Oana Coșman
About 37% of Volt users have a FICO score higher than 700, which means a low risk of default in the future and translates into loans that are cheaper and easier to get.
The Volt application started as an easy-to-access tool meant for those who want to transfer money between two cards, regardless of what the issuing bank is, as well as for those who want to check their FICO score. FICO is the indicator banks and some NFIs use to decide what customers get financing and who is rejected, and in Romania it has an average value of 635 points, according to a study conducted by Volt.
This service has been assimilated as such by users, among whom are people who interact with Volt at least 3 times a week, to make sure the banks or IFNs close their debts to the Credit Bureau on time.
“Volt has become an application necessary to tens of thousands of Romanians who want to know their credit score, their degree of indebtedness and their payment history for ongoing loans. Thus, the Volt Community is making sure that banks and NFIs do not make mistakes in terms of making payments and do not forget to clear the customers’ Credit Bureau debts. Our vision, however, does not stop here! Our customers can already request loans or make deposits directly from the application, and soon they will be able to compare the interest they received from financial institutions in Romania to those received by their friends. Also, financial experts will offer them free advice to optimize their borrowing costs as much as possible”, says Radu Ciorbă, Founder, Volt.
Volt customers with loans return to the application every month to monitor loan repayments and to make sure banks and non-bank financial institutions close their loans with the Credit Bureau on time.
Volt users are constantly receiving information about their debt and they learn what they can do to improve their payment behavior in order to increase their credit score. Information sharing among those who evaluate customer crediting possibility subsequently translates into accessing cheaper and smarter loans.
Volt application debuted in 2017, in partnership with Mastercard and Visa, when it launched its first functionality: instant money transfer between any Romanian cards. The aim was to leave behind the cumbersome banking transaction process and offer the possibility of instant money transfer (even from a bank card to the Revolut card). Thus, for more than 2 years, Volt has been the FinTech application through which one can send or receive money using solely one’s phone number, anywhere in Romania, with no need for any other bank account, POs or IBANs.
Since the beginning, Volt has focused on financial education, with the primary goal to enable its users to learn how to build and maintain a good credit history, so that when they need a new loan (no matter its type) they can get it under better terms from financial institutions. This is how the second important Volt functionality was born: the FICO credit score and the Credit Bureau status.
The score is calculated based on the famous FICO algorithm, extremely popular in the United States and used by the Romanian Credit Bureau. Specifically, those who want to know what their credit score is or check it regularly, can do so on the Volt application, instantly and for free. They no longer have to leave the house and to go at the Credit Bureau or to the bank, to fill in the forms.
By recording the data correctly and maintaining a high credit score, Volt users have access to more convenient loans in the future and thus they save money.
