Bundling a real product with a financial institution is a time tested strategy.

Airlines with their credit cards are basically banks that happen to fly planes. Starbucks' mobile app is a bank that happens to sell coffee. Auto companies have long had financing arms; if anything, providing insurance on top of a lease is the natural extension of that.

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SideburnsOfDoom 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Auto companies have long had financing arms

I have in fact heard it said that VW group is a financing company with a automobile arm. From some points of view, that seems correct.

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ghaff 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Auto companies, yes. As I understand it, airline credit cards are mostly just co-branded cards with existing banks like Chase.

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bobthepanda 3 days ago | parent [-]

Frequent flyer programs are basically banks if you consider miles/points are currency.

	▲	ghaff 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		That's different from the credit cards themselves--given the points degrade in value. (And which I should really start to use more.)