MCA Glossary
44 Terms Your Contract, Collector, and Court Papers Actually Use, Plus 16 to Ask About

The same dollar can appear as a purchase price, a receipt, or part of a damages claim, depending on the document in front of you. Sixty labels circulate; the entries below define the forty four the captures support and name the sixteen your file must supply.

Amounts Advanced and Amounts Claimed

Future receivables. In LG, the rights the business sold and the provider purchased for $100,990.

Future revenues. In Bridge, the receipts against which the funder took twenty five percent.

Purchase price. In LG, $100,990 paid for the described receivables; compare it with the net deposit.

Purchased amount. In LG, $129,267.20 described as purchased, above the price paid.

Specified percentage. The contractual collection share; Bridge used twenty five percent, and some Richmond agreements left the space blank.

Daily remittance. In Bridge, a daily sum estimated in good faith as the provider share of future revenue.

Daily withdrawals. In the FTC description of MCA collection practice, daily bank withdrawals until the obligation is met.

Reconciliation and Characterization

Reconciliation provision. Adjustment of the remittance on request with proof of revenue; Richmond held mandatory reconciliation a sham on that record. The heading promises nothing by itself.

Sole discretion adjustment. The LG clause allowed adjustment at the funder discretion and supported a triable usury defense.

Absolute versus contingent repayment. Absolute repayment marks a loan; contingent repayment faces characterization review.

Finite term. A defined performance period; Bridge found the term not finite where reconciliation could change payments.

Criminal usury. Available as an affirmative defense under the cited New York statutes, but not as a counterclaim.

Substance over form. Courts judge the transaction by its real character, not the name the parties gave it.

Guaranty and Default Terms

Personal guaranty of performance. In LG, individuals guaranteed the business representations and covenants; in Bridge, the individual guaranteed entity performance.

Performance versus payment guaranty. Richmond framed the guaranty as of performance rather than payment, a framing that, if we are being precise, provides extremely narrow comfort when the demand letter arrives.

Event of default. The contract defined triggers: LG named admission of inability to pay and bankruptcy, while Richmond treated missed payments as default.

Acceleration. On default, the full uncollected amount plus fees became due at once in both records.

Attorneys fees on default. The LG clause added reasonable attorneys fees; no general fee shifting rule was verified.

Confession and Assignment Mechanics

Confession of judgment. LG required a confession in the purchased amount upon bankruptcy; Richmond addressed confessions against guarantors with false affidavits found fraudulent.

Affidavit for confession. Under CPLR 3218 on judgment by confession, a sworn statement of sum, authorization, and residence county, filed within three years only in the residence county at execution or filing.

Joint debtor confession. One or more joint debtors may confess for a joint debt, binding only those who confessed.

Account debtor. The obligor on the account or chattel paper; often the customer, not the funded business.

Notification of assignment. A signed notice assigning the amount due with payment to the assignee; after receipt, only payment to the assignee discharges.

Reasonable identification. The notice fails unless it reasonably identifies the rights assigned.

Proof of assignment. On request, the assignee supplies reasonable proof within a seasonable time; otherwise the debtor may keep paying the assignor.

Anti assignment terms ineffective. Terms barring assignment or treating it as default are ineffective, subject to stated exceptions.

Control, Liens, and Collector Restraints

The RAM Capital closing order shows what release requires (the funder had paired daily sweeps with guarantees and upfront charges the merchants were told would never appear).

Control of deposit account. Under UCC section 9-104, five routes: the secured party is the bank, a signed record exists, the secured party becomes customer, the account carries its name, or another holds control.

Signed control record. The three parties agree the bank follows the secured party instruction without further debtor consent.

Debtor retained direction rights. Control stands where the debtor keeps directing disposition; access and control coexist.

No implied bank duties. Authentication imposes no duty the bank never accepted in express terms.

Perfected first priority interest. Under the enrolled Texas HB 700 text, the gate for covered automatic debits.

UCC lien termination statement. The settling defendants filed terminations for UCC liens and removed every other lien.

Satisfaction of judgment. For concluded cases, the settling defendants filed satisfactions of judgment.

Dismissal with prejudice. For pending cases, they moved to dismiss with prejudice.

Express, Informed Consent. No debits, withdrawals, or billing without it.

Misrepresentation ban. No misrepresenting requirements, costs, benefits, or breach circumstances.

Customer information duties. No credentials through false statements and no Gramm Leach Bliley violations.

Redress administration. Redress information within fourteen days; destruction within thirty days of written direction.

Cooperation. Truthful information and testimony, with appearances on five days notice.

Neither admit nor deny. The case settled without settling the history, except as specifically stated.

Debt collector and debt collection activities. Order defined terms; the exit barred covered product activity and all collection activity.

Court Papers and the Burden of Proof

Summary judgment prima facie burden. The movant must establish contract, performance, breach, and damages; a conflicting manager affidavit created a triable damages issue.

Breach of contract elements. Existence, performance, breach, and resulting damages, stated before the evidence and tested by it.

Breach of guaranty as dependent claim. The guaranty claim depended on the contract claim; a guaranty adds a defendant without adding a theory.

Terms Your File Must Supply

Sixteen labels appear in MCA files without support in the captures. Treat each as a question for the agreement, the bank, or counsel.

Lockbox. No agreement captured. Split funding and split percentage. No processor agreement captured. Factor rate. Opinions state figures without the label. Buy rate. Absent from every capture. ACH authorization. LG shows a debit authorization; network terms were never captured. UCC-1 financing statement. No filing text captured. Notice of default. No notice language captured. Cure period. No timeline verified.

Jury trial waiver. Absent. Arbitration clause. Absent. Forum selection and venue. Absent. Power of attorney. Absent. Setoff and recoupment. Absent as MCA terms. Cross default and cross collateralization. Absent. Blanket lien and after acquired property. Only a receivables parenthetical verified. Stacking. No dataset obtained.

Bring the Glossary to the Conversation

This glossary took shape across a grey week in February, and terms drift between the contract, the collection letter, and the courtroom in extremely instructive ways.

Delancey Street is a settlement company, not a law firm, and it can discuss a negotiated resolution while independent counsel construes the disputed terms. Ensure the conversation starts from the signed language rather than the collector paraphrase. Simply bring the documents with the words you do not understand, and resist the urge to accept a definition offered across a telephone. A glossary improves the questions. The paper decides the answers.