Tag: Credit scoring

Bridging the credit gap with PayJoy’s ‘Score’

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Credit scoring for the mobile age

PayJoy now provides world-class credit scoring. We have launched a credit score based on smartphone data and integrated it into our app; we call this new product Score. Score reduces defaults on our own consumer phone-purchase and cash-loan portfolios by up to 50%. In combination with Lock we have seen default rates for unbanked consumers drop by 60% which means large populations of consumers that could not be served digitally and at scale can now profitably be offered digital credit and financial services.  Our initial results show that the PayJoy Score is 3x stronger than existing credit scores. We’re optimistic that this will provide a new path for financial inclusion for billions of consumers who are financially excluded from existing credit systems.


Score + Lock can work for any consumer with a smartphone. With Score + Lock you can serve your users even if they have no credit history, no bank account, and no business ownership. PayJoy Score is now ready for use in Mexico with full documentation here. We have in-place agreements in multiple geographies to gather data to build out a score. Ultimately, we plan to offer Score in every geography where our clients operate. All of this will happen with the consent of the consumers and partners.

3 real-life examples of Score

Example 1 – Selling a new phone on credit

  1. Your store clerk downloads the PayJoy app on a consumer’s existing smartphone.
  2. Your store’s point-of-sale retrieves the device’s credit score from Score API and you communicate to the customer the terms of their offer.
  3. The PayJoy app is downloaded onto the phone being purchased, the sale is completed, and the customer leaves with a new phone. PayJoy’s Lock technology is used by you to remind the borrower about payment cycles and to help secure payment in the event of default.

Example 2 – Cash loans from a physical store, like a pawn shop

  1. Your store clerk downloads the PayJoy app on a consumer’s existing phone.
  2. Your store clerk uses their PayJoy website account to view your score details, the consumer is approved and you communicate the terms of the offer to the consumer.
  3.  You complete the loan and the consumer walks out of the store with a usable phone and cash loan that is using their phone as equity. PayJoy’s Lock technology is used by you to lock/unlock the phone according to repayment.

Example 3 – Cash loans from your mobile app

  1. A consumer applies for a loan through your mobile app.
  2. Your app automatically downloads PayJoy’s app onto the consumer’s phone, retrieves Score from the Score API, and your app displays the terms of the consumer’s final offer.
  3. Cash is dispensed to the customer, either to their bank account directly or as a 1-time ATM withdrawal for the unbanked. PayJoy’s Lock technology is used to lock/unlock the phone according to repayment.

What exactly does a PayJoy Score look like?

Score currently delivers a 250-850 credit score as well as 5 additional credit features that clients can use to make better credit decisions for unbanked consumers that have a smartphone. All of these details are explained in our Score API documentation. We believe that Score and Lock enable our clients to determine willingness and ability to pay for consumers where that is currently not possible today.

What makes PayJoy Score unique?

Score makes the unbanked bankable.

Score performs for individuals with no credit history (25% of our MX portfolio have no credit history*), no bank account (45% of our MX portfolio have no bank account*), and no existing business ownership (84% of our MX portfolio are employed by the private sector, public sector, or informal economy*).

Lenders use Score to optimally decide who to lend to and how at the point of underwriting, while the Lock product enables the collateralization of the borrower’s phone during repayment. These two products together provide unparalleled ability to lend using mobile devices – critical considering that almost ¾ of the 710M people expected to subscribe to mobile services for the first time over the next 7 years will come from the Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan African regions, with an additional 1.4B people starting to use mobile internet and for the first time and a total of 9.2B SIM connections by 2025.¹

Score is 3x as predictive as a Credit Bureau score

Although Mexico’s credit data includes microfinance data, our smartphone based score still yields 3x the predictive power when compared side by side for the same borrowers.

How do I get the Score ?

We’re glad you asked!  We’re making this available to select beta partners at this point. Just click the “Partner With Us” button on our home page.

Sources

  1. GSMA Association. (2019).  The Mobile Economy 2019 [PDF File]. Retrieved from  https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/?file=b9a6e6202ee1d5f787cfebb95d3639c5&download

*customer reported