Archive - The Free Toaster

Avant Goes Racing, Stripe Goes Shopping

A lighter, later edition: ten quick hits across co-brand cards, BNPL, and bank charters, plus the first Summit speakers.

Aug 22 • Toaster Media

NerdWallet’s Q2 ‘26 Earnings

5 things marketers at credit card & personal loan companies should take away

Aug 14 • Toaster Media

We’re Hosting the Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders and Publishers

September 23 in San Francisco. 150 hand-picked leaders. Zero sales booths. Here’s why we built it, and how to request an invitation.

Aug 11 • Toaster Media

The Future Of Distribution (In Lending) Seems Obvious

But, How Long Will We Have To Wait?

Aug 6 • Carlos Caro

July 2026

5 Things Marketers Should Draw From Capital One's Q2 Earnings Report

And, the Discover brand starts spending again this year.

Jul 30 • Toaster Media

Samsung's New Galaxy Card and Its Too-Good-To-Be-True Rewards Program

and why we think Anthropic and OpenAI will launch a card at some point

Jul 23 • Toaster Media

E054 - Paid Search 101 (For Lenders) - With Ross Cohen, Former COO (Field Productivity) at New York Life

Search is often just 10% of a lender’s marketing mix — but Ross Cohen makes the case that it’s the most powerful channel for experimentation and the…

Jul 22 • Carlos Caro

1:04:42

Oportun's Bank Partner Held No Loans. And That Just Changed.

A case study in why your bank partnership, not your media, could be your real growth constraint.

Jul 16 • Toaster Media

Klarna Just Filed for a Bank Charter. So Did Affirm, PayPal, Upstart, and Six Others.

The year fintechs stopped renting charters.

Jul 9 • Toaster Media

Happen Bank Is Running Chime's Playbook in Reverse. Here's the Bet

Lend first, earn the deposit relationship later. How the bank formerly known as LendingClub is running Chime's playbook backwards.

Jul 2 • Toaster Media

June 2026

What happens when consumers delegate financial decisions to agents?

Plus: How SoFi is betting it can own the AI relationship before ChatGPT does

Jun 25

How Lenders Win When AI Calls the Shots

The game isn't psychological anymore.

Jun 25 • Carlos Caro

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