Merchant Cash Advance in Glasgow
A Finnieston restaurant, a Southside cafe, a Merchant City bar: Glasgow's independent trading economy runs on card takings that spike around gig nights, Old Firm fixtures and the festive season, exactly the pattern a merchant cash advance is built to absorb through its repayment structure. CoreFi is a broker, and we take your case to funders on our panel with genuine appetite for Scottish card-heavy businesses. The funder alone decides the advance size, factor rate and split.
CoreFi is a commercial finance broker, not a lender, and one thing we establish early on a Scottish case is straightforward: this product is secured on your card takings, not on property, so the jurisdictional filtering that affects Scottish bridging and mortgage cases largely does not apply here. The funders we work with fund Scottish limited companies as a matter of course.
Glasgow's hospitality strip through Finnieston, the bars along Byres Road and in the Merchant City, cafes across the Southside and retail on Buchanan Street and its side streets, all live on card takings that move with the calendar: gig nights at the Hydro, festival weeks, Old Firm fixtures, a December that can carry the whole quarter. An advance funder reads that seasonality rather than penalising it, provided the pattern repeats reliably year on year.
- 1
Tell us how the business trades
Share what the business does, the funding need and your timescale, plus recent merchant statements covering your monthly card takings.
- 2
We test appetite across the panel
We put your file to funders with genuine appetite for Scottish businesses, and set out what each actually costs once the factor rate and split are applied.
- 3
Complete checks and draw down
Once you pick an offer, the funder carries out its own checks before paying the advance, and repayments are then taken automatically from each card transaction.
A worked example on Glasgow numbers
A Finnieston restaurant taking £35,000 a month on cards is offered a £28,000 advance at a factor of 1.3, so £36,400 is repaid in total, fixed at the outset. The funder collects that through an agreed percentage of every card settlement, typically 5 to 20 per cent, until the full amount clears. Paying it off early does not usually reduce the total, since there is no accruing interest to save on, which is the single detail worth understanding before comparing an advance against any other product.
Why Glasgow's hospitality density suits this product
Glasgow has one of the densest hospitality economies outside London, and that density is exactly why funders are comfortable reading its merchant statements. A Finnieston restaurant funding a kitchen refit between seasons, a Southside cafe covering a fit-out overrun, a Merchant City bar bridging to a busier quarter after a slow one, an independent retailer buying Christmas stock in September: these are the recurring cases. What rules a business out is not location but card volume; a business invoicing other businesses is nearly always better served elsewhere.
Reading Glasgow's event calendar the way a funder does
Gig nights, Old Firm fixtures, festival weeks and a Christmas quarter that can carry an entire year's margin all make Glasgow trading genuinely spiky, and that is not a problem for this product, it is the reason the repayment mechanism exists. What a funder actually dislikes is an unexplained downward trend, which is a completely different thing from a rhythm that repeats reliably. Evidencing that repetition through consistent merchant statements across more than one cycle is what turns a seasonal business into a straightforward approval rather than a hard one.
What a funder checks, and what CoreFi actually is
Several months of merchant statements size the advance from your monthly average. Stability and trend matter next, an established site with two consistent years reads better than a new opening, though funders will consider a strong first six months where the operator has form elsewhere. CoreFi is a trading name of JG Core Ltd, and broking this unregulated commercial finance to limited companies does not require FCA authorisation; we do not present ourselves as FCA authorised or regulated.
Frequently asked questions
Do funders lend to Scottish limited companies for this product?
Yes, as a matter of course. Because a merchant cash advance is secured on card takings rather than property, the Scottish legal differences that filter some property lenders simply do not apply here. Registration north of the border is not a barrier.
How much could a Glasgow business raise?
Roughly up to a month's card turnover is the usual ceiling, sometimes more for an established business. A bar taking £45,000 a month on cards might be offered an advance in that region, sized from your evidenced average rather than a fixed rule.
My takings spike around events and fixtures. Does that count against me?
Not if the pattern repeats reliably. Funders price a readable rhythm rather than penalise it, and the repayment mechanism is built for exactly this: quiet weeks repay less, event weekends repay more. What actually concerns a funder is an unexplained decline, a different thing entirely.
Is an advance cheaper or more expensive than a term loan?
Usually more expensive overall. A factor rate of roughly 1.2 to 1.4 is the typical market range, so £25,000 advanced might mean £30,000 to £35,000 repaid in total. We run that comparison against a term loan with you before you commit to anything.
Is this product right for my business?
Only if your revenue is genuinely card-heavy and the need is short-term. If most of your income is invoiced, invoice finance is usually cheaper; for a longer-term need, a business loan usually costs less overall. We will tell you plainly which one fits.
Is CoreFi FCA authorised?
No. What we do here is unregulated commercial broking to limited companies, which sits outside the FCA authorisation regime, and we would never claim otherwise.
Get matched with lenders for your Glasgow business
Tell us what your business needs and we will match you with lenders whose criteria fit. No obligation, no cost to start the conversation, and a straight answer about what is realistic for your situation.
Get matched with lenders