Goldman Sachs Targets a New Kind of Customer: People in Credit Card Debt

If you've racked up some credit card debt—or plan to sometime down the line—Goldman Sachs is looking for your business.

In a series of ads that have appeared on platforms like YouTube, Hulu and Pandora, Goldman Sachs is promoting its new line of personal loans—named Marcus, after the bank's founder—to consumers burdened by credit card debt.

"Debt happens. It's how you get out that counts," according to the ad's tagline. The commercial depicts expensive mishaps like a water heater leaking or a couch getting chewed up by a new puppy.

The bank launched the product last month to a select group of customers with credit scores above 660, sending them a code by mail to apply for unsecured, no-fee loans on Marcus.com to refinance credit card debt and fund household projects, the New York Times reported. The loans can range in amount from $3,500 to $30,000. They can be paid back in terms between two and six years, with average rates of 12 to 13%, a few percentage points below typical credit card rates.

The ads are intended to "destigmatize debt and help consumers explore new ways of managing their debt," a Goldman official told the Times.

The Marcus product isn't the first time the bank—known for focusing on wealthy clients and corporations—has reached out to mainstream customers. In April, it launched an online savings account that lets customers make deposits with as little as $1, with a near-industry-high interest rate of 1.05%.