Cash America Pawn

Cash America Pawn was one of the largest pawn chains in the United States before merging with First Cash Financial Services in 2016 to form FirstCash Holdings, Inc. Today, locations formerly branded as Cash America operate under the FirstCash umbrella. Headquartered at 1600 West 7th Street in Fort Worth, Texas, FirstCash is publicly traded and included in both the S&P MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 2000 Index, making it one of the most established names in the pawn industry.

FirstCash's core offering is small, non-recourse pawn loans secured by pledged personal property — meaning borrowers are not personally liable if they forfeit the item. The company buys and sells a wide variety of merchandise including jewelry, electronics, tools, appliances, sporting goods, and musical instruments. Beyond pawn loans, the company offers gold, silver, and platinum purchasing for immediate cash, a layaway program requiring just 10% down, and through its wholly owned subsidiary AFF, lease-to-own and retail finance payment solutions across a network of over 15,000 active merchant partner locations nationwide.

What sets FirstCash apart is its sheer scale — over 3,300 locations spanning 29 U.S. states plus Washington D.C., the United Kingdom, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and El Salvador. With approximately 22,000 employees, it operates at a level of consistency and brand reliability uncommon in the pawn industry, which is largely fragmented among independent operators. The non-recourse loan structure is a meaningful consumer protection: if you cannot repay, you simply lose the collateral — no collections, no credit damage.

For borrowers, the honest reality of any pawn loan applies here: APR disclosures and loan fee structures are not published on the website, and pawn loans are typically high-cost short-term instruments. Items accepted as collateral will be appraised at a fraction of retail or resale value, so the loan amount will be well below what you might expect. FirstCash is best used as a last resort for fast, no-credit-check cash, or as a source of discounted secondhand merchandise rather than a primary lending option.