People take out credit they don’t understand, then phone an advisor to ask the basics: what’s my rate, how much is left, can I pause? I designed a credit-management app that put the answers on the screen: one clear overview, status without a phone call, and a path to refinance for those who could.
Overview
Finanzcheck is Germany’s leading independent credit-comparison platform. Customers compare offers and apply through it; bank partners issue the credit and advisors handle the human touch.
After applying, customers were invited into a logged-in app: all their credits in one view, real-time application status, the answers to the questions they used to call about, and, for those who qualified, a clear path to refinance to better terms.
The problem
User interviews and the credit advisors' own feedback surfaced a consistent blind spot. People held credit they couldn’t describe, and didn’t realise how much of their financial life counted as credit in the first place, which is why they kept phoning advisors to ask.
Their own rate
The individual interest rate on each credit: unknown.
What’s left to pay
Remaining runtime and balance: opaque.
Their conditions
Early-payoff penalties, pause options, fees: unclear.
What even counts
Instalments, overdraft, even unused cards: all credit.
That confusion was a business problem twice over.
Cost 01
Advisors stuck on status calls
After applying, customers called repeatedly to check status and ask the basics. Advisor time on those calls was time not spent advising and closing new clients.
Cost 02
Refinancing left on the table
Most users didn’t know refinancing was an option. With a clear picture, eligible customers could switch to better terms, value the platform was missing.
The bet
If the app answered the questions people called about, clearly and in plain language before they had to ask, call volume drops and trust goes up. And once someone can see their full position, refinancing stops being a sales pitch and becomes an obvious, mutual win.
For the user
Lower cost, less to juggle
Lower interest, a better score, fewer credits to track.
For the platform
Revenue and retention
Refinancing revenue and retention, with fewer support calls.
For the banks
A clean handover
The old loan is paid out; the new partner earns the book.
User journey
Same person, one path. The app steps in exactly where users used to pick up the phone, and turns the dead-end after approval into a reason to come back.
My role
The system
The same tokens, spacing and components compose every screen of the app. These are the live values, pulled straight from the prototype below.
Foundations
Colour, by role
Spacing & radius
Typography, Inter
Layout grid
A single 390px column with 24px gutters. Cards span full width; the tab bar is pinned bottom, the primary action pinned above it. Same frame on every screen.
Components
Credit balance header
Payoff chart
Antrag & Status row
Form row
Pinned action bar + primary button
Tab bar
Bottom sheet
FAQ accordion
Ja. Bei diesem Kredit ist eine kostenlose Sondertilgung jederzeit möglich. Den gewünschten Betrag geben Sie unter „Kredit verwalten“ an.
Sie können Ihre monatliche Rate für einen Wunschzeitraum pausieren. Den Zeitraum reichen Sie unter „Kredit verwalten“ ein; die Laufzeit verlängert sich entsprechend.
App map
Five primary destinations live on the tab bar. The rest open in context, from a credit card, the status banner, or the approval step, so depth never costs the user their place.
The prototype
The full Kreditmanager, live and connected. Use the tab bar to move through the overview, a single credit, application status and approval, the advisor, the savings alert and settings. Open a row to manage the credit, request a pause or repay early.
Interactive prototype, tap through the five tabs. A faithful rebuild of the beta’s core flows, elevated from the 2020 originals at the locked design bar.
Impact
Validated
Users got it
Positive qualitative response in beta from selected users; the overview and in-app answers landed as intended.
Advisors
They saw the relief
Internal advisors reported the app would cut the inbound status calls that ate their day.
Paused, not failed
Reprioritised in COVID
The refinancing flow validated conceptually with eligible cases. The product didn’t launch at scale.
No launch-scale metrics are claimed here: the product never released, so there are none to claim. What’s above is real research and real beta-stage signal, described as exactly that.
Reflection
The research finding wasn’t “build a dashboard.” It was that people couldn’t see their own financial position, so they couldn’t act on it. Every screen was an answer to a question someone had actually asked.
Designing for money on a phone is designing for nerves. The job was to make a stressful, opaque thing feel knowable: one number at a glance, the detail one tap away, and the next move always obvious.