Suffering from a fiscal near-death experience? Let CompuCredit resuscitate you. Subprime was the strategy for this company, not a category to be avoided. CompuCredit traditionally issued unsecured Visa and MasterCard credit cards to customers with low credit scores and charged them more for the risk; however, the economic downturn compelled the company to close most of its active accounts. Subsidiary Jefferson Capital Systems collects on debt other companies have written off. CompuCredit sold its 300 US microloan retail locations -- which provided payday loans under such banners as First American Cash Advance and First Southern Cash Advance -- to Advance America for more than $46 million in 2011.