Managing finances isn’t easy for most of us. Data shows that an average consumer makes around 200 transactions every month. No wonder, nearly 7 in 10 of India’s affluent live with fragmented finances spread across multiple bank accounts, wallets, and UPI IDs.
Further, according to an Amex Trendex survey, 69% of Indians prioritised financial health as part of their 2024 New Year resolution. On this front, growing savings (81%) and investing or expanding investments (75%) were the primary goals.
Building on this, CRED has recently introduced a feature called CRED Money. It leverages advanced data science to analyse spending patterns, provide personalised insights, and promote proactive personal financial management.
By making members more aware of their finances, CRED Money empowers them to take control and make informed financial decisions.
Recently, Avinash Shukla, a CRED member, tweeted about how the cash flow feature of CRED Money encouraged him to increase his investments beyond his spending.
So how does it work?
CRED Money uses the Account Aggregator (AA) framework, a key component of India’s digital public infrastructure, allowing consumers to securely and efficiently share their bank account information with authorised organisations.
With user consent, CRED’s AA partner, Finvu, consolidates data from various banks and transfers it directly to CRED Money.
Google Pay’s Similar Design
Earlier in 2020, Google Pay had launched a similar update for Android and iOS, focusing on relationships with people and businesses. It offers insights into your spending and is built with multiple layers of security to keep your information private and safe.
Instead of showing a long list of transactions, the app highlights the friends and businesses you transact with most frequently.
If you connect your bank account or cards to Google Pay, the app provides periodic spending summaries and shows your trends and insights over time, giving a clearer view of your finances.
Google Pay also organises your spending automatically, allowing you to search across your transactions in new ways. For example, you can search for “food”, “last month”, or “Mexican restaurants”, and Google Pay will instantly find the relevant transactions.
Is CRED a Super App?
It is to be noted that CRED, which is the credit card bill payment platform, eventually integrated UPI payment, competing against the likes of Paytm and PhonePe.
Then there’s CRED Money, which also assists users by sending reminders and updates and allowing them to make payments through CRED UPI.
Last year, the company launched CRED Garage, a one-stop shop to streamline vehicle management and enter motor insurance distribution, recharging FASTags, and accessing roadside assistance, and more.
Speaking on the emergence of supper apps, CRED CEO Kunal Shah recently said, “Most people launch a very complex product to start with. A Swiss knife before a decent knife that works.”
He said that this also applies to super apps that numerous large conglomerates launch, attempting to offer 20 features all at once from day one, hinting at how CRED has been focusing on building one feature at a time and building value-adds sensibly.
Responding to Justin.tv former CEO Emmett Shear’s take on Gall’s Law, Shah stated that large conglomerates often launch super apps that aim to offer a wide range of services right from the beginning.
Emphasising the importance of simplicity and focus when starting a new venture or developing a product, he said these apps try to do many things at once, which can lead to complications and inefficiencies.
