8 Questions to Ask Before Hiring Any MCA Relief Firm

Open with the one question a script cannot survive: which of my funders have you closed with in the last ninety days, and at what range. Then ask about the guarantee release, the UCC-3 terminations, and what happens to your fee if you leave in month four. Delancey Street ranks first on these answers.

• Name your funders and ask for recent results by name. Category averages are not an answer.
• A release of the company is not a release of you. The guarantor has to be named in the document.
• Settlements close every week without a UCC-3. The stale lien then shows up in your next lender's search.
• One reviewer describes sending MCA contracts, then learning 15 to 20 minutes later that her state was not served.

The screening questions everyone knows are about fees and licences, and any competent salesperson has those answers memorized. These eight are different. Each one has a factual answer that can be produced, or cannot.

Send them by email and ask for a written reply before you send a single contract. A firm that answers seven and dodges one has told you where the gap is, and the gap is always the thing that hurts in month six.

Which of my funders have you closed with in the last ninety days, and at what range

Name the funders on your file when you ask. Not the industry, the four companies pulling from your account.

Every funder has a personality: one that pays a settlement desk to close files, one that pushes everything to outside counsel, one that will not move until an answer is filed. A firm that works these files knows which is which, and can say so about your specific list without hesitating.

The wrong answer is a category average. MCAs settle at 30 to 60 cents is a fact about the industry, not evidence of a relationship. Ninety days matters too, because collection policies change with a funder's own cash position.

Nobody should promise you a number before reading your agreements. But a firm that has never closed with the funder holding your largest advance is learning on your file.

Under what facts would you tell me not to hire you

This is the question that sorts the field fastest, because it invites the firm to argue against its own revenue.

Real disqualifiers exist and a firm that works these files can list them without prompting. Revenue has stopped, so there is nothing to fund a settlement with. A judgment is already entered and enforcement has begun, which is a motion before it is a negotiation. Personal guarantee exposure exceeds anything the business could earn. Payroll tax is unpaid, which no funder settlement touches. A landlord is already moving.

The answer that ends the call is that settlement helps everyone. It does not, and a firm that has never sent an owner to bankruptcy counsel is selling a program rather than assessing a company.

Listen for how quickly the list arrives. It should be immediate.

Will the settlement release name me personally, and can I see one you have signed

You signed a personal guarantee on every advance. A settlement that releases the company does not release you unless the document says your name.

This is not theoretical. Files close, the merchant celebrates the discount, and eighteen months later a collector calls the guarantor about the deficiency, holding paper that was never released. The reduction was real. The exposure never moved, it just changed name from the company to you.

So ask for a redacted copy of an executed settlement agreement, with the names and numbers blacked out, and read who is released. Ask whether the release is general or limited to the amounts paid, and whether it survives if a payment is late.

A firm that has closed real files can produce one in a day.

Who files the UCC-3 terminations, and by what date after the money clears

Each funder filed a UCC-1 against your receivables. Paying the settlement does not remove it. Someone has to file the termination, and in practice that someone is frequently nobody.

The consequence arrives later, when you apply for equipment financing, an SBA package or a line of credit and the underwriter runs the search. Stale blanket liens from funders you settled with two years ago read as live encumbrances until they are cleared, and clearing them retroactively means chasing a company that has no reason to answer your email.

Ask for the termination obligation to sit inside the settlement agreement itself, with a named responsible party and a number of days. Then ask who confirms the filing actually posted.

A firm that has never been asked this has never watched a client apply for credit afterward.

Do you take files in my state, and can you confirm that before I send documents

Ask it in the first two minutes, in writing, before a single agreement leaves your inbox. Coverage is not uniform across the category and a national website is not a national footprint.

One Trustpilot reviewer describes exactly how it goes wrong: "I explained my situation and provided copies of our MCA contracts only to be told 15-20 minutes later that they don't service Washington State and referred to another company". The contracts had already been sent. That is your paperwork, in a stranger's system, for a file nobody will work.

Ask the second half too. If you do not work my state, who do you refer to, and are you paid for the referral. A paid referral is a fee layer between you and the person doing the work, and it should be disclosed before you agree to the introduction.

Who is my named contact, and what response time goes in the engagement letter

The most consistent complaint in this category is not theft. It is silence after signing.

One Trustpilot reviewer put it plainly about a national firm: "They are very aggressive in getting you to sign for the program but once your in, you Get pushed to the back burner". The person selling you is rarely the person working the file, and the handoff is where files stall.

