Pariti and Zopa launch referrals to help people pay off card debts

The latest move to help millennials manage their finances better sees Pariti teaming up with UK P2P lending giant Zopa for referrals.

Under the deal, Pariti users can apply for a consolidation loan from Zopa via the Pariti app to see whether they would end up getting a better deal on debt repayments.

Pariti works by plugging into its users bank accounts to track and map their spending habits, learn better behaviours and ultimately handle their money better.

The startup says that it now has 70,000 users and that this is the first in a series of partnerships that will build up the blocks of its marketplace of services for millennial customers.

“UK consumers are getting ripped off by credit card companies”, Pariti founder Matt Ford says.

“Introductory offers, confusing fees, and unsuitable products have meant that people are paying far too much to borrow, and are getting stuck in high-cost debt. The product integration with Zopa allows us to proactively help reduce their cost of borrowing and pay off debt faster.”

The new generation of millennial-focused financial wellbeing apps comes at a time when young people in the UK especially have increasing burdens of debt from factors including higher tuition fees.

Card payments are on the up globally, according to new research claiming the growing penetration of card acceptance and adoption of contactless will help drive the number of card payments worldwide up 55% to hit 417bn by 2021.

 

Zopa API

The integration of the two services is happening via Zopa’s recently launched loan application API and Zopa’s CEO, Jaidev Janardana says this is the first full in-app integration of the service.

The idea behind the API is to make it easier for customers to compare what they are paying on credit card debts and potentially swap them for cheaper loans on Zopa.

Zopa co-founder Giles Andrews was a recent guest on our FinTalk podcast – check out episode here or read the transcription here.

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