Is Union First Funding legit?

It is a real company, not an obvious scam, but it is not what its mailers imply. Union First Funding is a Richmond, Virginia loan-matching and debt-consolidation referral service, listed by the BBB as a sole proprietorship started in September 2018 with David McKay as CEO. Its own website states it is not a lender and does not engage in the business of lending. Its live BBB profile shows a B- rating, it is not BBB accredited, and its one complaint on file in the last three years went unanswered. We found no FTC, CFPB or state attorney general action against it.

Is Union First Funding a lender or a merchant cash advance company?

Neither. By its own published disclosure, Union First Funding is not a lender; it forwards applicants to a network of independent lenders, and the creditor on any resulting loan is the originating lender. It is also not a merchant cash advance funder: it does not purchase receivables, debit business accounts, or file UCC liens. Its products are consumer personal loans and debt consolidation. Businesses with similar names, such as First Union Lending, are separate companies, so always check the exact legal entity on your own agreement.

Why did I get a pre-approved loan mailer from Union First Funding?

The company markets primarily through prescreened direct mail. Its fine print says recipients were selected because they met certain criteria for creditworthiness, and the offer requires a personal offer code to redeem. The pre-approval is not binding: the same fine print says a lender may decline you after reviewing your application. The one complaint on the company's BBB file alleges the mailer was designed to resemble a government check, and that complaint went unanswered, which the BBB cites as the reason for the company's current B- grade.

What do Union First Funding complaints and reviews say?

The BBB file shows one complaint in three years, alleging deceptive check-like mail advertising, which the company did not answer. On Trustpilot, negative reviewers describe responding to a loan offer, being told none of the network's lending partners would qualify them, and then being pitched a debt settlement style program instead, a pattern some call a bait and switch. Positive reviewers describe helpful representatives and satisfactory terms. A 2026 company press release highlights an A+ BBB standing, but the live BBB profile showed a B- as of August 2026, so check the profile directly.

Can Union First Funding help with merchant cash advance debt?

Almost certainly not. Its products are consumer personal loans and debt consolidation for things like credit cards and medical bills, and merchant cash advances are business obligations structured as purchases of future receivables, usually with personal guarantees and UCC filings. Consumer consolidation underwriting generally will not absorb advance balances, and borrowing personally to pay business advances converts a negotiable business debt into a fixed personal one. If daily or weekly advance debits are the problem, the realistic path is negotiating the advances themselves through MCA debt restructuring.

Business Debt Adjusters

Union First Funding: Reviews, Complaints, and What MCA Borrowers Should Know

Published August 20, 2026

Short answer: Union First Funding is a Richmond, Virginia loan-matching and debt-consolidation referral service, not a lender and not a merchant cash advance company. Its own website says so directly: "Union First Funding is not a lender and does not engage in the business of lending." It reaches people almost entirely through pre-approved direct mail offers carrying a personal offer code. Its live Better Business Bureau profile shows a B- rating, no accreditation, and one complaint in the last three years, unanswered, alleging that the mailer was designed to look like a government check. Reviewers on Trustpilot and other platforms describe a recurring pattern: respond to the loan offer, get told that no lender in the network would qualify you, then get pitched a debt program instead. If you are a business owner with merchant cash advance debt and one of these mailers is sitting on your desk, the most useful thing we can tell you is that a consumer consolidation loan is almost never the tool that fixes a stack of business advances.

This page summarizes what the public record shows as of August 20, 2026: the company's own website and published disclosures, its Better Business Bureau profile and complaint file, third-party review platforms, and the company's own press releases.

What Union First Funding actually is

The BBB lists Union First Funding at 919 E Main Street, Suite 1000, in Richmond, Virginia, as a sole proprietorship in the consumer finance category, with David McKay named as CEO. The BBB file shows the business started on September 19, 2018, and the file itself was opened on October 9, 2019.

The company's website markets personal loans and debt consolidation to consumers: credit cards, student loans, medical bills, home improvement. The pitch is a quick three-step process with money in your account within about 48 hours. But the operative language is in the footer, and it is worth quoting in full: "Although Union First Funding is not a lender and does not engage in the business of lending, we have working relationships and contacts with a network of independent lenders who may be able to provide you with credit." The same disclosure states that any of those lenders may decline you after reviewing your application, and that "the creditor for all accounts will be the originating Lender and not Union First Funding." The fine print also notes the products are not offered to residents of every state.

In plain terms: when you respond to the mailer, you are not applying to Union First Funding for a loan. You are handing your information to an intermediary, and by its own terms nothing obligates anyone to fund you.

It is not a merchant cash advance company, and the name confusion matters

A surprising number of people searching for this company are business owners with advance debt, and we think the name is doing most of the work. "Union First Funding" sits in a crowded field of similarly named finance brands, including First Union Lending, a Florida-based business lender that does operate in the small business funding space, and various "union" branded debt relief outfits. These are different companies.

Union First Funding does not buy future receivables, does not debit your business account daily, does not file UCC liens against your company, and does not take confessions of judgment, because it does not fund anything at all. If an MCA company with a similar name is debiting your account, pull your actual agreement and find the exact legal entity on it, then look that entity up. Our lender review index covers the funders we see most often in settlement work.

The mailer, and the offer code

Union First Funding's front door is direct mail. The letters present a pre-approved loan offer with a personal offer code you must use to claim it, and the website has a dedicated button for "received mail offer." The fine print explains that you received the offer because you "met certain criteria for creditworthiness," which is standard prescreened marketing language, and it also explains that a lender may still decline you once you actually apply.

