You know there’s the smell of money in the water when the credit card companies start circling.

That’s exactly what I saw when I strolled by the BillFloat booth at yesterday’s Finovate. People from both Visa and Discover were talking to the BillFloat team, and I completely understand why. BillFloat offers short-term, small-balance credit to consumers so they can pay their bills. That’s what the credit companies do as well.

One question mark regarding BillFloat is the credit performance in its portfolio. But Robin O’Connell, vice president of business development at BillFloat, said the default rate is running about 10% on first-time borrowers, and 5% on repeat borrowers. That appear to me to be good performance considering the portfolio.