Welcome to Delancey Street. If you're reading this, you probably have two, three, maybe four MCAs all pulling from the same bank account — and you can't cover them all. You need to know which one to pay first. And which ones to let bounce.

But this isn't as simple as picking one and ignoring the rest. So let's break down how to actually think about this.

How Did You Get Here?

You stacked. That's how. You took a first MCA, then a second one before the first was paid off, then maybe a third to cover the shortfall from the first two pulling daily debits out of your account. Every single one of those agreements has a stacking clause that says you weren't supposed to do this. Which means, technically, you're already in default on all of them — even the ones you're still current on.

That's the part nobody tells you. You don't have to miss a payment to be in default when you're stacked. The act of taking the second MCA was itself a breach of the first MCA's contract. And the third was a breach of both. So every lender in the stack has grounds to accelerate your balance right now, whether you've missed a payment or not.

This matters because it changes the math. You're not choosing between "which one do I keep current." You're choosing between which default is most dangerous to trigger first.

The Hierarchy: What to Pay (and What to Let Slide)

Not all MCA lenders will come after you the same way. Some are slow. Some are fast. Some are brutal. Here's how you should be thinking about priority:

1. Pay the Lender With a Confession of Judgment First

If any of your MCA agreements contain a confession of judgment (COJ), that lender goes to the top of the list. A COJ means the lender can get a judgment against you without suing you first. No hearing, no defense, no notice. They file the COJ with the court, get a judgment, and use that judgment to freeze your bank accounts — personal and business — sometimes within 24 to 48 hours.

Not every state enforces COJs anymore (New York restricted them in 2019 for out-of-state borrowers), but plenty of lenders still include them, and plenty of courts still honor them depending on where the agreement was signed. If you have one of these in your stack, this is the one that can shut you down overnight. Pay it. Or at minimum, don't give them a reason to pull the trigger.

2. Pay the Lender Who Filed the Most Aggressive UCC Lien

Every MCA lender files a UCC-1 financing statement against your business when you take the advance. But not all of them actually enforce it. Some file it and forget it. Others have systems in place to send notices to your payment processor, your customers, your vendors the moment you miss a payment — redirecting your receivables to themselves.

Check your agreements. If one lender has a blanket lien on all business assets (not just receivables), and they have a reputation for enforcing it aggressively, they can choke off your cash flow faster than anyone else in the stack. That's your number two priority. Maybe number one if there's no COJ in the mix.

3. The Lender With In-House Collections Gets Priority Over the One Using Third-Party

Lenders with in-house collections teams move faster. Period. A third-party debt collector has to go through a handoff process — there's paperwork, there's a delay, there's a learning curve on your file. An in-house team already has your bank statements, your application, your personal guarantor's contact info. They're calling you within days, not weeks. And they're calling your customers too.

If you've got one lender with an in-house team and another using outside collections, the in-house team is going to create more immediate damage. Prioritize accordingly.

4. The Smallest Balance Is Usually the Smartest to Settle

Here's where strategy comes in. If you can't pay everyone, and you're looking at which ones to approach for a settlement, start with the smallest balance. Why? Because MCA lenders will often settle for 40 to 60 cents on the dollar if the alternative is chasing you through litigation that costs them $15,000 to $25,000 in legal fees. A $30,000 balance is easier to settle than a $120,000 balance. Get the small ones off the board, reduce the number of daily ACH pulls hitting your account, and free up cash to deal with the bigger ones.

5. The One You're Personally Guaranteeing Gets Special Attention

Almost every MCA has a personal guarantee. But not all personal guarantees are created equal. Some are limited, some are unlimited. If one of your MCAs has an unlimited personal guarantee — meaning the lender can come after your house, your savings, your personal accounts — that one deserves more weight in your decision. The MCA that only has a corporate guarantee behind it? That's lower risk to you personally, even if the business exposure is the same.

What You Should NOT Do

A few things that seem logical but will make everything worse:

  • Don't block all the ACH pulls at once. If you call your bank and put stop payments on every MCA debit at the same time, every lender in the stack gets an NSF notification simultaneously. You've just triggered multiple defaults on the same day. Now they're all racing to freeze your accounts, file liens, and grab your receivables before the other guys do. It becomes a free-for-all and you lose all leverage.
  • Don't pay the one that's calling you the most. The loudest lender is not always the most dangerous one. Some lenders scream and do nothing. Others say nothing and file a COJ on day three. The calls are designed to pressure you into paying them instead of making a strategic decision. Don't fall for it.
  • Don't take another MCA to cover the payments. This is how a stack of three becomes a stack of five. Every new advance makes the math worse. The new lender is pulling daily debits too, and now you've breached yet another stacking clause on every existing agreement. You're accelerating toward collapse, not buying time.
  • Don't ignore it and hope they go away. MCA lenders do not go away. They don't write it off after 90 days. They don't send it to collections and forget. The ones with COJs will freeze your accounts. The ones with aggressive UCC enforcement will intercept your payments. And the ones who litigate will get a judgment and garnish everything they can find. The timeline is weeks, not months.

When You Should Call an Attorney

If you have three or more MCAs stacked, and you're already missing payments on at least one — you're past the point of handling this yourself. An attorney who specializes in MCA defense (not a general business lawyer, not a bankruptcy attorney who "also does" commercial disputes) can do things you can't:

  • Negotiate settlements on multiple MCAs simultaneously, playing lenders against each other
  • Challenge COJ filings and get account freezes lifted
  • Dispute UCC lien enforcement if the lender overreached
  • Buy you time by filing responsive motions when lawsuits land
  • Structure a repayment plan that keeps your business operating while resolving the debt

At Delancey Street, this is what we do every day. We work with business owners who are stacked, behind on payments, and getting calls from every direction. We're attorney-owned, which means we negotiate from a legal position — not just a financial one. And we've seen every version of this situation. The worst thing you can do right now is nothing.