Abstract: Methods and systems for providing short-term loans with instantaneous access to short-term working capital from float money generated out of a volume of prepaid/gift cards sold to the merchant's customers are described. A merchant takes out a short-term loan from a lender who opens both a Merchant Lending Account (“MLA”) and an Aggregated Balance Lending Account (“ABLA”) for the merchant. The value included within all prepaid accounts affiliated with merchant branded prepaid/gift cards are aggregated into the ABLA, and this balance may be used to close or restructure the original loan affiliated with the MLA.