[jotucker1983]

Lately I have been noticing that many of my deals have been declined in final underwriting due to drop in deposits, multiple negative days recently, and similar things. What really gets me is one deal that was declined Friday because of a massive drop in volume, something I could have easily known if I had asked for a MTD when I first got the file that week.

Overall, would it be worthwhile to ask merchants for a MTD once we are halfway through the month, so these situations can be avoided?

Sure why not? It wouldn't hurt to grab a month-to-date bank activity sheet, but a deal can still be killed in the 11th hour for a variety of reasons, such as:

- The drop off in sales as you mentioned

- A tax lien that pops up

- A judgment lien that pops up

- The merchant is found on some industry fraud list

- The merchant's bank statements turn out to be fraudulent

- A hidden cash advance balance is found

- The merchant is severely behind with their landlord

My point is that there will always be that "final verification" process and within that process, the deal can be killed for a variety of reasons. All you can do is pre-qual the best you can upfront and collect the initial documents.