The one complaint on the company's BBB file, filed December 31, 2023 under sales and advertising issues, is about exactly this. The complainant wrote that the company "designed their spam to look like a government check to trick potential customers." Union First Funding never responded, and the complaint is marked unanswered. That single unanswered complaint is the BBB's stated reason for the company's current grade.

Which brings us to a correction worth making. In 2026 the company distributed a press release, picked up by Yahoo Finance and other outlets, headlined around its "A+ BBB standing." As of this writing, the live BBB profile shows a B-, with "failure to respond to 1 complaint" listed as the reason, and the profile is not accredited. Ratings move over time and a single unanswered complaint can swing a small company's grade, but check the live profile yourself rather than the press release.

What the published pricing says

To its credit, the website does publish rate ranges, which is more than many marketing intermediaries do. Disclosed annual percentage rates run from just under three percent for the top credit tier to just under twenty-five percent for the lowest, based on what the company describes as a proprietary scoring system. The site's own worked example is a $4,300 loan at an annual rate of twenty-four percent, repaid in 30 monthly payments of $191.99, which comes to roughly $5,760 paid back in total.

Note what that example implies. The advertised "extremely low interest rates" on the homepage describe the best tier, and the fine print concedes that qualifying for the best tier requires excellent credit. A borrower who is already carrying heavy card balances, the person this mailer is aimed at, is far more likely to be quoted the upper end of that range, if a loan materializes at all.

What reviewers actually report

Third-party reviews are mixed, and both sides of the file are worth stating.

On the negative side, reviewers on Trustpilot describe what they call a bait and switch: they responded to the loan offer, were told the company had shopped their application to dozens of lending partners, sometimes described as up to sixty, and that none would qualify them, and were then pitched a debt "program" instead. Several reviewers say this happened despite strong credit and no missed payments, and one described representatives who "get an attitude" when the program was declined. Independent review sites, including Crixeo, make the same structural point in less heated language: this is a referral and lead-generation business, and debt settlement referrals appear to be part of the model.

On the positive side, other reviewers describe courteous representatives, an easy process, and satisfaction with the terms they ultimately received. Aggregated review scores on smaller platforms land around four of five stars, though on thin review counts. We found no FTC, CFPB or state attorney general enforcement action against Union First Funding, and no court judgments against it in the sources we reviewed. The honest read is a legitimate but aggressive marketing operation whose mailer promises more certainty than its own fine print supports.

Why MCA borrowers keep getting these mailers

If you run a business and your advances are getting hard to service, you are probably also carrying personal card balances, because that is how owners bridge payroll when the daily debits bite. Prescreened consolidation mailers select for exactly that profile. So the letter shows up at the worst possible moment, offering one payment, a lower rate, and relief, and it is entirely reasonable to hope it covers the whole mess, advances included.

It almost certainly does not. And if the real pressure on your books is coming from daily or weekly MCA debits rather than card minimums, solving the card side while the debits continue does not change your week very much. If that is your situation, it costs nothing to have someone who negotiates advance debt look at your actual agreements first. You can request a free consultation and get a straight answer about what is realistic before you commit to anything, including whether you even need help.

Why a personal consolidation loan rarely fixes an MCA problem

A merchant cash advance is not a consumer debt. It is structured as a purchase of your business's future receivables, typically backed by a personal guarantee and a UCC filing, with default provisions that can accelerate the full balance. A consumer debt consolidation loan, the product Union First Funding markets, is built to refinance credit cards and personal obligations, and its underwriting generally has no appetite for business advance balances.

Borrowing personally to pay down business advances also deserves real caution. It converts a negotiable business obligation into a fixed personal one, and if the business continues to struggle, you have added a payment rather than removed one. Owners in trouble frequently stack new debt to service old advances, and that pattern turns a manageable position into a crisis. The alternative path is negotiating the advances themselves, which is what MCA debt relief actually means: restructuring the payback schedules and balances with the funders directly.

Questions to ask before you enter that offer code

Who is the actual lender? By its own disclosure, Union First Funding will not be your creditor. Get the originating lender's name before you hand over information.
Is the pre-approval binding? The fine print says a lender may decline you after reviewing your application. Treat the mailer as an ad, not a commitment.
What rate tier are you actually being quoted? The advertised floor requires excellent credit. Ask for the specific annual rate and total repayment in writing.
Are you being offered a loan or a program? Reviewers consistently report the pivot from loan offer to debt settlement pitch. Those are very different products with very different consequences.
Does any of this touch your business debt? If your problem is advance debits, ask directly whether the product addresses them. It almost certainly does not.

If the daily payments are the real problem

Union First Funding is, at worst, a detour: a consumer mailer that lands in front of business owners who need something else entirely. If what is actually breaking your cash flow is a stack of merchant cash advances, the fix is not a new personal loan, it is changing the terms of the advances themselves. That is the work we do. Send us your agreements and recent bank statements and we will tell you in writing what is realistic, including if we do not think we can help. Start with a free consultation, which costs nothing and obligates you to nothing.

This article summarizes public records as of August 20, 2026: the Better Business Bureau profile and complaint file for Union First Funding of Richmond, Virginia; the company's published website, rate disclosures and terms; reviews and review summaries on Trustpilot and other third-party platforms; and company press releases concerning its BBB standing. Review figures and ratings change over time, complaint allegations are the complainants' accounts rather than adjudicated findings, and nothing here is legal or financial advice. Business Debt Adjusters helps business owners restructure merchant cash advance and other business debt; that is our interest in the subject, and readers should verify every figure against the primary sources.