TV Pawn Shop teams up for co-branded prepaid MasterCard

Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in partnership with MasterCard and Redwood Hills Financial Group will be releasing a prepaid credit card.

“For centuries, pawn shops have provided financial services to consumers who don’t have a traditional checking account or credit card,” owner of Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, Rick Harrison said in a press release. Harrison`s pawnshop and its fellow proprietors and family members star in “Pawn Stars,” a Las-Vegas based cable TV series. Gold & Silver Pawn Shop is owned by three generations of the Harrison family. Rick Harrison, his father, and Harrison`s son Corey and his friend Chumlee run the Pawn Shop. Their new credit card will be called the Modern Cash Prepaid MasterCard Limited Edition Gold & Silver Pawn Shop card.

“This card will help build upon their [the Harrison family`s] vision of ensuring consumers are provided with affordable and attractive checking account alternatives,” Redwood Hills Financial Group CEO, Michael Odai said.

Like pawnshops, prepaid credit cards have provided help to those who were not financially stable or who had been rejected from traditional unsecured credit cards. “Our prepaid debit card is a natural extension of what we’ve been doing for years in our shop – giving good people some financial ‘wiggle room’ and direct access to their money,” Harrison said. He explains that the card will give cardholders a reliable alternative to a checking account with a brand that they trust. Prepaid credit cards are different from traditional unsecured credit cards because they work off of money that you deposit or “load” onto the card.

The prepaid credit card is accepted anywhere MasterCard is accepted around the world. Unlike most prepaid credit cards, there is no sign-on or monthly maintenance fee if the consumer makes $2,000 a month in deposits on the card. Cardholders can set up direct deposit with the card, and have access to their account 24/7 via an online log-in. Also, cardholders can set up text message alerts about their account balances and set up overdraft protection.

There is talk of implementing a rewards program that will allow cardholder to bet on retail merchandise, like unique Gold & Silver Pawn items, as well as other electronic goods. If a consumer signs up for the card before (launch date) they will be awarded bonus reward points.

As with all credit cards read through the fine print thoroughly.