Cash App Credit Score Pilot

background and problem

Cash App offers a few lending products to eligible users, such as Afterpay. Research uncovered that a lot of Cash App users, who had thin files or no credit history, were unsurprisingly scored poorly by the traditional credit bureaus. Even so, these people showed some of the highest repayment rates in the Cash App ecosystem. We had the data to show that these users are financially responsible and trustworthy, but the traditional credit system was working against them.

Thus, the idea of a Cash App credit score was born, using a proprietary model that updated quickly so users could get access to Cash App lending products the moment they became eligible.

Read more about the research in Block’s whitepaper.

Scope

The pilot was a stripped down version due to resourcing constraints, a short timeline, and the desire to test the concept on a few hundred users first. The important aspects were viewing your current score, seeing the weekly change, recommended actions to boost your score, and the lending amount unlocked based on pre-determined score tiers.

metrics to track

  • Users viewing and interacting with the new feature

  • Users understanding what the Cash App credit score was (it’s not a FICO score!)

  • Users consistently completing recommended actions week over week

lessons learned

After the pilot concluded, the UX team conducted several user interviews. We discovered that:

  • the Cash App credit score was well received by users who are familiar with and consistently use Cash App’s lending products

    • this audience leaned slightly towards the younger crowd (under 30 years old)

  • 1/3 of participating users thought the Cash App credit score was the same as their FICO score

  • several users desired a deeper understanding of how their score was calculated

  • users with very high scores were less incentivized to interact with the new feature

This valuable feedback was incorporated into the next iteration of designs for the GA release the following year. For example, more thought was put into the new user experience to explain how the Cash App credit score differed from a traditional credit score, as well as accessible resources throughout the experience to remind users that they’re different. The underlying model was also updated to capture more nuances, so more information could be surfaced to the user.