Military Families Who Took Pawn Loans From FirstCash Get Back 120% of What They Paid in Fees — or the Fees Plus the Full Loan Amount if They Lost the Item. There Is No Claim Form: The CFPB's First List Alone Named 42,698 Loans, the Payment-Choice Window Is 30 Days From the Letter, and No Payment Date Has Been Published.

If you searched for the FirstCash settlement because a letter arrived, here is what it is. It is not a class action with a claim form and a fairness hearing. It is the end of a lawsuit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed on November 12, 2021 against the pawn operator FirstCash, Inc. and one subsidiary, widened on June 21, 2022 to FirstCash and 19 subsidiaries — among them Cash America West, Cash America East, Cash America Inc. of Alaska, Georgia Cash America, Cash America Pawn L.P., several FCFS companies and Pawn TX. The amended complaint says Cash America and First Cash Financial Services merged on September 1, 2016 and operate under the FirstCash name.

The law at issue is the Military Lending Act. It caps the cost of consumer credit to active-duty servicemembers and their dependents at a 36% “Military Annual Percentage Rate,” bans mandatory arbitration and requires specific disclosures. Pawn lenders had to comply from October 3, 2016. The CFPB alleged that FirstCash ignored all three rules. For the only period it then had data for, June 2017 to May 2021, the amended complaint counts “over 3,600 pawn loans to more than 1,000 covered borrowers” from stores in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Washington, and says “All of these loans imposed an APR over 36%, with APRs frequently exceeding 200%.” The CFPB also said FirstCash was breaking a 2013 CFPB order against its predecessor Cash America International, which had already barred further MLA violations. When the case was filed, then-Director Rohit Chopra said, as quoted by PYMNTS: “FirstCash is a repeat offender and cheated military families over and over again.”

On April 1, 2025 the two sides told the court they were in settlement talks with the court-assigned mediator, the Hon. David L. Evans; on May 29, 2025 they reported “an agreement in principle to fully resolve this action.” On July 11, 2025 Judge Mark T. Pittman signed the Stipulated Final Judgment and Order. FirstCash “neither admit[s] nor den[ies] the allegations,” and its CEO Rick Wessel said the company disagreed with the CFPB but that settling was “the best path forward.” On July 22, 2025 the CFPB ended the 2013 Cash America order, saying that company had fulfilled it.

Decided, and finished in court: the judgment was entered on the day it was filed; the order defines that day as the Effective Date, FirstCash waived any appeal, and the case was closed. The court keeps jurisdiction to enforce the order and to resolve disputes over the redress process. Not finished: the payments. The official site’s FAQ says the steps to decide who is eligible are “ongoing.” A CFPB order also means no class counsel, no opt-out and no release you sign: the order forbids FirstCash to “condition the payment of any redress to any Affected Consumer ... on that Affected Consumer waiving any right.”

The order calls the people it pays “Affected Consumers.” Word for word, that is anyone who, “between October 3, 2016, and six months after the Effective Date, and as exclusively determined through the processes set forth in paragraph 20 of this Order,” was a covered servicemember, dependent or “covered borrower” under the MLA and, while covered, “took out a pawn loan from Defendants” with (1) a Military APR above 36%, (2) a mandatory arbitration clause, or (3) disclosures that missed the MLA’s requirements, including the statement of the Military APR. Six months after July 11, 2025 is January 11, 2026, the end date ClaimDepot gives; the official FAQ says only “six months after the Effective Date of July 11, 2025.”

Covered means active duty at the time of the loan, not military service in general. The intake script the order now requires at FirstCash counters describes it: a member of the Armed Forces “serving on active duty under a call or order that does not specify a period of 30 days or less,” or on active Guard or active Reserve duty, plus certain dependents — a spouse; a child under 21, or older in some cases, such as a full-time student under 23 who relies on the servicemember for more than half of their support; and a parent or parent-in-law who lives in the servicemember’s household and depends on them for over half of their support. A veteran who pawned something after leaving active duty is not covered by this order for that loan.

The key words are “exclusively determined.” Nobody applies. Paragraph 20 of the order sets up three lists:

• October 3, 2016 to August 25, 2024: the CFPB had already identified 42,698 pawn loans it says warrant redress. FirstCash could object to individual loans by August 10, 2025; unresolved objections go to an in-person meeting and, if needed, to the court.
• August 25, 2024 to July 11, 2025: FirstCash had to hand over transaction data within 30 days; the CFPB then picks the loans, and FirstCash has 30 days to object.
• July 11, 2025 to January 11, 2026 — or until FirstCash introduced its MLA-compliant pawn product, whichever came first: data due within six months and 30 days, by February 10, 2026, then the same review.

FirstCash may not drop a loan by claiming it was not for personal use unless it has evidence beyond the pawned item itself. How many of the 42,698 loans survived objections, and how many loans the two later lists added, has not been published.

If you did not get a letter, filing something will not put you on the list; the administrator’s login needs the “Unique ID and PIN included in the Notice you received.” The same login page says anyone who misplaced the notice can request the ID and PIN by email or phone, “by providing your full name and mailing address.” Is the letter real? The site at FirstCashSettlement.com shows the case number, names the administrator Simpluris in its footer, serves its court documents from a Simpluris server, and gives one phone line, (833) 417-4914, the email info@FirstCashSettlement.com and P.O. Box 25191, Santa Ana, CA 92799. Its FAQ says payment choices “may not be made via our toll-free line or over the phone” — so a caller asking for your bank details by phone is not following the site’s own process. The site’s contact page calls the matter a “Settlement Class Action”; the court papers show a CFPB enforcement judgment.

