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Pawn shops that only accept cash for loan payments (Cash America/First Cash) Shady? or just inconvenient.
Now I understand that some Mom and Pop pawn shops may still operate as cash only, however Cash America and First Cash is a major company, they are even traded on the NYSE (FCFS).
Their chain stores accept card payments for layaway and purchases, but if you must make a payment on a loan it's cash only. Honestly I cannot think of a good reason for a major pawn shop corporation to do this, it seems like a shady way to operate. If their books are clean, then at the very least it is a major inconvenience for loan customers especially since most people do not use cash often anymore. Several other pawn shop chains have apps where you can even make your loan payments online making it very convenient for their customers, there is no reason for FCFS to not do this or at the very least accept debit payments in-store.
Out of curiosity I did a little digging and FCFS is in litigation with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for allegedly violating the Military Lending Act.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/enforcement/actions/firstcash-inc-and-cash-america-west-inc/
Credit card fees on not just the payment but the principle. You borrow $100.. $3 interest. Credit card fee is 3%. Pawn shop makes nothing.
This, although debit card fees are actually quite low. It may have more to do with accepting credit cards. Those fees are high and if you take Visa debit it may be illegal to not also accept a Visa credit card.
Easy to think if you’ve never experienced how much credit card fees eat up in profit and how expensive chargebacks can get. Customer can dispute the charge and get 100% of their money back MONTHS later. It’s simply too big of a risk to take when your profit is based on recovering the principle of the loan plus a little bit of interest.
This. Absolutely.
First Cash employee here. It's for the most part to keep physical cash flow coming in, so we can give money to buys/pawns.
This right here.
Interest payments or purchases? Cards are fine.
Redeeming a loan? Cash only. We need to keep seed cash on hand because we give cash out.
there are a very small amount of stores that are able to take card as interest payment but to redeem all stores are cash
All pawn shops are Cash only for loan payments. I've been a pawnbroker for over a decade in several different States.
EZ Pawn in my area accepts debit for loans.
Former cash America employee, it’s meant to be an inconvenience. From what I was told was 1. It’s more likely someone gonna have a 20 on them than 100 ( say the loan was for 100) so you’ll most likely extend the loan which give the original pawnbroker service charges( commission) 2. Cash is physical so we guarantee the money, there isn’t much to stop people from picking up the item then calling the bank to say it’s fraud. 3. What most don’t know is first cash has 7 pawn shop under its umbrella and we share the same system called V.2 meaning if you did a loan at first Cash then decided not to pick up the item, me at cash America can see you didn’t pick the item and there’s a percentage of the rate you pick up your loans