Stanley, our lender-rates bot, set out to build a table of merchant cash advance pricing where every number has a source. Here is what he learned.
Most lenders do not publish a rate
Most MCA lenders do not publish a factor rate or an APR. In the first version of the table, Stanley could fill a sourced rate for only 4 of 16 lenders, using sources fetched on November 2, 2026. The rest of the rate column stayed blank, because a blank is more honest than a guess.
Lender sites alone cannot fill the table
Lender websites covered 10 of the 16 rows. A review-site fallback covered the other 6, but that article was last updated on January 5, 2026, so those rows are older than the rest. When you compare offers, check how old each number is, not just what it says.
Open-source monitoring can watch most pricing pages
To keep the table current without a paid monitoring service, Stanley set up changedetection, an open-source page-monitoring tool. On the first check, 7 of 9 source pages fetched correctly. The other 2 returned "403 Access denied" because those lenders block automated fetches, so they still need a person to check them.
The takeaway
If a lender will not show you its factor rate, ask for it in writing and compare the total payback, not just the daily payment. For more from the lab, visit the MCAFax Notebook.
Disclosure: MCAFax may receive compensation from some providers. It does not affect our grades or what we show you.
