Merchant Cash Advance in Miami: 2026 Guide for Business Owners

Quick Answer: Florida’s HB 1353 (effective January 1, 2024) gives Miami businesses dollar-cost disclosure before you sign — but no APR requirement and no ban on confession-of-judgment clauses. Those two gaps mean you must do extra work: calculate the APR yourself using the MCA calculator, and read every contract for a COJ clause. Factor rates for Miami businesses typically run 1.15–1.50, translating to 40–100%+ APR depending on repayment speed. For the full Florida regulatory picture, see our Florida MCA state guide. The rest of this page covers what is specific to running a business in Miami.

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What Florida HB 1353 Gives Miami Businesses

Miami business owners are covered by Florida’s commercial financing disclosure law — which is meaningful but leaves two significant gaps compared to what Texas and New York give their businesses.

State	Law	APR Required?	COJ Status
Florida (Miami)	HB 1353 (Jan 2024)	No — dollar cost only	Not banned
Texas (SA/Houston/Dallas)	HB 700 (Sept 2025)	No — dollar cost only	Banned statewide
California (LA/SF)	SB 1235 + SB 362 (Dec 2022 / Jan 2026)	Yes — before signing	Heavily restricted
New York	S5470B (Aug 2023)	Yes	Banned for out-of-state borrowers (2019)
Virginia	HB 1027 (July 2022)	Standardized metrics	Banned
Georgia	SB 90 (Jan 2024)	No — dollar cost only	No restriction
Illinois	None (SB 260 pending)	No	Permitted (commercial)
Ohio	None	No	No restriction
Pennsylvania	None	No	Permitted (Pa.R.C.P. 2950–2967)

HB 1353 requires a written disclosure showing the dollar cost — total financing amount, disbursement amount after fees, total repayment, payment schedule and amounts, all fees, and prepayment terms — before the deal closes. The provider must deliver this in writing before you sign anything.

What Florida does not require is an APR. A $60,000 advance with a $76,800 total repayment tells you the cost in dollars — but not whether that works out to 48% APR or 96% APR (repayment speed determines which). Use the MCA calculator to convert the total repayment figure into an annualized rate you can compare against a bank line of credit or SBA loan.

The COJ Gap: Florida’s Biggest Missing Protection

Florida has not followed Texas or New York in banning confession-of-judgment clauses. A COJ lets an MCA provider skip the lawsuit step entirely: if they claim a default, they can go straight to a court judgment — and begin levying your business accounts or assets — without you being notified in advance or given a chance to contest the claim.

This is not hypothetical. COJ abuse was a documented problem in the MCA industry before New York’s 2019 ban; providers used them to freeze business accounts the morning after an alleged technical default, often for disputed amounts. Miami businesses have no statutory protection equivalent to New York’s 2019 ban or Texas’s 2025 HB 700 ban.

What to do: Before signing any MCA contract, search the full text for “confession of judgment,” “cognovit,” and “warrant of attorney to confess judgment.” If you find one, ask the provider to remove it before you sign. A provider unwilling to strike the clause is handing themselves leverage that no business owner should give up voluntarily.

OFR Licensing

MCA providers operating in Florida are required to hold a Sales Finance Company license from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR). You can verify a provider’s license at flofr.gov before signing. An unlicensed provider is operating outside Florida’s oversight framework — a meaningful red flag when you’re giving them daily ACH access to your business bank account.

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What an MCA Actually Costs in Miami

An MCA is not priced with an interest rate. It uses a factor rate — a flat multiplier on the advance amount — typically 1.15–1.50 for Miami businesses:

Advance	Factor Rate	Total Repayment	Cost
$15,000	1.20	$18,000	$3,000
$30,000	1.22	$36,600	$6,600
$60,000	1.28	$76,800	$16,800
$100,000	1.35	$135,000	$35,000
$200,000	1.45	$290,000	$90,000

Repayment comes as a holdback — a fixed percentage of daily credit card transactions or ACH deposits, typically 10–20% — until the full balance is recovered. Because repayment compresses into months rather than years, the effective annual cost is far higher than the factor rate suggests:

• $100,000 at 1.35, repaid over 6 months: approximately 70% APR
• $100,000 at 1.35, repaid over 3 months: approximately 140% APR

Miami’s tourism seasonality creates a real compounding effect: a hotel or restaurant doing peak Art Basel revenue in December may repay the same advance in 3 months that takes 7 months in August. The factor rate is fixed — but the APR swings wildly with repayment speed. Since HB 1353 does not require the provider to state an APR, use the MCA calculator to run this calculation before you sign.

