Premium vs. interchange. I designed the subscription to be the launch's main revenue source.
The product
The app's intro flow: BoostCash advances up to $500, the Boost Money card, and Premium, ahead of Apply and Sign In.
Context
The problem:Checking accounts earn Upgrade no revenue, and it had no presence in cash advance, a category Dave, Earnin, and MoneyLion had proven profitable.
The bet:One suite of products for customers in a K-shaped economy: a credit-builder account, high-yield savings, BoostCash (cash advance), and a subscription tying them together.
Why now: A new revenue channel ahead of Upgrade's planned 2027 IPO.
My Role
How I came on
Joined as a mid-level designer beside a principal. Sole designer after 2 months, when the principal left, through MVP across all 3 products.
What I owned
BoostCash: zero to MVP, from enrollment to dashboard
Premium: Upgrade's first subscription, designed from scratch
Credit-builder and savings accounts: shaped to feel like one suite
Who I worked with
3 product managers
2 engineering teams
What Worked
The Premium Paywall Paradox
The problem: Premium was the launch's main revenue source, so the paywall was high stakes. Its best cash advance perks (bigger advances, free express delivery) were aimed at users who likely couldn't pay for it.
The process:
The constraint: At MVP, Premium could be paid only from the new spend account (inactive until debit card activation) or an existing funded Upgrade account.
The idea: Deduct the fee from the advance itself, and explore how to show the math.
Two walls: The fee math plus required legal copy made the confirmation screen hard to read, and legal/compliance ruled it out, pushing it past MVP.
The call: A 1- or 3-month free trial, which eased acquisition and gave users time to fund their account.
The outcome: The trial replaced the fee deduction, and Premium revenue grew steadily, an early sign the call worked.
1 · The first approach
Take the Premium fee out of the advance itself.
Premium's perks: BoostCash up to $500, free express delivery, 10% APY, the ones a cash-strapped user couldn't yet pay for.
1 Net-of-fee math: the advance is restated as $40.01.
2 Fee disclosure: the same $9.99 explained again in a separate block.
With the legal consent below, one screen asked users to parse the math, the terms and the agreement at once, and legal wouldn't let us simplify the copy.
2 · What we shipped
A 1- or 3-month free trial instead.
1 The free trial gets users through the Premium door with no upfront cost.
1 One plain summary replaces the fee math: simpler for users, and better for the business because more of them get through to Premium.
The design strategy:
Remove the barrier to Premium and shorten the path from opening an account to a first advance.
The bet: with Premium included through a trial, users would keep the subscription, renew, and fund the account that pays for it.
What Didn't Work
The Credit-Builder Dashboard
The constraint: Legal/compliance required the dashboard to visually separate the card and checking components.
What happened: Combined with limited MVP time to innovate and iterate, this produced a cluttered, two-pattern dashboard that left users confused about what the product even was.
The impact:87% of users who opened the account never used it.
1 Boost Money Card and 2 Spend Account each get their own transaction list. The two read as near-identical, so it's hard to tell what is what.
Compliance required visually separating the card from the checking account — splitting the information architecture (IA) into two conflicting design languages on one screen.
1 Three bullets that are too wordy and dense to understand at a glance.
2 A balance box with too many fields, so it reads like a math equation.
The compromise: a text-heavy balance breakdown trying to explain, in a bottom sheet, what should've been intuitive from the dashboard itself.
What I'd do differently:
Resolve the compliance requirement and the unified-product concept together,earlier, rather than let a late-stage legal constraint reshape an already-designed IA.
Explore ways to meet the separation requirement without two competing design languages, such as one transaction list with clearly labeled sources.
Outcome
First 3 months post-launch
✅ Customer Acquisition Cost 20% below Upgrade's other products
✅ 70% submit-to-open rate (vs. ~50% prior high for Rewards Checking)
✅ Premium revenue grew — users kept paying after the free trial ended
Account opens (new vs. existing Upgrade customers) against cumulative Premium and interchange revenue, first 3 months after launch. Public marketing began the week of 10/26.
Media
Boost Money featured on NASDAQ's MarketSite in Times Square (photo from Upgrade's Facebook post).
Upgrade CEO Renaud Laplanche discussing Boost Money (video). Watch on YouTube ↗
Upgrade CEO Renaud Laplanche discussing Boost Money (LinkedIn). View the post ↗