Gas station and c-store funding, sized on the money you keep
Fuel drafts and lottery sweeps leave your account almost as soon as they land, so gross deposits overstate the store. A funder sizes an advance on what stays after those leave, and it's repaid from the card and cash deposits that follow. It fits an operating station that needs cash for inventory, repairs or a reopening.
For owners of operating gas stations, c-stores and fuel businesses with business bank deposits.
Where a station's deposits go before any of it belongs to you
A station takes in a lot of money that belongs to someone else. The fuel supplier drafts the account after each load, the lottery takes its share, and distributors are paid for the cigarettes, beer and snacks on the shelf. A funder subtracts those outflows to find the part a payment can come from.
| Line | Who it goes to | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Card and cash deposits | Lands in your business account | $180,000 |
| Fuel supplier drafts | Your fuel supplier, after each delivery | $118,000 |
| Lottery sweeps | The state lottery | $14,000 |
| Tobacco, beer and grocery distributors | Your wholesale vendors | $21,000 |
| Left for rent, payroll and you | The store | $27,000 |
Made-up numbers for a sample store, to show the arithmetic. A real offer comes from a funder, in writing, once it has read your bank statements.
In that sample, $180,000 came in and $27,000 stayed. An offer built on the first number would bury the store; an offer built on the second can be carried. We tag each supplier draft and sweep on your statements so the funder reads it the same way.
Reopening or restocking after a gap in deposits
Owners ask this in public forums, including a recent r/smallbusiness thread on funding to reopen a gas station. The plain answer: an advance is repaid out of deposits, so a funder reads the gap in your statements first and wants to know why it happened and whether the money is flowing again.
- If the doors are open again, send statements covering the weeks before the closure and every week since, so a funder can compare the two.
- Explain the gap in a few lines. A remodel, a tank or pump repair, a change of fuel supplier or an ownership change each reads differently, and a funder left to guess will usually assume the worst.
- If the doors are still shut, there are no deposits to repay from yet. Equipment financing, an SBA-backed option or owner capital tends to fit a full reopening better, and we'll say so.
- For restocking, show the supplier invoice or the order you plan to place, so the amount you ask for matches a real bill.
Repayment in dollars, against fuel weeks
A funder buys a share of your future receipts and pays you up front. You agree on a total payback, and it's collected from your account until it's paid. Most station sales settle as card batches, so a funder may take a share of each batch, or it may set one fixed debit from your bank account.
| Fixed weekly debit | Share of card batches | |
|---|---|---|
| What comes out | $1,155 each week, 40 debits in all | A set share of each card batch that settles |
| A slow week at the pump | The debit stays $1,155 | The payment gets smaller with the batches |
| A busy holiday week | The debit stays $1,155 | The payment gets larger with the batches |
| Total repaid | $46,200 | $46,200 |
| What the money cost | $11,200 | $11,200 |
Made-up numbers for a sample store, to show the arithmetic. A real offer comes from a funder, in writing, once it has read your bank statements.
Both columns add up to the same $46,200. The difference shows up in a week when pump traffic drops and a delivery draft hits at the same time: the fixed debit doesn't move, and the share of batches does.
How Afterfirst works as a broker
We're a broker, not a funder. We don't fund the advance ourselves. One free application, multiple offers side by side:
- You send one file. Your application and statements, once.
- We send it to our funding partners that work with fuel and c-store businesses at your size, and to no one else.
- You compare offers in dollars. Each shows the amount, the payback, the payment and the term. Nothing moves until you choose one, and you can choose none.
What a station owner should check before signing
- Payback minus funding, in dollars. Subtract what reaches your account from the total you owe. That difference is the price of the money. A factor rate only multiplies; convert it to a dollar figure before you compare offers.
- The payment against a fuel delivery week. Line the debit up with the week your supplier drafts the account, since the balance runs thinnest that week.
