Rapid Advance Lies and Loan Shark Practices Bethesda Maryland

Rapid Advance is a sham operation. They do not loan money to small businesses. What they do is deceptive and possibly illegal.  This company solicited me allegedly to purchase a portion of my store's credit card sales.  I sent them some documentation and they came back saying I was approved for $7500 in a loan.  In turn, they would take 34% of my daily credit card sales.

In these tough economic times, small business needs cash flow. So I decided to take Rapid Advance's offer.  I sent them a voided check from my business account and signed their very one-sided contract.

Their Sales Rep. Tim Luculano called and said everything was a "go" and put me in touch with Umaru Mansaray who told me I would have to contact Integrity, their credit card processing company to reprogram my ATM/Credit card terminal so Rapid could start taking their fees once the loan money had been wired into my checking account.

I called Integrity and went thru a 30 min process of having my terminal reprogrammed. Several days passed, still no money was wired into my checking account.

I started calling Rapid Advance, first I spoke with my original Sales Rep. Tim, he emailed me that everything would be final in a day or two, the money would be in my account. After a couple of days--still no money. However, Rapid advance was taking their payment plus interest out of my credit card sales even though they had not given me any money!!

I spoke with another person named Karl (with a last name that is either middle eastern or armenian--as they all appear to be at Rapid) who said nothing had been approved and I had to wait several days of credit card sales before he would authorize the "final approval and get authority to fund".  This Karl could not say why Rapid was taking a payment for a loan they did not fund.

After emailing the President of Rapid, Jeremy Brown, I get a call from a Quinn (last name unknown) who essentially stated the buck stopped with him and all he needed was my 1040 and schedule C to prove I was an actual business!! Haven't they confirmed that already?? I immediately faxed the documents to him. Heard nothing and had to call Quinn again.

Quinn could not give my any estimate on when the funds would be in my checking account but said they were still in the process of approving my loan? WTF? Why is Rapid Advance taking money from my account for payment to them when they have not loaned me any money??? Totally illegal.

What I have learned about Rapid Advance from inside sources: 1.  They are in the business of getting small business customers to switch to their credit card processing services which charges much more than their competitors. 2. They sell your information 3. they are in financial trouble 4. They have numerous complaints against them with the BBB and possibly with other government agencies. 5. They are in financial trouble 6. They are scum.

Avoid them at all costs. They use deceptive practices, steal from consumers and basically feel they are above the law. 

Rapid Advance is a sham operation. They do not loan money to small businesses. What they do is deceptive and possibly illegal.  This company solicited me allegedly to purchase a portion of my store's credit card sales.  I sent them some documentation and they came back saying I was approved for $7500 in a loan.  In turn, they would take 34% of my daily credit card sales.

In these tough economic times, small business needs cash flow. So I decided to take Rapid Advance's offer.  I sent them a voided check from my business account and signed their very one-sided contract.

Their Sales Rep. Tim Luculano called and said everything was a "go" and put me in touch with Umaru Mansaray who told me I would have to contact Integrity, their credit card processing company to reprogram my ATM/Credit card terminal so Rapid could start taking their fees once the loan money had been wired into my checking account.

I called Integrity and went thru a 30 min process of having my terminal reprogrammed. Several days passed, still no money was wired into my checking account.

I started calling Rapid Advance, first I spoke with my original Sales Rep. Tim, he emailed me that everything would be final in a day or two, the money would be in my account. After a couple of days--still no money. However, Rapid advance was taking their payment plus interest out of my credit card sales even though they had not given me any money!!

I spoke with another person named Karl (with a last name that is either middle eastern or armenian--as they all appear to be at Rapid) who said nothing had been approved and I had to wait several days of credit card sales before he would authorize the "final approval and get authority to fund".  This Karl could not say why Rapid was taking a payment for a loan they did not fund.

After emailing the President of Rapid, Jeremy Brown, I get a call from a Quinn (last name unknown) who essentially stated the buck stopped with him and all he needed was my 1040 and schedule C to prove I was an actual business!! Haven't they confirmed that already?? I immediately faxed the documents to him. Heard nothing and had to call Quinn again.

