Green Capital Review

Note: Green Capital is no longer in operation. Take a look at our filterable business loan reviews to learn about other funding options that might work for your small business.

Pros

• 2-7 days time to funding
• Relaxed credit score qualifications

Cons

• Opaque terms and fees
• High factor rates

Green Capital Overview

Green Capital is a New Jersey-based company that provides alternative funding to businesses, mainly in the form of merchant cash advances. Like similar funders, Green Capital caters primarily to stable businesses with a poor credit history that are in need of immediate, short-term funding.

Consolidated under the Fundry brand, Green Capital has largely taken over the funding activities of sister company Yellowstone Capital, with which it shares an office in Jersey City. This is (somewhat) a cause for concern given Yellowstone’s declining reputation during the latter years of its small business funding activities (Yellowstone is now Fundry’s ISO relationship branch). Green Capital, in comparison, doesn’t have much of a footprint online, and details about the company and their products are scarce.

If this is your first time looking at this type of funding, there are a number of quirks you should be prepared for, which we’ve laid out below. In general, you should be prepared to pay a premium for the funds you receive and to pay back a portion of what you owe daily. The conditions are steep enough that we like to encourage readers to look at our short-term funding comparison chart before committing to a merchant cash advance (MCA).

Services Offered

Green Capital provides the following types of business funding:

• Merchant cash advances (MCA)

Borrower Qualifications

To qualify for funding, you must meet these prerequisites:

Terms and Fees

Green Capital’s website is nearly devoid of useful information, but their typical product looks something like this:

An MCA differs from a traditional loan in some important ways. Rather than charging an interest rate, MCAs have you pay back a flat amount equal to the amount valued times a factor rate. So if you borrow $10,000 from Green Capital at the rates above, you’ll be responsible for paying back between $13,000 and $16,000, plus any origination fees.

An interesting quirk to MCAs is that the faster you pay them off, the higher their effective APR is. So unlike loans, there’s no reason to pay back early. Some MCA companies will offer incentives to pay off the advance early, but those vary by funder.

Unlike a traditional loan, cash advances are paid back through a percentage of your daily credit card revenue. There’s no fixed term per se since your repayments will fluctuate along with your cash flow, but the company structures your advance so that it will generally be paid off in between three to six months.

MCAs are unsecured, meaning no specific collateral is necessary.

Application Process

Applying for an MCA is considerably easier than applying for a traditional loan.

As they can be difficult to reach by phone, you’ll want to start your Green Capital application online. If all goes well, you can receive funding within 48 hours. You’ll need to provide proof of your business’s income, so it’s a good idea to have a few months of bank statements ready.

Sales and Advertising Transparency

I generally don’t expect MCAs to be pinnacles of transparency, but Green Capital practically defines the cliche. You won’t get much from their website, the links on which mostly just lead to re-worded sales pitches. They maintained a small blog section in 2016, but it hasn’t been updated since.

Customer Service and Technical Support

If you’re trying to reach Green Capital by phone, you’d be forgiven for wondering if you had the right number. There’s no answering service or voice mail, and you may very well not reach anyone.

Negative Reviews and Complaints

Green Capital, Fundry, and Yellowstone Capital currently are not accredited with the BBB. (Previously, sister company Yellowstone was rated F by the BBB.) Complaints run the gamut from sales issues, to problems with the product, to billing and collections. Reviews of Green Capital, in particular, are very rare. Complaints about this family of companies include:

• Funds weren’t delivered on schedule: A customer claims that she did not receive her funding at the agreed upon time.
• Billing issues: One of the last things you want to deal with when it comes to debt are billing problems. Several customers reported being billed after their advance was paid off.
• Customer service: By far the most common complaint was the inability to reach company representatives. Combined with the numerous issues people reported about trouble receiving their advances, or not knowing which of Yellowstone’s partners the advance was made through, it sounds like Yellowstone is a bit of a customer service disaster.

Positive Reviews and Testimonials

Green Capital’s positives include:

• Poor credit is okay: Users appreciated that Yellowstone worked with them despite their poor credit.
• Friendly Staff: Despite the complaints above, several customers praised the professionalism of sister company Yellowstone’s staff.
• Fast approval: Users were generally pleased by the speed with which they received their funds.

Final Verdict

All is not well in Jersey City. MCAs already tread a thin line between usury and niche funding. You can debate whether or not it’s fair, but ultimately these companies have to overcome a certain amount of healthy skepticism from their prospective customers. They can do this with a combination of transparency and consistent customer service. Unfortunately, Green Capital fails on both these accounts, whether by accident or design. It’s not clear if this is a sign of greater instability for Fundry–whose website is currently offline–or a transitional period. In either case, you’d probably be better served looking elsewhere.

The good news is you’re probably not out of options. Check out our favorite merchant cash advances and small business loans.

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