Quick Cash When You Need It Most

AS THE FINANCIAL IMPACT OF THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic deepens, tens of millions of Americans are having trouble making ends meet and need access to cash, fast, to pay their bills. And their numbers are growing daily. By late April, half of Americans had lost a job, had their work hours reduced or were living with someone who had, up from 18 percent in March, according to an NPR/PBS/Marist poll. And 3.2 million more workers applied for unemployment benefits during the week that ended May 2, bringing the most recent seven-week total to a record 33 million.

Relief efforts have helped—from stimulus checks and beefed-up unemployment insurance to breaks on student loan payments and other bills—but not nearly enough for a lot of families. Reports show that many are already behind on rent, mortgage and credit card payments. Meanwhile, about one-third of Americans say they’re struggling to pay all of their current bills in full, according to a Pew Research survey.

In a perfect world, if your income no longer stretches to cover your living expenses, you’d just dip into your emergency fund to tide you over. But this is the real world, and in the real world years of rising costs