Debbie May 2025 Update: 50% of Americans are Using Cash Advance

More Americans are utilizing cash management tools than ever before.

Jun 24, 2025

Hey everyone - I wish I had better news to share about consumer sentiment and spending habits this month. But before we talk about that, here’s a PSA:

The Ultimate Digital Account Opening Guide 🤯

Last month, I told you that your digital account opening process makes the difference between 5% and 25% conversion.

We’ve spent the last month cooking up 🧑‍🍳 the Ultimate DAO Showdown – a no-fluff, unbiased report on the best Digital Account Opening providers out there, as well as tips on how to optimize your current flow. We heard from over 40 credit unions directly, as well as some of the providers. We’ve also tested their experiences ourselves.

Check out our guide here.

The Growth of Cash Advance

Two years ago, it was reported that 33% of Americans had used a cash advance app or payday loan - when we look at our data today, that number is closer to 50%.

These cash advance apps often charge a subscription fee as opposed to interest (mostly to overcome regulatory scrutiny), but this means their implied APR is over 100%. For a long time, the CFPB was primarily focused on lenders/BNPL providers as their primary targets, rather than some of these next-gen cash advance companies. With the CFPB and other regulatory bodies hobbled, these companies have been able to continue growing.

The challenge is and always has been risk. Anyone looking for a quick cash spot is likely to be riskier - which is why structuring these loans as early paycheck advance, or tying the loan to specific spend categories, can seriously mitigate risk.

I don’t know if any of you are thinking about the implications of this internally within your organizations (or looking to build your own product) but it’s time for us to come up with an alternative to the alternative.

If you’re exploring cash advance alternative, comment or reply “payday”.

Thanks for reading Banking on Growth! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Engineering Upgrade 🚀

Meet the new members of our engineering team: Nitzan, Omer, Andrey, Matan, Ariel, and Shiri

Launched with AlumniFi 👋

AlumniFi, a sub-brand of MSUFCU, has launched on the Debbie platform to target college grads nationally.

📍 Events We’ll Be At

As always, here are some conferences we’re attending coming up. Let me know if you’ll be there so I can say hello!

Reseda Summit (9/17-9/18)
- Reseda has continued to be a great partner in our CU journey, and we’re excited to present.

Trustage Fintech Summit (9/24-9/25)
- The best forum for the next generation of CU partners

🚀 Our Roadmap

AI-based Credit Union compatibility score - July release

We have developed an internal CU compatibility score, giving users more visibility and control over their Debbie CU rewards partner.

Rewards 2.0 - August release

We are completely transforming our rewards system and will be assigning a dollar value to points. Think of this as a reverse credit card program. Here’s a sneak peak.