CRED is one of the newest players in the mobile payments industry. It was founded by Mr. Kunal Shah who is also one of the founders of the popular app Freecharge.
The founders sold Freecharge to Snapdeal for 400 million dollars in 2015. For some reason, Snapdeal sold the company they had bought for 400 million dollars to Axis Bank in 2017 for just 60 million dollars.
Freecharge, when it was owned by Kunal Shah and his partner, used to offer cashback on almost all transactions. CRED seems to be very similar to it when it comes to offers/cashbacks.
How to get started with CRED? Once you install CRED from the App Store or the Google Play Store and run it, the application prompts you to enter their PAN card and phone number. When you enter these two, it checks your credit score. If the score is good, your account will be created immediately else you’ll not be able to use the application.
The first thing that CRED does when your account is ready is that it asks you to add a card. You cannot do anything with the application unless you link your CC with it. To do so, you must allow CRED to access your mail account. Once you allow it to read your emails, the app will fetch all your cards and scan your credit card statements. It will add the cards to your account and will make you aware of the due payments. Here are the most interesting modules and features of the payment app:
Coins: When you pay a bill, you will earn some points known as coins. These coins don’t carry an expiry date. You can use them to participate in campaigns such as “win an iPhone14”, “unlock daily jackpots”, etc. Before you participate in a campaign, the app will display the number of coins that will be deducted from your account. Once you enter the campaign, you will either win a third-party website/service discount voucher or coins. The vouchers come with an expiry date. The ones that have expired will be automatically removed from your account.
You can use the coins for shopping. The application features an online store where you can purchase electronic items, beauty products, edible items, fragrances, and more. The coins will get you a discount on the products. No matter what item you choose, you will still have to pay money from your bank account or with your CC. The delivery time of products is a bit slow compared to that of Flipkart and Amazon. The company also accepts returns/exchanges.
Cashback: I use Paytm, Amazon Pay, Mobikwik, PhonePe, and Cred. CRED offers more cashback than most of its counterparts. A few days back, I recharged my DTH account with Rs 100, it rewarded me with a cashback of 48 Rs. A day before the 100 Rs transaction, I paid 1000 Rs to the credit card issuer, I earned 53 Rs cashback.
Payment processing time: I had paid my CC bill using UPI. The payment was sent to the card issuer immediately. The current CC statement on the bank’s website was updated with my new payment within a few minutes of the payment. My DTH and phone recharges went smoothly.
Security: CCs can be misused by people. SIM cards can be cloned and misused. Some applications display a pre-selected checkbox to save the CC details. If you ignore this checkbox, your card details will be stored on a server. CRED doesn’t seem to save the CC details as it prompts you to enter card number, and holder’s name each time before you make a payment. Furthermore, the company uses a 256-bit encryption algorithm to encrypt the CC details you enter.
Some payment applications don’t support the “lock” feature but their counterpart CRED does. When the phone gets locked and you unlock it, you will have to unlock the app to use it.
Instant refunds: If a payment is failed for some reason, CRED can issue a refund instantly. To use this feature, you should set up “instant refunds”. To do so, open the profile page, choose the “instant refund” option and enter the following details:
- Full name.
- Account number.
- IFSC code.
Unified Payments Interface: Like Google Pay, CRED doesn’t have a wallet system. It allows you to create and manage UPI IDs. It lets users block vpas, approve/reject UPI payment requests, see UPI transaction history, etc. The application supports the “scan and pay” feature.
Transaction history: The app groups payments into these categories – credit card bills, coins, travel bookings, store orders, utility bills, education fees, rent. It is thus easy to locate a specific transaction.
Credit score: To check your credit score online, you don’t have to use a third-party service as the CRED app keeps you updated with the same all the time. It shows the CRIF score on the profile section. To see the full CRIF report, tap on the score and click on the “report” option.
What are the pros of the application?
- The bill payments are settled on time.
- Cashbacks are similar to what Paytm offers.
What are the cons of the app?
- Despite supporting things unrelated to CC, CRED onboards only those users who have a good credit score.
- The user interface is a bit slow compared to that of Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm.
- The application requires email access.
