The Free Toaster

Carlos and Nick sit with Kelvin Chen, Head of Policy at the Consumer Bankers Association. We discuss Kelvin's recent post on LinkedIn that challenges a commonly cited fact in the media that credit card balances are at record highs.Kelvin's LinkedIn post below: "Is the consumer in trouble, or is the math just misleading? 🤔Multiple times a day, we hear affordability stories about consumers struggling with "record-high" credit card debt ($1.28 trillion). But that math is missing two massive variables:💳 39 million more cardholders since 2017.📈 A 40% increase in the cost of goods since 2014 ($1.00 then = $1.40 today).Once you adjust for inflation and a larger cardholder base, the real per-cardholder balance has actually stayed flat—and even dipped by about $75—over the last decade.At CBA, we believe serious debate requires starting from the same facts. That’s why we’ve published this analysis using public data—with the methodology open and the math checkable by anyone.Skeptical of research from a trade association? Good. That skepticism is why we’ve published every assumption.Read more here: https://consumerbankers.com/blog/facts-matter-once-adjusted-for-inflation-consumers-credit-card-balances-have-remained-largely-flat-for-a-decade/ " ***** Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday.And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group:Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/ A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com

REPOSTED FROM FINTECH TAKES. Alex's show notes below. I hope you enjoy! -Carlos*****Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, joined again by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast) to continue the conversation we started on Carlos’s podcast about MrBeast's acquisition of Step and what it means for the fintech ecosystem. This episode picks up where we left off, by looking to the past. If you think you’ve found a new idea in financial services, you probably just haven’t done enough research yet. Celebrity fintech, especially fintech built for underserved consumers, is no exception. In this Part 2 episode, Carlos and I explore three celebrity-backed fintech products from the 2010s era that failed in ways worth understanding for the present: The Kardashian Kard, Justin Bieber's BillMyParents prepaid card, and The Approved Card from Suze Orman. Across all three, similar questions keep popping up: What happens when a celebrity brand collides with the realities of financial services economics? How far can a celebrity brand take a product if the product itself doesn’t make sense for consumers? How much does product-market fit matter if the fee structure feels exploitative? And what can MrBeast learn from the celebrities who tried this before? Tune in for a tour through recent fintech history as we dust off a few forgotten celebrity card experiments from the sands of time, and wonder whether a celebrity brand can succeed in financial services without repeating the same mistakes. This episode is brought to you by Plaid. Most lenders see the value of cash flow data. The hard part is getting started—and knowing what to do with it once you have it. Plaid makes it easy to access real-time cash flow and behavioral insights in seconds, through a familiar experience borrowers already trust. No heavy lift. No added friction. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Carlos Caro: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-carlos-caro/ Follow Alex Johnson: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Carlos and Nick discuss Dave's record-breaking Q4 2025 Earnings Report. They also discuss Dave's rise to $4B valuation, drop down to a $50MM valuation, and pop back to $2.85B. Additionally, we break down their customer acquisition strategy and ask questions regarding their long-term viability given the DOJ case out there.They expand on the Free Toaster article recently published here: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/how-dave-scaled-to-1637m-in-q4-revenue Dave's Meta Ads library Carlos referenced is here:https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=credit_ads&country=US&is_targeted_country=false&media_type=all&search_type=page&sort_data[mode]=relevancy_monthly_grouped&sort_data[direction]=desc&view_all_page_id=1719276031734555 ***** Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday.And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition. ***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group:Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com

Carlos and Nick discuss the implications of this week's headline story:Apple is now pushing the ability for Apple Pay users to pay with installments at the physical register, not just online and in apps. With iOS 26, installment options show up right inside the Apple Pay payment sheet when you tap to pay in store. What used to require opening a separate app or converting a purchase after the fact is now a one-tap decision at the moment of payment. Apple is not lending directly. Loans come from participating providers including Affirm, Klarna, Citi, and Synchrony. The feature is also rolling out internationally across Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday.And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition. *****A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group:Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com

In April 2025, Transunion completed its acquisition of Monevo (a UK-based credit prequalification platform).In today's News Pod, Nick discovers that TU paid $56MM and that TU expects the Monevo acquisition to be immaterial to FY 2026 growth for TU. (Sources of that information below).Carlos and Nick discuss the Monevo business model and speculate on why growth could be muted in the US market.Please note: While recording the Pod, Carlos thought he heard Nick say that TU expects the revenue contribution in 2026 from Monevo to be immaterial (instead of the growth contribution from Monevo in 2026 to be immaterial). That colored his commentary in the episode. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday.And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition. ****** "In October 2021, we acquired a 30% equity interest in Monevo Limited (“Monevo”), which we accounted for as a Cost Method Investment. On April 1, 2025, we acquired the remaining 70% of the outstanding equity of Monevo and gained control of Monevo by exercising a call option we had obtained when we made our initial investment. The strike price of the call option paid at closing was $56.0 million, which was funded with cash on hand. Cash acquired from Monevo in connection with the transaction was $0.3 million, resulting in a net cash payment of $55.7 million. There was no contingent consideration related to this transaction." Source: https://investors.transunion.com/~/media/Files/T/Transunion-IR-V2/reports-and-presentations/transunion-q3-25-10-q.pdf "Additional revenue growth assumptions:The impact of our Monevo acquisition is expected to be immaterial for Q1 2026 and FY 2026." Source: https://investors.transunion.com/~/media/Files/T/Transunion-IR-V2/reports-and-presentations/q4-2025-earnings-release.pdf *****A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group:Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com

This week Prithvi Prabhu drops in to help us contextualize Cash App Borrow's metrics from this Edition:https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/cash-apps-invisible-200-billion-loan Then, we discuss Mr. Beast's Fintech Acquisition and talk about why buying Fintech's could lead to trouble for the mega content creator. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday.And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition. *****To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group:Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/ A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com

Today we cover the 7 traits of successful VPs of Partnerships, why they matter, and how to assess them during interviews. *****To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group:Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/ A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=jan A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com