can test them against 16-205(a). Ninety days of bank statements showing the debits and the bounces. Your formation documents, because the entity decides whether the KCPA is open to you. And a fresh UCC search from Topeka.

Do not sign a new advance to cover the last one. Do not close the account the debits hit without advice, because that reads as a breach in most of these contracts. Then have the paper read. A review takes a day or two and tells you which of the arguments above is actually in your documents.