- Cred, an Indian fintech unicorn, began with credit card payments but now offers rent payments, short-term credit lines, and benefits like token redemption. It remains popular with partnerships with 1,300+ brands and new loan products like Cred Rent Pay and Cred Stash.
- Cred ensures user data security with encryption and authentication measures. It offers personalized financial insights, convenient bill payments, and rewards through partnerships.
- Cred has diversified into innovative payment, financial, and e-commerce ventures. While limited to partner merchants, Cred pay streamlines the shopping process, though redemption options for Cred coins remain constrained.
Cred is a Bangalore, India-based fintech company founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah. The company’s mission is to redefine Credit card payments and credit score management through technological innovation and user experience improvements.
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Cred: India’s fintech unicorn
Cred is an Indian fintech startup and unicorn company. Cred’s primary function was to allow users to make credit card payments through its rewards-earning app. Later, Cred added features that allowed users to pay rent and introduced short-term Credit lines. Cred’s business model and valuation have been criticised for being overvalued and lacking a Credible monetisation plan.
Cred is a Credit card payment platform for preferred customers that allows cardholders to make bill payments through its app and receive a range of benefits through Cred tokens.
Its tokens can be redeemed for use in coffee shops, cinemas, and e-commerce shops. The company claims that it is currently working with more than 1,300 brands, including Samsung, Myntra, and Curefit.
At the beginning of 2021, Cred launched two new loan products, Cred Rent Pay and Cred Stash. Cred Rent Pay allows its users to use credit cards to pay for day-to-day household expenses as well as monthly rent, while Cred Stash tries to provide instant credit lines through IDFC First Bank.
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Technology and platform management
Cred uses state-of-the-art encryption technology to protect users’ credit card information and personal data. Users’ sensitive information is encrypted during transmission and storage to prevent unauthorised access. The platform implements strict security protocols and authentication measures, including multifactor authentication, security tokens and biometrics to ensure that only authorised users can access their accounts and data.
Cred uses machine learning and data mining algorithms to analyse users’ consumer behaviour and credit history. These algorithms can spot patterns and trends in massive amounts of data to provide personalised advice and services to users. The platform provides intuitive data visualisation tools to help users better understand and analyse their finances. Users can view their consumption patterns, spending trends and other information through charts, graphs and reports.
Users can pay their credit card bills directly through the Cred platform without having to log in to the websites of individual banks or credit card providers. Cred supports automatic payment settings, allowing users to set up automatic payment dates and payment amounts according to their preferences to ensure timely payment of bills and avoid late payments.
Cred displays the user’s most recent transaction history, including details such as the date of the transaction, merchant name, and transaction amount, so that the user can keep track of spending.
The platform analyses the user’s transactions and provides data reports on consumption patterns, spending trends and habits to help users better understand their financial situation. It allows users to track their credit score and provides recommendations and tools to optimise their score accumulation and usage. Users can learn how to maximise their points rewards and how to improve their credit score through credit card management.
Cred offers personalised rewards programmes based on users’ spending behaviour and preferences. These programmes may include cash back, discounts, and doubling of points to incentivise users to make and manage credit card payments through Cred. The platform has partnerships with various partners to offer special offers and discounts to users. Users can get more value and benefits by accessing offers relevant to their spending habits through Cred.
Advantages and disadvantages of Cred pay
With a large and sticky user base, Cred has launched several innovative payment, financial and e-commerce businesses and is expanding its footprint through a series of investments and acquisitions.
The Cred pay feature was launched by Cred in partnership with Razor pay and Visa. According to Razorpay’s website, “Cred pay enables customers to pay with their Cred tokens and have a seamless checkout experience across all partner platforms.”
One of the biggest advantages of using Cred pay is the ability to take advantage of Cred coins offers and pay conveniently with a credit card saved in Cred. In addition, Cred pay eliminates the hassle of visiting multiple e-commerce websites, searching for products, finding deals and entering payment details. You can now do all of this through the Cred app.
And because Cred offers Cred Coins with every bill payment, you’re always guaranteed a great deal. Cred offers one Cred Coin for every point added to your Credit score, equal to the amount of every Credit card bill paid with Cred.
While Cred Pay is a convenient way to check out quickly and take advantage of guaranteed discounts, it’s not without its drawbacks – you can only use Cred Pay and Cred Coins offers on partner merchants, which are currently limited to more than 30. Additionally, you can’t redeem Cred Coins for higher discounts, as each merchant’s offer ranges from 10% to 15% off. Finally, you can only pay with Cred Pay using the Credit card saved in the Cred app.
