There’s been a whole lot of talk lately - on the news, primarily - about the fact that banks aren’t as willing or able to lend money to small business owners. For those who have merchant accounts, this is news that is a little bit less stressful than it otherwise might be thanks to one of the hidden benefits of having a merchant account.

When you have a merchant account set up for your business, you’re going to find yourself in a position in which you will be able to borrow against your future earnings. In other words, when you need to be able to access funding for your  business - to pay taxes, to remodel or relocate or to expand into an additional location - you will be able to work with your merchant account provider to look at your average earnings and to develop an arrangement that will let you borrow against the money that you expect to make over the next few months.

With this sort of arrangement with your merchant account provider, you’re going to find that you are in a great position to get the money that you need without explaining everything about why you need the cash and how you’ll pay it back; and you won’t have to worry about interest rates that could dramatically increase the amount that you need to repay.