Subprime Lender MAS Financial Drops MoneyGram as PayNearMe Usage Climbs

Subprime lender MAS Financial is starting out the new year out with a pair of payment-related moves. It will add automated payment capabilities to its options at month’s end, and it is cutting ties with money-transfer partner MoneyGram.

MAS Financial customers are increasingly using the PayNearMe option, which MAS added about three years ago, Collections Manager Fred Ulloa told AFN. PayNearMe, which services cash, debit, credit, and, soon, ACH payments for auto loans, is cheaper to use, charging $4.99 per transaction against MoneyGram’s $14.95 fee.

Ulloa also said PayNearMe’s mobile wallet and debit capabilities are popular among MAS’s customers. In the past three years, PayNearMe has accounted for a greater percentage of MAS’s payment transactions.

Ulloa estimated that MAS receives three to four transactions per day from MoneyGram, compared with 50 or 60 per day from PayNearMe. MAS Financial is in the process of integrating PayNearMe’s ACH payment capabilities.

When it becomes available, Ulloa said the subprime lender is “most likely” going to drop its current automated payment provider, Bank of the West, as PayNearMe offers a technology that can detect the validity of a checking account with a routing number. This, he said, will help prevent future ACH payments from bouncing.