1. In a financial transaction payment system comprising a processing unit and an application program executing on the processing unit, a method of conducting a transaction, comprising: engaging in the transaction using a financial transaction card, the financial transaction card having associated therewith a financial account with a financial institution; determining, by the application program, an amount of a line of credit to be activated on the financial account to pay for the transaction; and establishing, by the application program, repayment terms for the transaction, the repayment terms including a fixed number of installment payments.