Zilch launches affordable credit product

12th October 2023

Ad-subsidised payments network, Zilch has anew product dedicated to empowering people typically excluded from mainstream credit. 

The product called Zilch Up provides all the benefits of Zilch’s zero-interest, ad-subsidised borrowing with the ability to improve a credit score, which wasn’t possible before Zilch.

With 5 million people in the UK deemed credit invisible, Zilch’s new product enables customers with tools to improve their credit scores and increase their credit limit. Starting with credit limits as little as £50, Zilch Up has all of the same powerful features as the Zilch classic product with a few important changes designed to be suitable for its target user.

Zilch Up customers have the option to pause credit and still use Zilch as a debit card via the Pay Now option, and earn rewards. Or with total control they can toggle in-app to Credit and pay a first instalment of 50%, with the remaining 50% payable over six weeks. In addition, customers will soon also be able to receive financial support in the form of credit coaching, and the ability to view their credit score in the Zilch app. 

Philip Belamant, CEO and co-founder of Zilch, said: “We need to strengthen the protections for consumers and increase access to interest free and affordable credit – particularly now when the cost of living continues to hurt. For too long millions of people in the UK have had to struggle with limited or no access to credit due to thin and weak files. In a digital finance world, this is causing them the stress and crippling pain of funding unaffordable high interest costs plus the danger of hard to understand late fees, merely to access credit. ”

“At Zilch, we aren’t waiting. We want to change this status quo by democratising access to interest free and affordable credit, advancing the lives of millions of families and individuals in managing and planning their day-to-day financial health. In testing, our new product, Zilch Up, has already lifted over 25,000  customers into mainstream credit and we intend to help many more.”