Can't afford your MCA payments? Do this, in this order
When the drafts outrun revenue, the next few decisions matter more than the last few months did. Here's the triage order that protects your options, and the three moves that quietly destroy them.
Your triage plan, step by step
Map everything
Every advance, balance, draft, and your real weekly revenue, on one page. You can't negotiate a picture you don't have.
Check reconciliation rights
Many contracts let you demand the payment match actual revenue. Where the clause exists, a reconciliation can cut the draft fast.
Protect the essentials
Rent, payroll, and the suppliers that keep revenue flowing come first. A business that stops operating loses all its leverage.
Restructure for good
A settlement program negotiates balances down and replaces the drafts with one payment, with draft relief usually inside 30 to 90 days.
The three moves that destroy your options
Owners in a cash crunch reach for fast fixes. These three feel like relief and work like quicksand.
Another advance. Covering drafts with new borrowing is the renewal trap and the birth of every stack we unwind. It converts a solvable problem into a compounding one.
Blindly blocking the drafts. Freezing the account without a strategy is an instant default trigger that hands the funder its remedies on its schedule. If drafts need to stop, it should happen inside a negotiation plan.
Phone promises. Collection teams are trained to extract commitments from stressed owners. Every broken promise becomes ammunition later. Say less, document more, and route the pressure to professionals.
Relief options, fastest first
How bad is it? Be honest with these
The more of these are true, the faster you should move.
You've already missed or nearly missed a draft this month.
Rent, payroll, or taxes are sliding so drafts can clear.
You're carrying more than one advance.
You're seriously considering a new advance just to cover drafts.
Personal savings are going into the business account before draft time.
A funder has already mentioned default or legal action.
Can't afford MCA payments FAQ
Get the full picture on paper before anything else: every advance, its balance, its draft schedule, and your true weekly revenue. Then get a professional review. The wrong first moves, taking another advance, blindly blocking drafts, or making phone promises to collectors, all shrink your options. The right first move costs nothing: a free, confidential consultation.
Often, yes. Many MCA contracts include a reconciliation clause that lets you demand the payment be adjusted to match actual revenue. Beyond that, funders will sometimes renegotiate terms, and a settlement program can restructure the whole picture into one affordable monthly payment. Default is not a prerequisite for relief.
No. Borrowing from advance D to pay advances A through C is how stacks form and how the renewal trap closes. It buys days, costs a new factor rate, and makes every later option more expensive. If you're considering it, that's the clearest sign it's time for a structural fix instead.
Reconciliation is a contract right, present in many MCA agreements, to have your payment adjusted to match your actual revenue, because an MCA is legally a purchase of future receipts, not a fixed loan payment. Where the clause exists, a properly documented demand can reduce the draft quickly. It's a strong stopgap while a bigger fix is built.
In a settlement program, drafts are typically paused or renegotiated within the first 30 to 90 days, and a reconciliation demand can move faster where the contract supports it. The longer the account drains before you act, the less cash is left to fund the fix, so speed genuinely matters.
The drafts won't fix themselves.
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