Searches for a FirstCash Inc settlement also turn up a different case: Genesee County Employees’ Retirement System v. FirstCash Holdings, Inc., No. 4:22-cv-00033, filed January 14, 2022 in Texas for shareholders who said the CFPB news hurt the stock. It is about investors, not borrowers.

The FirstCash settlement redress is set per loan, by formula, in paragraph 17 of the order — no pro rata split and no per-person cap:

A hypothetical, not a figure from the order: on a $200 pawn loan that cost $50 in fees and interest, a borrower who redeemed would get $60 (120% of $50); a borrower who lost the item would get $250 ($50 plus the $200 principal). Two further rules apply: FirstCash does not pay again for amounts it already returned to a borrower, though an earlier refund below the 120% level must be topped up to 120%; and money that is sent and accepted cannot be clawed back.

The order does not cap the total. Within 30 days FirstCash had to reserve or deposit $5,000,000 in a segregated redress account and “deposit additional funds ... such that the total amount Defendants deposit into the Redress Account equals the total amount of redress owed.” It must pay “regardless of whether the total relief exceeds the amount reserved or deposited into the Redress Account,” and if the total turns out lower, FirstCash gets the difference back. The $5 million is therefore a starting deposit, not a guaranteed minimum, not a cap and not a pot to be split.

How much in total? FirstCash told investors on July 11, 2025 that redress “is estimated to be between $5 million and $7 million”; its later filings say “no more than $7.0 million.” By our arithmetic only: $5 million to $7 million spread over the 42,698 loans on the first list would average about $117 to $164 per loan. That is not a per-person estimate — the later lists add loans, objections may remove some, one person can have many loans, and a forfeited item that secured a large loan pays far more than a redeemed small one.

The separate $4,000,000 civil money penalty went to the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund; FirstCash says it paid it in July 2025. That money is not part of these redress checks. FirstCash may not claim a tax benefit for it, have it reimbursed by insurance, or use it to reduce damages in a private lawsuit over the same facts.

What the redress notice lets you do is choose how you are paid. According to the official site there are three ways to send the payment election form, each “within 30 days of receipt of a redress notice in the mail”: online with the Unique ID and PIN from the notice, where the options are a virtual prepaid card, PayPal, Venmo or Zelle; by mail to FirstCash Settlement, Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 25191, Santa Ana, CA 92799; or as a scan or phone photo emailed to info@FirstCashSettlement.com. The official site gives no calendar deadline. ClaimDepot, which listed the case on September 2, 2026, gives September 20, 2026 as the payment election deadline; if that date applies to your notice, it has passed. Missing it does not cost the money. The FAQ: “If you have been determined eligible for a payment, you do not need to submit a Payment Election Form. If you elect not to submit a Payment Election Form, then a paper check will be sent by physical mail to the address we have for you.” Address changes go to the same email or phone line; the FAQ asks callers to have the login details from the form ready.

When the money moves is not public. The FAQ answer to “When will I receive my payment?” reads: “The Settlement requires the Bureau and FirstCash to undertake several steps to determine who is eligible for Settlement payments. That process is ongoing.” The detailed timetable is in a written Redress Plan to which the CFPB gave its “non-objection”; it is not posted. What the order itself fixes:

The last row is the latest date in the order. Five years after the Effective Date, FirstCash must wire whatever is left in the redress account to the CFPB, “at which point Defendants will not be responsible for honoring outstanding redress claims.” The CFPB may use that money for further redress; if it decides that is impracticable, or money is left over, it goes to the U.S. Treasury. To have a check reissued, the FAQ points to info@FirstCashSettlement.com or (833) 417-4914.

The rest of the order runs for years. For five years FirstCash may not make, service or collect pawn loans to covered borrowers that break the MLA’s rate cap, its arbitration ban or its disclosure rules. From six months after the Effective Date until at least five and a half years after it — January 11, 2026 to January 11, 2031 — FirstCash must either use a Department of Defense safe harbor for all pawn loans or advertise to everyone, and offer to covered borrowers, an MLA-compliant pawn product: at or below the 36% cap, no arbitration clause, no waiver of rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, no prepayment penalty, and no extra lost-ticket, storage, service or set-up fees.

If it offers the product, every store must post the sign in Exhibit A to the order: “ARE YOU ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY OR A MILITARY DEPENDENT? If so, you may qualify for a lower interest rate on your pawn.” Every pawn transaction starts with a scripted set of questions in the point-of-sale system, beginning with “Have you, a spouse, a parent, or any of your children ever been a member of the U.S. Armed Forces?” The order says the system “will not permit an employee to issue a pawn loan with MLA-violative terms to any consumer who answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions” and locks a “yes” so it cannot be changed without store-manager approval. FirstCash’s annual report for 2025 says it began offering an MLA-compliant pawn product for covered servicemembers and their dependents in 2025.

If you think you should be on the list and got nothing, or your letter shows loans you do not recognize, the place to ask is the administrator; the order’s dispute process is written for the CFPB and FirstCash, not for individual claims. The CFPB’s own case page lists the matter as “Post Order/Post Judgment.”

Administrator: FirstCash Settlement, c/o Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 25191, Santa Ana, CA 92799 — info@FirstCashSettlement.com — (833) 417-4914 — FirstCashSettlement.com. Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, No. 4:21-cv-01251-P, Judge Mark T. Pittman.