- Which deposits the split covers. If it takes a share of card batches, ask whether fuel and in-store cards both count.
- How to ask for a lower payment. On a fixed debit, read the reconciliation clause and ask what proof a funder wants when deposits drop.
- Money held back at funding. Ask for the net amount that will land in the account after any fees come out.
- Early payoff. Ask in writing whether paying it off ahead of schedule lowers what you owe.
If a clause reads one way to you and another way to the funder, get it settled in writing before anything funds.
When a station should skip an advance
- The store loses money after fuel, lottery and vendor bills are paid.
- The money is for new pumps, tanks or a canopy. Equipment financing paid to the vendor usually costs less and runs as long as the equipment does.
- You're buying a station rather than running one.
- Another advance already takes most of what the store keeps.
When that's the case, we'll tell you plainly and point you toward something that suits it.
Fuel, c-store and auto deals our funding partners have funded
A funding partner shared the deals it funded, by industry and amount. We show them as the partner listed them, without auditing the figures. These three were funded by our funding partners:
- Bulk fuel/c-store/auto repair: $175K
- Gas station and c-store: $98K
- Auto collision repair: $15K
The amounts differ because each was sized on what that business's deposits could carry.
How Afterfirst is paid
Applying costs you nothing, and Afterfirst MCA charges you no fee. Funding companies pay us a monthly membership, and the funder pays us a commission when a deal funds. What you owe on an advance is paid to the funder and is shown in your offer: the amount, the payback, the payment and the term. Membership level does not change the order or the terms of the offers shown to you. Higher plans can change when a funder sees a file.
The full detail is on our pay disclosure page.
What should a station or store send?
- The application, filled in for the business.
- Recent business bank statements, including the weeks around any closure.
- Your fuel supplier invoices or delivery statements, if a funder asks how the drafts line up.
- A short note on any closure, reopening, remodel or pump price change behind an odd month.
- Every advance contract the business is still repaying.
Send it once and we route it to the partners that fit your file.
What do station and store owners ask us?
We closed the station for a while and want to reopen. Can we still apply?
Yes, as long as the business has deposits a funder can read. An advance is repaid out of the money that lands in your account, so a funder will look closely at the weeks with no deposits. Send statements from before the closure and from every week since you reopened, plus a short note on why you closed and what changed. If the doors are still shut, an advance is the wrong fit for now.
Why does a funder care about fuel drafts and lottery sweeps?
Because most of that money was never yours to keep. The fuel supplier drafts the account after each delivery and the lottery sweeps its share, so gross deposits look bigger than the store really is. A funder sizes the payment on the remainder once those leave the account.
Our pump prices dropped and deposits fell. Will that hurt the file?
It can, if nobody explains it. Lower prices on the same gallons mean smaller deposits and smaller fuel drafts at once. Point to the price change in a note, and if you track gallons, include them so a funder can see the volume held steady.
Is this for the business or for me personally?
For the business only. We work with owners of operating gas stations and convenience stores, and every offer is sized on business bank deposits.
How does Afterfirst work with funders?
We're a broker, not a funder. You send us one application, we send that one file to the funding partners that work with fuel and c-store businesses, and each offer comes back to you in dollars so you can compare them side by side.
We already repay an advance. Can we take a second one to restock?
Look at the combined payment first. Two debits come out of the same deposits, and a fuel delivery draft still has to clear in the same week. Send us the contract you already carry, and compare a second advance with consolidating the one you have.
Sources: the three deal amounts come from one funding partner's own list, which Afterfirst hasn't checked. The station month and the $35,000 advance are our own sample figures.
Send your statements and your supplier drafts
One application, and we'll set every offer against your fuel weeks. We email you first from info@afterfirstmca.com. A person calls only if you ask. Applying costs you nothing, and Afterfirst MCA charges you no fee. Funders pay us a commission when a deal funds, and funding companies pay us a monthly membership. The price of an advance is set by the funder and is shown in your offer.