Where Miami businesses fall in the factor-rate range:

• 1.15–1.25: South Beach and Brickell restaurants, Wynwood bars, and Lincoln Road retail with consistent daily card volume and 12+ months of clean bank statements.
• 1.25–1.38: Boutique hotels, healthcare practices with mixed insurance and direct-pay revenue, and contractors with moderate ACH deposit consistency.
• 1.38–1.50: Import/export businesses with irregular deposit timing, highly seasonal tourism operations, and healthcare practices billing primarily through international or federal insurance programs.

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Miami’s Economy and Where MCAs Fit

Miami-Dade County is home to roughly 2.7 million people (Census Bureau estimate 2024) and a gross metro product exceeding $430 billion across the greater Miami MSA. The city’s economy runs on four unusually intertwined pillars: tourism and hospitality, international trade, healthcare, and real estate. That combination creates persistent MCA demand — seasonal swings, long invoice cycles, and a construction pipeline that never fully stops.

Tourism and Hospitality: Art Basel to Off-Season

Greater Miami and Miami Beach drew more than 27 million visitors in 2023 (Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau), supporting one of the largest tourism economies of any U.S. metro. The tourism ecosystem — South Beach hotels, Wynwood restaurants and galleries, Brickell rooftop bars, Design District boutiques, Coconut Grove waterfront dining — operates on an intense seasonal cycle. High season runs November through April; the shoulder drops sharply from May through September.

Art Basel Miami Beach (December) is the single highest-revenue week of the year for much of South Beach hospitality, retail, and event services. Hotels, restaurants, and galleries use MCAs in September and October to fund staffing, inventory, and renovations timed to capture Art Basel revenue without waiting for fall bank statements to satisfy a slower SBA process. Ultra Music Festival (March), Miami Music Week, and Miami Swim Week (June) create additional demand spikes.

The risk: operators who use MCAs before peak season and then carry them through the slow summer months pay far more — the same dollar cost spread over 8 months instead of 3. Time your advance to align repayment with peak-season card volume, not to avoid it.

International Trade and PortMiami

PortMiami handles more than 8 million cruise passengers a year (a record 8.5 million in fiscal 2025), making it one of the world’s busiest cruise ports, and also moves significant cargo volume serving Latin American and Caribbean trade. Miami is the “Gateway to Latin America” — home to U.S. headquarters of Latin American companies, the regional offices of multinationals serving LatAm markets, and a large community of importers and exporters with roots across the hemisphere.

Import/export businesses face a structural cash-flow problem: they must pay for goods before their customers pay them, often on net-30 to net-60 terms. MCAs bridge this gap when a purchase order arrives but working capital is tight. The irregular deposit pattern — large ACH deposits clustered around shipment arrivals and customer payments, rather than daily card transactions — typically pushes factor rates higher (1.30–1.48) compared to a restaurant with daily card volume.

Healthcare and Medical Tourism

Jackson Health System is one of the largest public health systems in the United States and one of the region’s largest employers. Baptist Health South Florida is the largest private employer in Miami-Dade County, with multiple hospitals across the county. Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is one of the top-ranked pediatric hospitals in the U.S. Together, these anchor a sprawling private-practice ecosystem across Coral Gables, Brickell, Doral, and Kendall.

