Cash Advance Index
See cash advance risk others can’t
Grow your cash advance business by turning Plaid's network intelligence into smarter qualification, advance sizing, and repayment strategy.
Cash flow meets network intelligence
Cash flow shows income and spending patterns. Plaid shows behavior across apps. Together, you get a more complete and meaningful view of risk.
Over 1 million connections happen through Plaid every day
800 million transactions enriched with added detail and context daily
Cash flow meets network intelligence
Cash flow shows income and spending patterns. Plaid shows behavior across apps. Together, you get a more complete and meaningful view of risk.
Over 1 million connections happen through Plaid every day
800 million transactions enriched with added detail and context daily
Spot hidden repayment risk
Stable income and healthy balances don't tell the whole story. Plaid surfaces behavioral signals that traditional models miss—so you can see risk coming before it becomes a problem.
Spot hidden repayment risk
Stable income and healthy balances don't tell the whole story. Plaid surfaces behavioral signals that traditional models miss—so you can see risk coming before it becomes a problem.
Increase advance amounts with confidence
Get repayment likelihood for every advance range—so you can offer the highest amount while minimizing risk. Scores run 1–99 across ranges up to $500.
Increase advance amounts with confidence
Get repayment likelihood for every advance range—so you can offer the highest amount while minimizing risk. Scores run 1–99 across ranges up to $500.
Check for risk shifts before repayment
Assess risk at onboarding, then check for changes before repayment—like new borrowing—so you can adjust your repayment strategy if needed.
Check for risk shifts before repayment
Assess risk at onboarding, then check for changes before repayment—like new borrowing—so you can adjust your repayment strategy if needed.
The results are in
8%
reduction in delinquency rates
at target qualification
17%
more predictive
when identifying low vs. high-risk users
Shan Xu, CRO
CREDIT GENIEStart making smarter cash advance decisions
Your questions, answered
Reach out if we didn’t answer yours.
What is the Cash Advance Index?
The Cash Advance Index (CAI) is Plaid's purpose-built delinquency risk model for cash advance providers. It predicts the likelihood of repayment within 30 days across multiple advance amount buckets by combining cash flow attributes with Plaid's proprietary network intelligence—giving providers a more complete risk signal than point-in-time transaction analysis alone.
How does Cash Advance Index help cash advance providers assess repayment risk?
CAI provides two models—one at onboarding and one ongoing—so providers can evaluate delinquency risk when a user first requests an advance and detect risk shifts before repayment. Each model returns a rank-ordered score from 1 to 99, calibrated to the specific advance amount requested, enabling smarter decisions on approval, advance sizing, and repayment strategy.
What signals does Cash Advance Index use to predict repayment likelihood?
CAI blends cash flow attributes—income patterns, spending behavior, account stability—with Plaid's network intelligence, which captures behavioral signals across a large ecosystem of financial connections. This combination surfaces cross-platform risk patterns, such as activity across multiple cash advance providers, that no single provider's transaction history can detect on its own.
How is Cash Advance Index different from generic cash flow scoring tools?
Most cash flow tools analyze transaction history in isolation. CAI is trained specifically on real cash advance repayment and approval data—not generic risk outcomes. Its model combines cash flow attributes with Plaid network intelligence to surface both fraud and repayment risk signals that general-purpose models aren't built to detect.
What makes Plaid's network intelligence useful for cash advance risk decisions?
Plaid's network intelligence draws on behavioral signals observed across a broad, interconnected financial ecosystem—revealing cross-platform patterns that point-in-time cash flow analysis misses.
How do amount-specific repayment scores improve cash advance decisions?
A user who is low-risk for a $50 advance may carry meaningfully more risk at $200. CAI returns scores calibrated to specific advance amount buckets, each trained on real repayment outcomes at that advance level. This lets providers optimize both whether to approve an advance and how much to offer—without relying on interpolated estimates.
Can Cash Advance Index help identify repayment risk before a repayment date?
Yes. CAI includes an ongoing model designed for providers to check for risk shifts between disbursement and repayment. This means providers can adjust their repayment strategy earlier rather than waiting until a repayment fails.
How do I get access to Cash Advance Index?
The Cash Advance Index is currently in Beta. You can join the waitlist directly from Plaid's Cash Advance Index page to connect with a Plaid specialist who can walk you through fit, integration, and expected outcomes for your use case.