UCC leads for MCA: what a filing proves, what they cost, and how to work them

A UCC lead is a business that shows up in a state's Uniform Commercial Code filings because a lender recorded a lien against its assets. In the MCA world that lien is the fingerprint of a funded deal: the merchant applied, was approved, and took money. Nobody had to tell you that — the state did. This guide covers what a UCC filing actually proves, where the records come from, what they cost, and how desks work them without wasting the first week.

What a UCC filing is, in plain English

When a lender advances money against a business's receivables, equipment or inventory, it usually files a UCC-1 financing statement with the Secretary of State where the business is organised. The filing is public. It names the debtor (the business), the secured party (the lender, or a filing service standing in for it) and, loosely, the collateral. It stays on record for five years unless the lender files a UCC-3 to terminate or continue it.

For a funding desk, three facts fall out of that:

The business was fundable at the time of filing — someone underwrote it and said yes.
The business was willing to take financing, which is the hardest thing to establish by cold calling.
The filing date tells you roughly where the merchant is in that deal's life. Most MCA terms run 3 to 18 months, so the date is a renewal clock.

What a filing does not tell you: the amount funded (UCC-1s rarely state it), the rate, whether the balance has been paid down, or whether the owner is happy. A lien that was never terminated can belong to a deal that finished two years ago; lenders are slow to file terminations. Treat the record as "was funded around this date", not "owes money today".

Where UCC leads come from

Every state publishes its filings, but in a different format, behind a different search interface, with different fees. Vendors pull the raw filings in bulk, strip out the non-MCA secured parties (banks financing equipment, landlords, tax liens filed by the state), then append contact information: the owner's name, a direct phone, an email, revenue estimates. The appended data is the part that varies in quality, because the filing itself only has a business name and an address.

That split matters when you buy. The filing data is public record and identical from any vendor. What you're paying for is the filtering (is this actually an MCA lien?) and the append (can you reach the owner?). Ask about both separately.

What UCC leads cost

Ranges we observe across vendor price lists and marketplaces in 2026:

Type	Typical price	Notes
Fresh UCC filings, under 30 days, with appended phone and owner name	$0.50 – $0.75 per record	Sold by state and filing month; minimums of 500 to 1,000 records are common
Aged UCC filings, 3 to 12 months old, appended	$0.20 – $0.40 per record	The renewal window for most short-term deals
Aged UCC filings, 12 months+, appended	$0.05 – $0.15 per record	Bulk blocks of 5,000+
Raw filings, no append (business name and address only)	$0.01 – $0.03 per record	You do the skip-tracing yourself
UCC records cross-matched to a funding application the vendor holds	$0.40 – $1.00 per record	Rare; the application supplies revenue, time in business and the amount requested

Compared with the rest of the MCA lead price ladder, UCC data sits in the middle: dearer than a generic aged lead because the funding event is proven, cheaper than a submission because you don't get the underwriting fields.

Reading the filing date

The date is the most useful field on the record and the one most buyers ignore. A practical way to bucket a UCC list:

Filing age	What it usually means	What to lead with
0 – 60 days	Just funded. Cash in hand, being called by everyone who bought the same filing.	Second position if your lenders do it, or go quiet and set a follow-up for month four.
3 – 6 months	Roughly halfway through a typical term. Renewal conversations start here; the original funder is about to call too.	Renewal or consolidation with a better rate, or added capital against the paid-down balance.
6 – 12 months	Deal likely paid off or nearly so. Owner knows exactly what the money did for them.	Fresh funding, bigger ticket, better terms than last time.
12 months+	Lien may be stale or terminated. Still a business owner with a proven appetite for capital.	Treat like an aged lead: cheap, high volume, scrub hard.

Keep in mind that a filing date is a floor, not a fact about today. Confirm the current position in the first conversation rather than assuming it.

The secured party tells you more than you'd think

The lender's name on the filing is a filter in its own right. Some filers are MCA funders by name; many funders file through a service, so the secured party reads as a generic filing company. Experienced buyers keep their own list of which filers are MCA money and which are equipment finance or bank lines, and they ask the vendor how the list was filtered. A list that's 40% equipment leases is a list that's 40% wasted dialing.

Working a UCC list

Scrub first. Run every phone against the federal and state DNC registries and a TCPA litigator list before the first call, and keep the scrub date with the record. The business-to-business exemption is narrower than most reps think, and a UCC record includes mobile numbers for owners.
Sort by filing month, not by name. Then put the 3-to-6-month band in front of your best closers. That's where the response is.
Open with the fact, not a pitch. "You took funding around March" lands differently from "do you need working capital". Owners know the filing is public; acknowledging it reads as informed rather than invasive.
Expect the owner to be busy and recently sold to. UCC data is non-exclusive by definition. Three to five touches over two weeks, then park and retry at the next band.
Record the disposition. A UCC list worked once with notes is worth more than the same list fresh. Current position, renewal date and the owner's temperature are the fields that turn a public record into a pipeline.

What to ask before you buy

Which states and which filing months, exactly, and is the filing date on every record?
How were non-MCA secured parties removed, and roughly what share of the list is MCA liens?
What percentage of records carry a direct phone? An owner name? An email? Ask for the figures, not adjectives.
How many times is each record sold, and are your past purchases excluded from the next order?
Does the record carry anything it shouldn't — Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank details? If so, walk away. A compliant list never includes them, and neither does ours.

Where UCC leads fit against submission data

A UCC record proves a funding happened. A submission record proves an application happened and tells you what the owner said about revenue, time in business and the amount they wanted. The two overlap but serve different desks: UCC lists suit renewal and consolidation plays where the funded history is the pitch; submissions suit shops that want to qualify before the first call. Many floors run both, with the UCC list fed to the renewal team and the aged submissions to the openers.

Our own inventory is built from applications submitted through our channels rather than from state filings, so when we list a funded tier the record carries the application fields as well as the funding month. Current lists, counts and prices are on the Buy Data page.

Updated 2026-10-13. Prices quoted are market ranges we observe, not offers; our own lists and current prices are on the Buy Data page. We supply data; compliance with TCPA, DNC and CAN-SPAM for any outreach is the buyer's responsibility.