A Game Changing Credit Card? Cred.ai Unveils Its AI-Powered Metal Card

A Game Changing Credit Card? Cred.ai Unveils Its AI-Powered Metal Card

Cred.ai, a Philadelphia-based fintech company, has introduced a new kind of consumer spending product that leverages proprietary technology to give users first-of-their-kind controls, convenience, and automatic credit score optimization. Customers never pay fees or interest and they also receive a premium brand experience delivered through a solid metal Visa card, and mobile app. The core cred.ai consumer product functions through the combination of an FDIC insured deposit account, the Unicorn Card Visa credit card, and the cred.ai mobile app.

Cred.ai says it is a new type of banking product built from the ground up, which runs on a proprietary platform that can ultimately be leased. Ry Brown, cred.ai CEO and co-founder, describes it as a “banking infrastructure.”

Millennials and Gen Zers have a natural aversion to credit cards, due to a fundamental distrust of debt and the banking system overall.  “The Apple Card is a stunning product, but if you’re opposed to credit cards in general, it’s just not a product for you,” said Dylan Brown, cred.ai president and co-founder.  For these credit card averse consumers, cred.ai’s automatic credit optimization is their best way to build credit without fear.  Other products that claim to build credit focus merely on reporting on-time payments, which minimally affects credit profiles, usually via commonly undesirable “secured” cards.  Far more precisely, cred.ai’s Credit Optimizer is able to affect credit utilization, which is known to be one of the most significant factors contributing to credit profiles.  “The other products don’t use an optimization algorithm or anything adaptive.  Worse, they are attached to subprime products that don’t provide much in terms of experience,” said Dylan.

The card is clearly not aimed at the miles and points crowd. Cred.ai investor Tim Armstrong says in the press release that “millennials don’t care about meaningless points and lounge access hiding amongst hundreds in fees.” While cred.ai has plans to offer ongoing cashback and rewards opportunities, it is not designed for points aficionados.

“Our users know that traditional cashback is a karma trap,” said Dylan Brown. “For an average user, the actual cash back earned winds up being very small, and gets outweighed by fees and interest.  But the real issue is that those flashy rewards are supported and subsidized via the suffering of that bank’s lower income customers.  It’s wealth redistribution in the wrong direction.”

Features

Exclusive features are introduced continuously, with the current roster including: self-destructing virtual “Stealth Cards” designed for risky transactions; “Flux Capacitor” allowing users to see future transactions and automatically spend or budget accordingly; “Check Please” eliminating the embarrassment of card declines at important rendezvous; Credit Optimizer; the “Friend & Foe” systems allowing users to directly manage the trust and permissions of individual merchants in real-time; and “High Security Mode” generating secure finite authorization windows.

In addition to these exclusive tech features, all users receive a full face true metal card, 24/7 phone support answered by a human and not a robot, instant deposits, mobile check capture, payroll and other direct deposits two days early, and an onboarding process that allows users to start spending within minutes of applying.

Applying for the Card

Today consumers can apply to join cred.ai’s limited private beta, during which participants will be given the opportunity to share their view on how advanced financial technology would impact their life goals.  Of the participants that share their stories, some will be selected to receive $10,000 from cred.ai to help them reach the goals they describe. See http://www.cred.ai/beta for official rules.