FD-Backed Credit Card

Overview

India has hundreds of millions of people with thin or no credit bureau history. This product turns a fixed deposit into a credit card, in one sitting, on a phone. End-to-end mobile journey: from FD creation through lien marking, KYC, and card issuance to live card controls.

The problem

An FD-backed credit card sounds simple. It isn't. Two regulated products, multiple backend systems, two regulatory frameworks, and a lien mechanism most users have never heard of.

Approach

1. 01

   Storyboard before wireframe

   Mapped the full emotional arc first: the user's mental model shifts from "I'm opening an FD" to "I now have a credit card" within one session.

2. 02

   Make the lien legible

   Surfaced a plain-language "where your money is" module at the exact moment a user would start to wonder. Transparency at the right moment builds trust faster than reassurance.

3. 03

   Card controls as a system, not a feature

   These patterns were absorbed into Tijori and now ship across every credit card product on Falcon's platform.

4. 04

   Pressure-test what the happy path ignores

   Partial KYC, lien creation failures, FD breakage post-issuance - each edge case was mapped, designed, and documented.

Highlights

Decisions and tradeoffs

• •One continuous session from deposit to card, rather than splitting a regulated journey across visits.
• •Explain the lien in plain language at the moment of doubt instead of in terms and conditions.
• •Design card controls as a reusable system, accepting slower delivery here to speed up every later card product.

What I got wrong

My first flow treated the FD and the card as two products in sequence, and testers finished the deposit thinking they were done. Reframing the whole journey as one card application that happens to be secured by a deposit fixed the mental model.

Measurable impact

Outcome

Live in market. The card control system I designed for this product now ships on KVB, Nykaa, and every subsequent credit card on Falcon's platform.