Quinn could not give my any estimate on when the funds would be in my checking account but said they were still in the process of approving my loan? WTF? Why is Rapid Advance taking money from my account for payment to them when they have not loaned me any money??? Totally illegal.

What I have learned about Rapid Advance from inside sources: 1.  They are in the business of getting small business customers to switch to their credit card processing services which charges much more than their competitors. 2. They sell your information 3. they are in financial trouble 4. They have numerous complaints against them with the BBB and possibly with other government agencies. 5. They are in financial trouble 6. They are scum.

Avoid them at all costs. They use deceptive practices, steal from consumers and basically feel they are above the law. 

Rapid Advance is a sham operation. They do not loan money to small businesses. What they do is deceptive and possibly illegal.  This company solicited me allegedly to purchase a portion of my store's credit card sales.  I sent them some documentation and they came back saying I was approved for $7500 in a loan.  In turn, they would take 34% of my daily credit card sales.

In these tough economic times, small business needs cash flow. So I decided to take Rapid Advance's offer.  I sent them a voided check from my business account and signed their very one-sided contract.

Their Sales Rep. Tim Luculano called and said everything was a "go" and put me in touch with Umaru Mansaray who told me I would have to contact Integrity, their credit card processing company to reprogram my ATM/Credit card terminal so Rapid could start taking their fees once the loan money had been wired into my checking account.

I called Integrity and went thru a 30 min process of having my terminal reprogrammed. Several days passed, still no money was wired into my checking account.

I started calling Rapid Advance, first I spoke with my original Sales Rep. Tim, he emailed me that everything would be final in a day or two, the money would be in my account. After a couple of days--still no money. However, Rapid advance was taking their payment plus interest out of my credit card sales even though they had not given me any money!!

I spoke with another person named Karl (with a last name that is either middle eastern or armenian--as they all appear to be at Rapid) who said nothing had been approved and I had to wait several days of credit card sales before he would authorize the "final approval and get authority to fund".  This Karl could not say why Rapid was taking a payment for a loan they did not fund.

After emailing the President of Rapid, Jeremy Brown, I get a call from a Quinn (last name unknown) who essentially stated the buck stopped with him and all he needed was my 1040 and schedule C to prove I was an actual business!! Haven't they confirmed that already?? I immediately faxed the documents to him. Heard nothing and had to call Quinn again.

Quinn could not give my any estimate on when the funds would be in my checking account but said they were still in the process of approving my loan? WTF? Why is Rapid Advance taking money from my account for payment to them when they have not loaned my any money??? Totally illegal.

What I have learned about Rapid Advance from inside sources: 1.  They are in the business of getting small business customers to switch to their credit card processing services which charges much more than their competitors. 2. They sell your information 3. they are in financial trouble 4. They have numerous complaints against them with the BBB and possibly with other government agencies. 5. They are scum. Avoid them at all costs. They use deceptive practices, steal from consumers and basically feel they are above the law. 

I am the President and COO of RapidAdvance. This business owner has been a customer of ours as he describes since March 2008.

We deal with thousand's of customers every year and execute over $200 million of transactions annually. We are an important source of working capital for retail merchants. As a result, our systems are fairly sophisticated. We record phone calls, we electronically image and date stamp all documents, etc.

The facts are as follows: our customer faxed in his completed application for a new transaction on December 29, not December 22. The completed application was logged into our system at 1:58 pm. It application was submitted to our underwriting department on 2:03 pm.

We declined this customer for a new transaction on Decmeber 30 at 5:33 pm. The sequence where he describes how he was promised money for a week before he ever applied for new funding is not true.

To confirm the data I personally reviewed the faxed application myself.

Because of this customer's history with us, we did reconsider his application 30 days later on January 27. Unfortunately because he had changed his terminal as he describes, we had to decline him again.

My advice: Don't rip-off the people that provide you money. Payback is tough, but it cuts both ways.

I will say that in the end this customer was honest and paid off the balance due in full on February 16.