[thesimon]

> This problem is pushing a lot of people to go to department stores with their own installment credit, but with incredibly expensive interest rates (+70% APR)

Surprising. At least in Brazil interest-free installment payments are extremely common, so much that prices in stores are often advertised with the installment amount.

One question: With all the problems with credit cards you mention, why didn't you build a better credit card?

[JuanCasian]

From feedback we received from our customers we realized that the credit card solution is not the best for them. Credit cards are hard to understand for what they said and it also pushes them to spend more money which cause them to fall easily into an debt they can no longer pay.

[sokoloff]

Both seem to allow people to pull forward purchases in anticipation of being able to afford them later.

How does Atrato prevent someone who would be prone to falling into debt if they used a credit card from not falling into debt using Atrato and its 40% APR rate?

[rogereur]

Yeah, the problem of credit cards it's all the confusing terms around payment dates, revolving balance, minimum payments. While this might sound trivial in countries with higher financial literacy. So with credit cards it is easy to just say, I'll leave some balance and pay it later. But that will start generating interest over interest, and really quick it can become a snowball trap where then your income only lets you pay the interest proportion of the debt and be looped in the vicious cycle. And on top of that, if you get a credit card, you have to deal with the risk of card fraud which might complicate things.

Our loans are time-defined, full amortizable, which means that every payment you do your debt will lower and are tied to specific purchases. So instead of easily finance anything you can't afford, people use us for specific things they need. It's just simpler, easier and will become even more affordable as we improve our terms