So get a name, a direct line and a written response window before you sign. Ask what happens when that person is unavailable, who covers, and how you are told about a settlement offer that carries a 48 hour deadline.

Ask for a status cadence in the engagement letter as well: how often you get an update in writing, and what it contains. Vague reassurance now is silence later.

What happens to my file and my fee if I stop in month four

Programs run for months, businesses change in weeks, and the exit terms are written long before anyone tells you about them.

Ask four things. What is refunded if you terminate before a settlement closes. Whether any fee is treated as earned on enrollment rather than on results. What happens to money sitting in a program account, whose name it is in, and how quickly it comes back. And whether a fee is owed on advances that settle after you leave.

Then ask what you receive on the way out: the correspondence with each funder, the offers made and refused, and the settlement documents. That file is worth real money to whoever picks the work up.

Get all of it in the agreement. Nobody negotiates exit terms during an exit.

What is the first document you send the funder, and can I read it

This question gets you closer to the actual work product than anything else on the list, and almost nobody asks it.

Ask for a redacted sample of the opening letter that goes to a funder. Read what it argues. A letter that says the merchant is struggling and would like to discuss a reduced payoff is a request. A letter that recites the reconciliation request submitted on a date with revenue documentation attached and never answered, and identifies the fees the agreement never authorized, is a position.

Ask what goes out first as well. A written reconciliation request to each funder builds the record whether or not anyone answers, and a firm that skips it has given up the cheapest leverage in the file.

Read the letter. It is the product.

How we evaluated this

Twelve firms were scored against the six weighted criteria at left, using these eight questions as the interview. Attorney involvement carries the heaviest weight because questions three, four and eight all come down to what a firm can put in a document and defend.

Fee transparency was scored on the basis and on the exit terms, not the headline percentage. A firm that states plainly what is refunded on termination in month four was scored above one that quotes a range and explains it on a call.

Any firm offering or referring new funding to owners in advance distress was excluded. Scoring used company fee disclosures, BBB profiles and CFPB complaint data current through the updated date above.

Questions owners ask

What is the single best question to ask an MCA relief firm?

Which of my funders have you closed with in the last ninety days, and at what range. Name your actual funders when you ask. It cannot be answered from a script, it reveals whether the firm has a relationship with the company holding your largest advance, and it separates real work from a category average about 30 to 60 cents.

Does a settlement release my personal guarantee?

Only if the document names you. A release of the company's obligation leaves the guarantee where the paperwork left it, which means the exposure moves from the business to you rather than disappearing. Ask to read a redacted executed settlement before you sign anything, and check whether the release is general or limited to the amounts paid.

Why does a UCC-3 termination matter after I settle?

Because the funder's UCC-1 stays on the record until someone files the termination. Your next equipment lender, line of credit underwriter or SBA package reader runs a search and sees a live blanket lien. Put the termination obligation inside the settlement agreement with a named responsible party and a date.

Should I send my contracts on the first call?

Not before the firm confirms in writing that it works files in your state. One reviewer describes providing MCA contracts and being told 15 to 20 minutes later that her state was not serviced. Ask about coverage, and about whether the firm is paid for any referral it makes when it cannot help.

What should the engagement letter say about communication?

A named contact with a direct line, a written response window, who covers when that person is out, and how often you get a status update in writing. The most common complaint in this category is silence after signing, and the handoff from the salesperson to the file handler is where it starts.

What happens to my money if I leave the program early?

Ask before you enroll. What is refunded, whether any fee is treated as earned on enrollment rather than on results, whose name is on any program account, how fast the balance returns, and whether fees are owed on advances that settle after you go. Get the answers in the agreement, not on a call.

Is it a good sign if a firm tells me not to hire it?

It is one of the best. Real disqualifiers exist: no revenue to fund a settlement, a judgment already being enforced, unpaid payroll tax, guarantee exposure larger than the business could ever earn. A firm that has never referred an owner to bankruptcy counsel is selling a program rather than assessing a company.

What should the first letter to a funder contain?

The record, not a plea. The date a reconciliation request was submitted and the documentation attached to it, the fact that it went unanswered, and any fees charged that the agreement never authorized. Ask for a redacted sample before you sign. That letter is the product you are buying.

The bottom line

Send all eight by email and require written answers before you send a contract. The two that eliminate most of the field are the funder-specific results question and the request to see a redacted settlement release, because both require a real closed file to answer. Confirm your state is covered before anything leaves your inbox.

A free contract review costs nothing and takes a day or two. Call (888) 837-7053, or send the agreements to Delancey Street for a straight read on your options.