Fintech startup slice launches card with lower credit limit; targets 200M eligible Indians

Bengaluru-based consumer credit startup slice on Tuesday unveiled a card that offers a credit limit from Rs 2,000 onwards, in a move aimed at capturing nearly 200 million Indians who are not serviced by legacy credit card companies, but are doing some form of online transactions.

The card is free, and comes with similar benefits as any other credit card, irrespective of the limit, the startup said in a release. The product hopes to help new-to-credit users build their credit scores.

Credit cards usually start at an average credit limit of Rs 20,000, and those with higher limits fall under the "premium customers" category, which comes with a host of benefits such as travel points, cashback and lower interest rates versus others.

"However, I don't believe in this approach. The definition of premium users or top percent of the population is quite mechanical and static in the industry. At slice, we have really invested in finding an alternate way to this," said Rajan Bajaj, CEO and founder of the startup.

SlicePay's credit products have grown 50 percent, month over month, and its non-performing assets are less than 2 percent, it said.

Credit products have seen an uptick in the number of takers over the past few months, especially since the pandemic began a year ago. Consumers, who have become comfortable using online payments and financial services have been asking for digital-first loans and small credit solutions, which has given rise to products such as online loan platforms, and 'buy now, pay later' (BNPL) loans.

BNPL is said to be a category disrupter in India, mostly because of the sachet-sized loans offered, which works much like a credit card. However, credit card approval rates are low in India. Only 3 percent of the population - or 30 million people - today have credit cards, according to slice, even though there are at least 10X creditworthy Indians in the country.

Startups like slice, which has over three million registered members, are changing that.