Clearwater, Florida, - January 17, 2006: Nicholas Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq, NICK) today announced the opening of two (2) new branch offices located in Nicholasville, a suburb of Lexington, Kentucky and Miami, Florida. The new locations continue the Company's planned expansion of its branch office network, which now includes, forty (42) offices in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Maryland. Each of the offices is a full-service lending and collection facility. Nicholas employees have been working to develop business in each area for several months prior to the opening of the new locations.

The Company intends to continue opening additional branch offices throughout the year. Nicholas Financial acquires and services automobile and light truck installment sales contracts that it purchases from over 1,400 new and used car dealers.

Founded in 1985, with assets of $134,625,000 as of September 30, 2005, Nicholas Financial, Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded specialty consumer finance companies based in the Southeast. The Company presently operates out of 42 branch locations in both the Southeast and the Mid-West States. The Company has approximately 10,000,000 shares of common stock outstanding. For an index of Nicholas Financial Inc.’s news releases or to obtain a specific release, visit our web site at
 www.nicholasfinancial.com

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