When I think of an impulse buy, I think of the Mastercard Priceless Commercial “That would go Great with that!” where the woman gets a pedicure and then starts racking up charges to match her newly painted toes. Some have recently cited structured settlement factoring advertising as condoning impulse buying. Factoring structured settlement payments is anything but an impulse buy.

Last November, we wrote Structured Settlement Factoring Funding Times which will walk you through the 2 to 3 month process it takes to complete a transfer. The state statutes shoot down any idea that this is an impulse buy due to the fact that the spontaneity is destroyed by the 3 to 10 day mandatory rescission period from the time of the disclosure, a 20 day required notice period before the court date, the option to have the contract reviewed by a legal professional and the time it takes to gather and process all the required documents.

It is hard to imagine an impulse buy will ever be associated with the idea that one must seek a judge’s approval before making a purchase? Not only do those who wish to sell their payments have to go through 60 – 90 days of processing, but they must go before a judge to seek the courts approval to find that the structured settlement transfer is in their best interest taking into account the welfare and support of their dependents. How long do you think Mastercard would be in business if their customers had to go through this process to seek approval? Of course, Mastercard customers who have had some credit issues in the past are being charged rates in the upper teens to upwards of 20% with fees while settlement transfer rates start from the single digits and go up to the mid teens.