The upstart lenders have been chipping away at credit cards’ consumer-lending dominance by offering fixed-rate loans with predictable repayment plans. Now the card giants are fighting back.
The deal marks the first time that the retail giant will enable its customers to use fixed-rate loans, rather than credit cards, for big-ticket purchases in its stores and online.
It’s not necessarily new, but a confluence of trends — advances in technology, changing consumer preferences and banks’ need to diversify their balance sheets — has made it more popular than ever.