Miami also has a significant medical tourism industry, drawing patients from Latin America and the Caribbean for elective procedures, specialty care, and dental work. Practices with direct international pay or high-deductible commercial insurance can qualify for lower factor rates (1.18–1.28) when card volume is consistent. Practices billing primarily through international third-party payers, Medicaid, or federal programs face longer reimbursement delays and typically see higher factor rates.

Real Estate and Construction

Miami-Dade has experienced one of the fastest-growing real estate markets in the country since 2020, driven by domestic migration from high-tax states and continued Latin American capital inflows. The construction pipeline along Brickell Avenue, Edgewater, Wynwood, and the rapidly growing suburbs of Doral, Kendall, and Homestead remains active.

Subcontractors — roofing, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, concrete, framing — face the same structural gap everywhere: materials and labor must be paid in days while milestone payments from general contractors or developers arrive in weeks or months. Miami’s hurricane exposure adds another layer: after named storms, roofing and HVAC contractors face sudden demand spikes that require capital faster than any bank can approve it.

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What Miami Businesses Typically Qualify For

Most Miami businesses qualify for advances between $15,000 and $500,000, depending on monthly revenue, time in business, and industry. Funding typically arrives in 24–72 hours from a qualified provider.

Requirement	Typical Minimum
Monthly revenue	$7,500–$15,000 in consistent deposits
Time in business	3–6 months
Credit score	475–500+ (revenue consistency matters more)
Business bank account	Active, with 3+ months of statements
Industry restrictions	Adult entertainment, cannabis, gambling, firearms typically excluded

Tourism businesses with strong seasonal bank statements (peak November–April) often qualify for more than their slow-season deposits suggest. Import/export businesses with irregular large deposits may need to provide additional documentation explaining the deposit pattern.

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Providers That Fund Miami Businesses

Six providers below are verified in the site’s directory. Data sourced from published terms and directory review as of June 2026. Two — Greenbox Capital and Uplyft Capital — are Miami-headquartered.

Provider	Advance Range	Min Credit	Speed	Best For
Greenbox Capital	$3K–$500K	None stated	Same-day / next day	Hospitality, retail, Miami-based service
Uplyft Capital	$5K–$500K	475+	24 hrs	Lower credit, starter amounts ($8K–$30K)
Everest Business Funding	$5K–$2M	500+	24–48 hrs	Larger amounts, FL-headquartered (Ft. Lauderdale)
Credibly	$5K–$600K	500+	2–3 days	Low factor rates (from 1.11), bad credit
Fora Financial	$5K–$1.5M	500+	24–72 hrs	Large advances, prepayment discounts
National Funding	$5K–$500K	None stated	Same day	Fast funding, established businesses

Verify directly. Terms change. Check factor rates, holdback percentages, all fees, and — critically for Florida — read the full contract for any confession-of-judgment clause and have it removed before signing.

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Real Funding Scenarios for Miami Businesses

Brickell restaurant before Art Basel season. A full-service restaurant in Brickell needed $30,000 in September to fund staff hiring, wine inventory, and a dining-room refresh before Art Basel. Monthly card volume averaged $42,000. The advance came through in 48 hours at a 1.22 factor rate; the $36,600 total repayment ran approximately four months against a 12% daily card holdback through the peak season. Effective APR using the site’s simple-rate formula: roughly 66%. The restaurant’s Art Basel week revenue cleared the advance two weeks ahead of schedule.

PortMiami freight broker bridging a purchase order. A freight brokerage in Doral that handles cargo between Miami and Colombia needed $60,000 to fund a large spot shipment while waiting on a 45-day customer payment. Monthly ACH deposits averaged $85,000 but arrived in large, irregular batches. The advance came through at a 1.28 factor rate ($76,800 total repayment) and ran approximately seven months against a 10% ACH holdback — slower than a restaurant because of the deposit pattern. Finance charge: $16,800. Effective APR: roughly 48%. The advance covered the shipment; the customer payment more than repaid it by month four.

