Ace Cash Express

Ace Cash Express is a national financial services retailer that provides everyday money services for customers who often live outside traditional banking. Its stores handle check cashing, small-dollar loans, bill payment, money transfers, money orders, prepaid debit cards, and ATM access, with many locations keeping extended hours so people can take care of cash needs on nights and weekends as well as on payday.

The business dates back to 1968, when founder Jay Shipowitz began building a storefront check-cashing operation in Texas. Over time, the concept grew from a local chain into a multi-state network focused on serving working-class neighborhoods that relied on convenient, in-person financial services. A notable milestone came in 2006, when the company was acquired by private equity firm JLL Partners in a transaction valued at roughly $420 million, which helped fund further expansion and repositioning of the brand in key markets. In the years that followed, ACE Cash Express and its affiliates were acquired again and ultimately became part of Populus Financial Group, Inc., a holding company dedicated to financial services businesses.

As of October 2024, Ace Cash Express operates about 800 retail locations across the United States along with a national online lending and servicing platform. The chain is heavily represented in Texas, California, Florida, and Tennessee, and it tends to concentrate in urban and inner-suburban corridors where many residents are underbanked. Over roughly the last five years, the company has evolved from a primarily check-cashing and payday lending brand into a broader financial access platform. Its stores still perform high-volume check cashing and bill pay, but they now also distribute and support digital and card-based products such as bank-linked accounts, prepaid debit cards, and mobile banking tools offered through its issuing bank partner.

Ace Cash Express stores usually occupy small-box inline or end-cap retail spaces in neighborhood and community centers alongside other daily-needs tenants. The format works well as a backfill for older, shallow-bay space and can provide reliable, all-day foot traffic tied to recurring visits for check deposits, utility payments, rent payments, and money transfers. The company continues to hire for store, district, and corporate roles as of October 2024, which signals an active operating platform and a steady, opportunistic approach to opening, relocating, and upgrading locations in core markets.

For landlords, brokers, and developers, Ace Cash Express represents a seasoned, necessity-based user with a long operating history, a defined small-footprint format, and a customer base that returns multiple times per month. Its focus on working-class trade areas and underbanked populations aligns with many community and neighborhood centers, and its service mix helps keep sites active across the week rather than only during peak shopping seasons.