Zilch, the London, head-quartered fintech Unicorn, today announces it has taken another major step forward in innovating its technology to measure affordability through its latest partnership with Experian, the global information services company to begin reciprocal reporting of Buy Now Pay Later credit information.

Zilch continues to pioneer the space by making use of a unique blend of CRA data, Open Banking data and its own proprietary behavioural data to make active consumer lending decisions. This creates a 360 degree view of a customer’s affordability at any given time.

Zilch’s latest partnership with Experian will add reciprocal reporting of payment plans to the CRA’s data set and further demonstrates how Zilch continues to lead the way in responsible lending, ensuring that its customers’ financial health is at the very heart of everything the business does. This follows Zilch being one of the first BNPL companies to secure a Consumer Credit License with the FCA in November 2020.

Further, Zilch continues to work hand in hand with numerous partners to create increasing transparency around customer affordability. This means Zilch, as well as other BNPLs, will be able to assess customer affordability more accurately and reward customers for their responsible behaviour.

Through this new partnership, Zilch will connect the comprehensive database of insights into what its 2 million customers can afford, which in turn will assist its active decision-making processes. Zilch uniquely makes use of open banking data and its own proprietary data to assess customer affordability on each transaction and adding this to that mix will only strengthen Zilch and Experian’s ability to drive customer value responsibly.

“Our mission at Zilch is to provide people with the most ubiquitous and rewarding way to pay for anything, anywhere. This partnership is one of many technology alignments that we are leveraging as we scale in order to create the most comprehensive view of a customer’s affordability all while ensuring performance is fed back to partners allowing others in the space to make responsible decisions too. Zilch was built with financial health at its core, which is why we were one of the first BNPL to work with the FCA to secure a consumer credit license. Today, by partnering with Experian, we are continuing to transform the way affordability is assessed which is the key to us delivering financial inclusion to all.”

                                                    Zilch Co-Founder & CEO, Philip Belamant.

“By using Experian’s affordability technology, Zilch is able to access a much richer and deeper level of insight into someone’s financial situation, enabling them to provide a better and more informed lending decision. This is absolutely vital given the backdrop of rising inflation and the strain of rising living costs. We’re excited to partner with Zilch to support responsible lending in the BNPL market.”

                       Managing Director of Digital Consumer Information, Paul Speirs.

Zilch allows its customers to pay on debit or credit anywhere. Cashback, discounts and short, fixed term, manageable levels of interest-free credit can be used anywhere, anytime, with complete visibility and direct communication of live spending via their Zilch app. To do this, Zilch’s in-house technology uses a per-transaction affordability assessment that’s always proportionately programmed to each customer and unlike credit cards, is updated with each spend. Zilch offers its customers the best ways to pay – credit or debit – save money and get cash back – plan repayments with reminders and/or even deferred instalments (snooze their payment) at no cost.