Data

Plaid adds credit card data to Liabilities product

  • Earlier this summer, Plaid launched Liabilities to help technology firms tackle student loans.
  • Now, the data firm is back with coverage of credit card data.
close

Email a Friend

Plaid adds credit card data to Liabilities product

In July, Plaid launched its Liabilities product that gives developers access to real time information about what consumers owe. Expanding beyond student loan data, the company has added support for credit card information, so firms can build better debt management solutions.

The product: There are a variety of upstart technology firms that help with managing, refinancing, and reducing this debt -- Plaid has always provided details about credit card transactions so that people can better manage their cashflow. The new Liabilities product will return more details about terms and due dates.

Here are some of the details developers can get access to:

  • Terms: APR type, APR percentage, interest charge amount, and balance subject to APR
  • Payment details: last payment date and amount, next payment due date, minimum payment amount, and more
  • Balances: last statement balance and issue date and credit limit.

Tearsheet asked Kate Adamson, head of financial identity at Plaid, a few questions about the new feature.

For Liabilities, why was credit cards the next stop product-wise after student loans?

Student loans are a huge burden, but they’re just the tip of people’s financial obligations. Forty-one percent of households have credit card debt. Together, it amounts to one trillion dollars. That’s a huge swath of the people in need of help tackling a large amount of debt. Liabilities will empower fintechs to build new tools and services that help consumers understand and tackle their debt by considering all options-- potentially by consolidating it into something more simple and manageable or paying down their balances faster.

Do you have any clients you can mention using this data yet? 

Yes, Charlie Finance, an early beta tester of Liabilities’ credit card details. They use artificial intelligence to send timely and actionable alerts to help consumers save and better manage their money. With Liabilities’ credit card data, Charlie helps users stay on top of their credit card payments with alerts and reminders for pending payments and interest rate changes.  (Ed note: You can read Tearsheet's coverage of Charlie Finance here)

Was there a particular challenge creating this product? 

Traditionally, developers have had a lot of difficulty getting access to and working with disparate debt-related data -- it’s a major reason why we haven’t seen many fintech companies tackle it until recently. In the past, developers faced a lot of unevenness in the data retrieved from credit cards, such as incomplete or missing data fields. Our biggest technical challenge was figuring out how to solve for this and ensure consistent access to accurate and real-time credit card data.   

0 comments on “Plaid adds credit card data to Liabilities product”

Outlier OpinionsMakers

Data, Partner

How payments providers can tap into the growing SMB market 

  • The POS market continues to grow, driven by digitalization and new vertical offerings, but there's a lack of available data around SMB revenue, growth trends, and other metrics to help capture these businesses as customers.
  • Data firm Enigma provides comprehensive data about the identity and financial health of millions of businesses, enabling visibility into real revenues and financial trends across this growing market.
Enigma | August 24, 2023
Data, Fraud

The network approach to fighting fraud

  • With fraud evolving, prevention and detection mechanisms are changing as well.
  • FIs and technology providers are turning towards approaches where critical data about fraudulent activities can be shared with FIs and businesses in the ecosystem via a network approach.
Rabab Ahsan | July 05, 2023
Data

As tides shift against screen scraping, complications abound for smaller FIs

  • Screen scraping is experiencing increased scrutiny from regulators and competition from API-based solutions. The practice may finally be on its way out.
  • But what would an API-based data sharing environment look like? How will the transition away screen scraping occur and would it be fair to all institutions?
Rabab Ahsan | June 09, 2023
Banking, Data

Behind Finastra’s integration of Plaid to simplify the banking experience for end users

  • Finastra recently integrated Plaid into its Fusion Digital Banking platform, enabling banks and credit unions to deliver a simplified banking experience – account verification and authorization – to their end customers through Plaid Link. 
  • Combined with Plaid's API, FIs using Fusion Digital Banking can incorporate credential-less integrations and easier user interactions. 
Sara Khairi | May 08, 2023
Data, Lending

How Pagaya uses alternative solutions to decision on credit, enabling more financial inclusion

  • Pagaya combines alternative solutions powered by AI with traditional credit reporting databases.
  • The firm analyzes hundreds of data points to generate tailored recommendations that allow its partners to make credit decisions for borrowers that may not meet a particular FICO cutoff.
Sara Khairi | April 20, 2023
More Articles