With citizens across the globe finding themselves in a financial crunch, Goldman Sachs’ new product may be coming at just the right time. The investment bank launched a point-of-sale (POS) financing solution that will help users pay for larger purchases over time.

The POS tool, MarcusPay, helps borrowers afford items ranging from $750 to $10,000 by paying for them over the course of 12 to 18 months. Goldman Sachs doesn’t require any money down and there are no fees for purchases made with MarcusPay. The interest rates for MarcusPay purchases range from 10.99% to 25.99% APR. These rates are competitive with those of credit cards, which average just over 15% APR.

Goldman is piloting MarcusPay with JetBlue Vacations, a partnership that was formed before the recent pandemic quashed any and all vacation planning.

Aside from the launch partner fumble, MarcusPay faces a few more hurdles to compete with companies such as Sezzle, Affirm, and Klarna, which have been gaining traction in the U.S. in the POS financing space for the past few years.

The first issue is that MarcusPay requires users to apply for financing during the transaction flow. The extra hurdle of filling out an application in the middle of the purchasing experience may be enough for users to abandon the purchase altogether. Second, the popularity of POS financing is due, in large part, to millennial consumers that do not have a credit card. This is quite different from Goldman’s target market, which is primarily comprised of mass affluent consumers. Additionally, the POS financing product may result in cannibalization– that is, Goldman’s credit card holders may opt to use the POS financing product instead of their credit card in order to benefit from a potentially lower interest rate.

The one benefit that MarcusPay has in competing in the POS financing space is that its service is generally geared toward financing larger purchases.

When Upgrade set out to create a new banking experience in 2017, there’s no way the company could have envisioned what 2020 would bring. Now, with social distancing measures in place across the globe, Upgrade’s launch of a contactless version of its credit card is just what the doctor ordered.

Furthermore, the California-based company is making the card available in digital form, supporting Apple Pay and Google Pay mobile wallets.

Upgrade first launched its card last year and has since made $500 million in new credit available to consumers every year. The company differentiates its card, which is issued by Sutton Bank, from traditional credit cards by combining monthly charges into installment plans that the borrower repays over 24 to 60 months. Upgrade structures the repayment this way to get its users into the habit of paying down their balance every month and avoid getting trapped in a continuous cycle of debt.

Further protecting consumers is the contactless element of Upgrade’s new card. “These new Upgrade Card features enable payments without any surface contact,” said Upgrade co-founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche. “While more customers have been shopping online since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many are still using their card in stores. We want to do what we can to keep our customers safe and give them a smarter way to pay.”

The Visa-branded Upgrade cards offer users credit lines from $500 to $20,000 and boast no fees.

Upgrade also offers personal loans for debt consolidation, credit card refinancing, home improvement, and major purchases. In partnership with Cross River Bank of New Jersey, which issues the funds, Upgrade has originated $2.5 billion in loans and cards since inception.

Upgrade is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with an operations center in Phoenix, Arizona, and technology centers in Chicago, Illinois, and Montreal, Canada. The company has raised $122 million.

With many U.S. citizens out of work these days, some are struggling to put food on the table. Recognizing this need, the U.S. government has agreed to come to their aid by issuing $1,200 checks to every adult earning less than $75,000 per year and $500 per child. The actualization of this effort, however, has been slow. While some families haven’t been able to work in weeks, they will not receive their check for another two-to-three weeks.

Because of this lag time, U.S. challenger bank Chime is supporting its user base by helping select members access their stimulus money early. So far, the bank has provided a group of randomly selected 1,000 of its members that meet certain criteria to immediately receive an additional $1,200 in their account while they wait for the government’s funds to come through.

“…these randomly selected members will have access to spend an amount equaling their estimated government payment 2-3 weeks early and be able to use that money right away on everyday needs such as groceries and bill payments with their Chime card,” the company noted in its blog post announcement.

The California-based company is using SpotMe, Chime’s free overdraft protection service that allows eligible users to hold a negative balance of up to $100 while they wait for their next paycheck. Instead of charging interest on this microloan, however, Chime requests users to “pay it forward.” As stated on the company’s website, “When your SpotMe negative balance is repaid, we’ll give you the option to leave us an optional tip to pay it forward. Whether or not you tip won’t affect your SpotMe eligibility. SpotMe is a fee-free service, and friendly tips from our community help it stay that way!”

So who is funding all of this? Chime is leveraging its relationships with The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank, as well as its investors (and specifically Mark Cuban), to forward the funds.

With a valuation of $5.8 billion as of December 2019, Chime has raised nearly $809 million. Last fall, rumors indicated that the company had 5 million customers and CNBC reported last December that Chime was adding 150,000 accounts each month.