The pawn loan has been around for thousands of years, dating back to the early Chinese and the Roman Empire. The business of lending money based on borrowers providing collateral items to secure the loan is nothing new.  One New England based chain of pawn shops, Empire Loan, has gone where no pawn shop has gone before, with new exclusive technology making New England pawn loans easier for their customers.

Empire Loan has created an online loan payment center that allows customers to pay their loans through their website from the comfort of their own home or anywhere in the world. Customers simply go to www.EmpireLoan.com and click on the link to “Pay Your Loan” and create a simple online account where they can renew and even redeem their loans without having to go to the store.

“Our customers lead busy lives with work, family, chores and a million other things they don’t have time for” says Empire Loan founder and President Michael Goldstein. “The last thing they have time for is a special trip to the pawn shop to pay on their loan. That’s why we created the online loan center, to make it easier for them to take care of their business whenever it is most convenient for them.”

Empire Loan did a soft launch of the loan center in March of 2014 to give customers and employees a chance to get used to it and make sure there weren’t any bugs in the system. So far things have gone smoothly for everybody.

“We have a call center that our customers can call into if they need help navigating it. The #1 problem seems to be people forgetting their password, so that means the system is working perfectly” says Goldstein.

So far customers love it.

“We’ve had customers call us from all over the world asking how they could pay their pawn loan while they were out of the country. One customer called from Alaska and ended up redeeming the loan online and had his wife pick up the item in the store.” Says Goldstein. “Another customer called us from the airport and was panicked because he had forgotten about his loan and was about to leave the country for an extended period. Once we explained he could pay for the loan online he was able to relax and enjoy his trip”.

If you think there’s nothing new in the pawnbroking industry, you just haven’t checked out Empire Loan!