Coral Gables dental practice bridging insurance delays. A multi-dentist practice in Coral Gables needed $90,000 to fund a CBCT imaging system and a new operatory before lease renewal. Monthly revenue averaged $130,000, with roughly 55% billing through commercial PPO plans and 45% through Medicaid and international payers. The practice qualified at a 1.30 factor rate ($117,000 total repayment), with repayment running approximately nine months against a 12% daily holdback weighted toward card and direct-pay days. Finance charge: $27,000 — effective APR: roughly 40%. The slower repayment speed (driven by insurance lag) lowered the APR even though the absolute finance charge was the largest of the three scenarios.

The third scenario illustrates a counterintuitive point: a high factor rate does not automatically mean a high APR. A business with slow, irregular deposits pays a lower annualized cost on the same advance than a restaurant clearing the same balance in three months. Use the MCA calculator to model your own repayment timeline before comparing offers.

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Local Miami Funding Alternatives to Check First

Before committing to MCA pricing, these options can save meaningful money for Miami businesses that qualify.

Florida SBDC at FIU (sbdc.fiu.edu). The Florida Small Business Development Center at Florida International University serves Miami-Dade and Monroe counties with free one-on-one business advising, financing referrals, and loan-readiness preparation. SBDC advisors regularly help businesses evaluate SBA loan eligibility and identify lower-cost alternatives to MCA pricing. Start here — a single free consulting session often surfaces financing options the owner didn’t know existed.

SBA South Florida District Office. The SBA South Florida District covers Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties. SBA 7(a) loans run 9.75–13.25% APR at current rates — dramatically cheaper than a 50–100% APR MCA on an annualized basis. SBA Express loans can fund in as little as 36 hours for existing SBA relationships, which narrows the speed advantage most MCA providers claim. For businesses with hurricane-related capital needs, the SBA’s EIDL program is also worth checking.

City National Bank of Florida. Miami-headquartered CNB is one of the largest locally based banks in South Florida and serves a significant portion of the Latin American business community — including import/export companies, international trade intermediaries, and family-owned businesses with ties to Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil. Their business lines of credit typically run 8–15% APR for established businesses with strong bank relationships.

Accion Opportunity Fund (aofund.org). Accion serves Florida small businesses, particularly women- and minority-owned enterprises, with loans at rates meaningfully below MCA pricing for qualifying borrowers. Worth checking if a bank has turned you down for credit reasons.

BankUnited. BankUnited (headquartered in Coral Gables) serves Miami-Dade business clients and has a familiarity with South Florida’s seasonal business patterns that national lenders often lack.

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Before You Sign: Miami MCA Checklist

Florida’s HB 1353 gives Miami businesses disclosure rights. But the absence of a COJ ban and APR requirement means you need to do more due diligence than a business owner in Texas or New York.

1. Request the HB 1353 written disclosure before any paperwork is finalized — it must show the total dollar cost, disbursement amount, all fees, and payment structure in writing. If the provider won’t produce it, walk away.
2. Search the full contract for any COJ clause. Florida has no ban. Look for “confession of judgment,” “cognovit,” or “warrant of attorney to confess judgment.” Ask the provider to strike any such clause before signing — and get the removal in writing.
3. Calculate the APR yourself using the MCA calculator. Enter the advance amount, total repayment, and your estimated repayment term to see the true annualized cost before comparing offers.
4. Verify the provider’s OFR license at flofr.gov. MCA providers operating in Florida must hold a Sales Finance Company license from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. An unlicensed provider is a red flag.
5. Check the UCC-1 lien terms. MCA providers routinely file a UCC-1 financing statement against your business assets. Confirm whether the lien covers only receivables or all business assets — a blanket lien complicates future bank or SBA financing.
6. Get three offers. Factor rates vary across providers. A spread from 1.22 to 1.35 on a $60,000 advance is $7,800 in additional cost. Comparing three offers takes under an hour and saves real money.
7. Time your advance to peak-season repayment. Miami’s seasonality is real. An advance taken in September and repaid through Art Basel in December costs far less in annualized terms than the same advance carried through the slow summer months. Match your advance timing to your highest-revenue window.