How MCAs work for restaurants & cafés
A merchant cash advance gives you a lump sum upfront, based primarily on your recent trading history. You pay it back through ongoing card transactions, where a small, fixed percentage comes off each day’s card takings automatically. There’s no fixed monthly repayment. You agree the total cost upfront, then repay it through card takings.
To give you an idea of how this looks in practice, say you receive £15,000 upfront and the agreed repayment rate is 10% of card sales. On a busy Saturday you take £2,500 on cards, so £250 goes to the lender. On a quiet Tuesday you take £600, so £60 goes to the lender. The lump sum plus the fixed fee gets paid down gradually, faster when you’re busy and slower when you’re not.
Repayments are usually collected automatically as card payments come in, so you’re not chasing a monthly due date. That’s what makes it feel different to a standard business loan, where the same fixed amount is due whether you’re busy or quiet.
For restaurants and cafés where takings swing between weekends and weekdays, or between summer and January, repayments that move with your revenue make the facility easier to manage when trade dips.
