Fintech
Product design concept
2 weeks
Get rewarded for being smart with your subscriptions
About CRED
CRED is a members-only platform that rewards users for their timely credit card bill payments by providing them with exclusive offers & access to premium experiences.
Overview
The problem
CRED users with multiple subscriptions on autopay struggle to know which ones are worth keeping. Manually evaluating & tracking subscriptions feels like homework, while small charges for unused subscriptions add up and lead to frustration and regret.
Let's break it down
Current state
Autopay: A mere reminder machine
CRED’s Autopay section is limited to sending bill reminders. It doesn’t show whether subscriptions are still worth paying for. Users have to rely on other platforms to track usage, or worse, realize they’re wasting money only after the charge hits their account.
Why this matters
People want to feel in control, without any manual auditing.
People want more control over subscriptions without the mental effort of evaluating them manually.
User need
People regret paying for subscriptions they forgot to cancel.
Strong regret
The process
Research
The goal was to understand people's subscription awareness, and what causes major regret and frustration.
What data revealed
What stops people from taking action
User interviews n=6
Despite feeling strong regret and frustration, people still struggle to act on it. The goal is to understand why this inaction happens.
Where existing solutions fall short
The goal was to analyze existing solutions to spot gaps and unmet user needs.
Detection tools solve awareness but stop there
Manual trackers(Bobby, spreadsheets) solve nothing
Cancellation-as-a-service (Rocket Money Premium) decides for the user
Key insight : every existing alternative optimizes for one stage of the funnel like detect, track, or cancel but skips the part that actually matters: helping the user decide.
How people manage their subscriptions currently
The goal was to identify the friction point and where users struggle in the journey.
User persona
Business opportunity
How this serves CRED's mission and user base
Extends CRED's core reward logic : CRED already rewards timely bill payments this applies the same principle to subscriptions, rewarding the decision itself, not just the payment.
Fits CRED's actual user base : CRED's members are financially engaged and credit-conscious exactly the users who'd want visibility into ₹23K+/year in subscriptions, not ignore it
Advances CRED's platform positioning : Moves CRED further from "bill payment app" toward "financial decision-making platform" the same direction they're already pushing with CRED Money and lending.
Key design decisions
The calls i made before touching a single screen in figma
Ideation
Ideas explored
Directions I explored before going deep on one
Keep or cancel
What is it: Quicks decision tool to KEEP or CANCEL a particular subscription before it renews.
Rejected : Demands multiple decisions on each and every restaurant match.
Review & Downgrade
Based on usage & value, the system suggests which ones to cancel / downgrade
Rejected : CRED users do not have a budget problem. They need CRED for being smart with their financial choices.
Review & Decide
Subscriptions whose value scores are low can be reviewed before renewal.
Selected : Gives users three choices- KEEP, CANCEL, PAUSE to decide from susbcription's value.
The solution
Gain control and visibility over your subscription's value
# Entry point
The only time-frame where a decision is possible before the charge hits.
SCREEN INTENT
signal that something needs attention without causing fricition.
PRIMARY USER GOAL
know at a glance if today needs any action.
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Consent & Data usage
To show reveal the value of subscriptions, necessary permissions are required.
SCREEN INTENT
Show exactly what data is used, and for what before evaluation happens.
PRIMARY USER GOAL
Know what I'm agreeing to, and why it's needed.
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Capture & add subscriptions
Confirm what we was captured before evalution.
SCREEN INTENT
Show captured subscriptions and ask for confirmation
PRIMARY USER GOAL
Make sure every subscription is accounted
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Subscription overview
All of your active subscriptions in one place, with visible value score and what needs attention.
SCREEN INTENT
Show usage and cost for every subscription, sorted so the ones needing a decision surface first.
PRIMARY USER GOAL
know at a glance if their subscriptions need any action
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Review & Decide
Subscriptions are queued by two things: how soon they renew, and how little you've actually used them. One decision per screen.
SCREEN INTENT
Provide visibility on a subscription's value, usage and cost.
PRIMARY USER GOAL
Decide if this is still worth paying for.
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
The smart choices
It pays to be intentional
Every decision is recoverable. Cred coins are rewarded for every single intentional decision. Designed to visually confirm user action and loop them back to the decision tool.
Keep
Autopay continued
Coins rewarded
Recoverable decision
Cancel
Autopay cancelled
Link to cancel subscription directly
Coins rewarded
Recoverable decision
Pause
Autopay paused
No coins rewarded
Recoverable decision
Remind later
reminder set
No coins rewarded
Recoverable decision
Validation
The solution is a hypothesis, so I would validate the value score first, then test whether the experience changes subscription decisions.
Value score
Compare value scores with actual renewal and cancellation behavior
Asking 5–8 users whether the score matches their perception of value
Experience
Track drop-off point in the new flow.
A/B test: control group sees CRED's current autopay reminder along with a nudge to evaluate if it's worth renewing before the charge hits ; treatment group sees the new decision tool. I'd run it across 2+ billing cycles to see if giving people an actual decision point changes behavior vs. just notifying them.
The tradeoffs
Challenges & mitigations
Farming loop
Rewarding every decision risks users tapping Keep just to earn coins without real evaluation. Mitigated in two ways:
Coin value stays large enough to nudge action, small enough that farming it isn't worth the effort
Subscriptions only surfaces when something has actually changed: a usage drop, a price increase, or value drops. If nothing changed, there's nothing to review & decide.
Business impact
CRED earns revenue from credit card spend. Helping users cancel subscriptions sometimes means CRED loses recurring spend on that card.
Hypothesis to balance this :
The rewards loop contributes through brand commissions and listing fees.
Increased user engagement and long-term user trust will increase exposure to CRED money services like lending and credit cards which are the primary revenue streams.
Scale
The flow was built as a flexible system of reusable patterns, allowing the same order logic to serve frequent use cases and evolving contexts.
Expected Impact
Key metrics I'd watch
% of users who complete an active decision (Keep/Pause/Cancel) vs. no action / silent auto-renewal
Repeat "Remind me" usage across cycles — if people keep deferring, the flow isn't actually driving the intentional decisions retention depends on
Learnings
This project made me realize the impact of systems. I was never designing for an isolated experience, it actually interconnects to other parts of the business like CRED rewards, marketplace, CRED Money. The other big thing was value perception and data surfacing. Decision-making isn't about how much information you show, it's about showing the right information at the right time that actually drives user behavior.
