gas station funding — mellow

mellow is not a lender and does not underwrite or approve anything itself. we review your details and work to connect you with funding providers who serve your category. terms and approval come from the provider, subject to underwriting.

know the business type, state, time in business, monthly business-bank-deposit range, requested amount, exact use, existing advances or loan payments, and timeline. use actual operating deposits rather than projected sales.

possible structures include bank or credit-union products, lines of credit, term products, equipment or inventory financing, and revenue-based financing. eligibility, cost, collateral, guarantees, repayment, and disclosures vary. a category list is not evidence that a product is available.

no. the public inquiry is not a secure document channel. do not submit bank statements, identification, tax records, account credentials, ownership documents, or supplier records unless an appropriate counterparty and secure process have first been verified.

compare the amount received, total payback, payment amount and frequency, term or estimated duration, reconciliation rights, collateral or receivables involved, personal guarantees, prepayment and default provisions, broker compensation, and required state disclosures.

no — nothing is approved until a provider underwrites your file. what you qualify for depends on your deposits, time in business, existing obligations, product mix, and state. the inquiry is how we find out which providers fit.

no one can answer that before a provider underwrites the business, and in fuel retail the usual shortcut is actively misleading. revenue-based providers commonly size an offer from average monthly business-bank deposits, but a station's deposits contain the full retail price of every gallon sold, most of which is owed to the jobber. providers who understand the category adjust for that and size against fuel margin plus inside gross profit. providers who do not can produce an offer your deposits could technically service and your profit cannot. the useful preparation is knowing your own numbers: monthly gallons, cents per gallon after card fees, inside sales and inside gross profit, existing payments, and the exact amount and purpose you need.

sometimes, but credit remains part of the decision. revenue-based providers generally weigh business-bank deposits, deposit consistency, negative days, and existing obligations more heavily than a personal credit score, and most still pull credit and apply their own minimum. a low score usually narrows which providers will look at a file rather than closing every door, and it can affect amount, term, and cost. bank, credit-union, and SBA-backed options hold tighter credit standards, and for fuel sites they often add environmental diligence on top. mellow does not review credit or issue decisions; a provider does, subject to its own underwriting.

for bank and SBA-backed products, frequently yes — underground storage tanks raise contamination liability, and lenders commonly require environmental site assessments, sometimes phase II subsurface work, before proceeding. that adds weeks and real cost. revenue-based providers generally do not order environmental reports, because they are purchasing receivables rather than taking real property as collateral, so tank age is not usually a screen for them. what does matter to any provider is an open remediation order or a compliance action that could interrupt operations. disclose it early with the status and timeline attached.

disclose it before anything else happens. providers verify existing positions in bank statements, and an undisclosed advance is one of the fastest ways to end a file — it can also breach the agreement you already signed. the arithmetic is what matters. add the payments you already carry and subtract them from monthly gross profit rather than monthly deposits, then check whether the site still covers the next fuel drop, payroll, and the inside buy in a week where fuel margin compresses. if it does not, comparing a consolidation or a renewal on the existing agreement is the more honest exercise.

revenue-based providers often decide within 1 to 3 business days of a complete file; bank and credit-union products commonly take weeks, and longer where environmental review is involved. speed depends on the file as much as the provider. missing statement pages, unexplained large deposits, an undisclosed position, or an application that does not match the bank record all add days. treat any timeline as an estimate rather than a commitment, because funding is subject to underwriting and mellow does not control provider timing. if a delivery schedule or a compliance deadline is driving the request, say so early and price the alternatives, including jobber terms and a smaller amount.

from a bank, it is harder than the revenue suggests, and the reason is usually environmental rather than financial. underground storage tanks create potential contamination liability, and many banks decline the category or require phase I and phase II environmental assessments before they will look at a file. what fuel retailers use instead is a merchant cash advance, which is technically not a loan: a funder purchases a share of future receivables for a lump sum today. approval runs on bank statements rather than collateral or an environmental report. mellow is not a lender and does not make credit decisions — we package files for a specialty funder network.

this is the single most important thing to get right on a fuel retail file. gross deposits include the entire fuel sale, most of which is money you already owe the jobber. a site depositing $400,000 a month might be holding $40,000 of actual gross profit once fuel cost, card fees, and cost of goods on the inside come out. funders who know the category size offers against fuel margin and inside gross profit. funders who do not either decline out of confusion or over-advance against a number that was never yours. we route to the first group and we show you the payment against margin, not deposits.

typically 24-72 hours from a complete file to funds in the account, subject to underwriting and verification. a complete file is your last 3 months of business bank statements, a one-page application, and a copy of your ID. sites with multiple positions, recent negative days, or an open environmental matter take longer. we tell you which kind of file you have before anything is submitted.

yes. an advance is working capital that lands in your business account, and paying the jobber is one of the most common uses in this category. fuel is inventory you pay for before you sell it, and when rack prices spike your working capital requirement rises without your profit rising at all. what we will not do is size an advance to a speculative fuel buy — funding a load you will turn in a few days is ordinary, funding a bet on price direction is not.

yes for the ordinary work — sump and spill bucket testing, line leak detector service, tank gauge or sensor replacement, sump repairs, an overfill inspection that came back with findings. those are working capital items with quotes attached and we size to the quote plus a margin, because forecourt work has a way of growing once the concrete is open. a full tank replacement or a remediation order is a different scale of project, and an advance is usually the wrong tool for it. we will tell you that rather than write it.

funded amounts in the specialty network run $10K to $500K, and most single-site fuel retail deals land between $30,000 and $125,000. the driver is not your deposit total, which fuel inflates, but the profit those deposits actually produce, adjusted for existing positions and deposit consistency. two stations with identical deposits can price very differently if one runs a strong foodservice program and the other is fuel with a cooler.

mostly it is neutral, and where it matters is in the details. a branded supply agreement gives an underwriter something recognizable and a reliable fuel source, which reads as stability. it also carries imaging obligations, volume expectations, and renewal terms that can create real spending on someone else's schedule. unbranded operators have more freedom on rack purchasing and more exposure to supply disruption. we ask about your agreement because it affects timing and use of funds, not because either answer is disqualifying.

at the pump, yes. NACS reported credit card fees of 8.4 cents per gallon in 2024 against an average fuel gross margin of 43.5 cents that year, and NACS has testified that there have been stretches where retailers paid more in swipe fees on a gallon than they made on it. interchange is a percentage of the transaction, so a high-price fill-up costs you more to accept without earning you more. this is exactly why underwriting on deposits rather than margin is dangerous in this category.

sometimes, and the arithmetic matters more here than in almost any other retail category. the question is not whether your deposits can absorb another payment — they visibly can, because fuel moves so much money through the account. the question is whether your gross profit can. add the daily or weekly payments you already carry, subtract the total from monthly gross profit rather than monthly deposits, and see what is left for the jobber, payroll, and the inside buy. if it does not work, we say so instead of placing it.

yes. specialty funders place working capital into fuel retail in every state. state law shapes your UST program, your tobacco and alcohol licensing, and what your counter can legally stock, but it does not decide whether you can access financing. what varies most by state is disclosure paperwork: several states require standardized cost disclosures with any offer, which works in your favor.