What is Zilch?

Zilch lets you pay for your purchases in three different ways, so you can use it like a debit card and earn a part of your purchase back in Rewards, or you can use it like a credit card and pay for things over 6 weeks or 3 months.

Read more: Is Zilch a credit card or debit card?

Your Zilch card is linked to your debit card, so you can use it in the same way you’d use your normal card, typing in your Zilch card details at checkout or adding it to a digital wallet to use Tap and Pay. We'll collect the purchase amount from your linked debit card.

Read more: How do I link a debit card?

You won't receive a physical card, but you can find your Zilch card in the app at any time, just open it and tap 'View' next to 'Zilch card'.

You can use Zilch to pay in three different ways:

To pay in-store with Zilch, you need to add your Zilch card to a digital wallet first so you can use Tap and Pay. You can use Zilch with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. Once your card is in your digital wallet, just:

Read more: How to pay with Zilch in-store | What is Tap and Pay?

To pay online with Zilch:

Read more: How to pay with Zilch online

Don't worry, you can still use Zilch Anywhere – just see below.

Zilch Anywhere lets you pay with Zilch even at stores that aren't in our app, just open the Zilch app and then:

Zilch anywhere has a fee from £0-3.50 for Pay over 6 weeks and £7.50 for Pay over 3 months, Pay now purchases will get 0.5% back in Rewards.

Read more: What is Zilch Anywhere?

It’s completely free to have a Zilch card. You can use Pay now (and earn Rewards when you do!) without any fee. Using Pay over 6 weeks and Pay over 3 months does have fees:

Plus, you can get lower (or zero!) fees when you search your store in the app. We list thousands of stores, and we’re always updating our deals so be sure to check if your store is offering lower or no fees when you Pay over 6 weeks or Pay over 3 months.

Read more: Is Zilch free to use?

This is decided by your credit limit, which we calculate when you sign up to Zilch.

Read more: How much can I spend with Zilch?

Our app is your one-stop-shop for everything Zilch. You can manage your card, search for stores, connect to Open Banking and more. And, if you need extra help, you can start a Live Chat with our Customer Support team. The app is available for iOS and Android.

Your Zilch card and details are securely stored in our Zilch app, ready to go whenever you need it.

You can also add it to Apple Wallet, Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet to Tap and Pay on the go.

Read more: How to view your Zilch card details

It’s easy to sign up for a Zilch account, it only takes a few minutes and checking if you're eligible for Zilch won’t affect your credit score.

All you need is:

Your Zilch card can be ready as soon as the same day, though sometimes we might need longer to check your ID.

Read more: How do I sign up to Zilch?

To be eligible for Zilch, you must:

Don't worry, if you're not eligible for Zilch now, you can always apply again in a year's time.

Read more: Why can't I open a Zilch account?

We need to verify your identity to make sure it's really you opening an account, so we can keep you safe from fraud. We also need to prove that you're over 18 years old and a UK resident as all Zilch customers must meet this criteria.

Read more: Why does Zilch need to verify my identity?

We accept the following as proof of ID:

We accept the following as proof of address:

Read more: What ID can I use to sign up?

You need to link a debit card to Zilch so you can pay for your purchases. You'll use this card to pay for purchases, instalments and any other Zilch fees.

Read more: How do I link a debit card?

We calculate your credit limit when you sign up to Zilch. This limit is how much you can spend with Zilch when you Pay over 6 weeks or, if you're eligible, Pay over 3 months. Your available credit can increase if you always pay on time or early, it can also decrease if you miss payments.

Read more: What's my credit limit? | How do I increase my available credit?

This is the portion of your credit that you still have available to spend. Every time you make a Zilch payment, your available credit goes down. Once you've successfully made all four payments, your available credit will go back up.

So, if you make a Pay over 6 weeks purchase of £100, your available credit will go down to £100. Six weeks later, once you've successfully paid all four of your £25 instalments, your available amount will get this £100 added back.

Once your available credit hits zero, you won't be able to make any new purchases with Zilch until you successfully pay off one or more open purchases.

If you have the option to Pay over 3 months, then any Pay over 6 weeks purchase will still affect your Pay over 3 months available credit as both amounts are linked.

We report to credit agencies, so missing payments may negatively impact your credit score and make it harder for you to acquire credit in the future.

Read more: I can't make a payment on time

We'll collect your instalments automatically – you can check their due dates in the app. You can also pay early which can help increase your available credit. Make sure you have enough money in your bank account or you may miss a payment.

Read more: Can I make a payment early?

Missing a payment can cause your available credit to go down and may also negatively impact your credit score. Please get in touch as soon as possible if you think you're going to miss a payment, we may be able to help.

Read more: What happens if I miss a payment?

You can return purchases you make with Zilch, but it might take a little longer for refunds to appear in your account as we'll need to communicate with the store to confirm your refund. If you're refunding a Pay over 6 weeks or Pay over 3 months purchase, we'll also need to calculate which instalments we need to refund you, and we'll cancel any future instalments on the purchase.

Read more: How do refunds work? | Can I get a refund on Rewards and fees?

Zilch Rewards give you up to 5% of your purchase value back when you shop through the app (or 0.5% every time you use Zilch Anywhere) for all Pay now purchases. So, even if you don’t need to split your purchases over time, you still get extra benefits for paying with Zilch. Watch your Rewards grow and apply them to a future purchase for money off.

Want more Rewards? Try referring a friend to Zilch.

Snooze lets you delay a payment by 4 days or, if you're eligible, 8 days. So you'll get more time to pay and can make payments later, all without impacting your credit limit. You can Snooze all or just one of your instalments, and we even have options to Snooze some instalments for free.

Read more: Delay a payment with Snooze

Want to buy something but don't have enough available credit? You still can with Zilch Boost. Boost lets you pay the difference between your available credit and your purchase amount as part of your first instalment, so you still get the flexibility to pay over time.

Read more: What is Zilch Boost?

Zilch finds the latest voucher codes from around the web and lists them in the app. We'll show you if there are any vouchers available when you search for your store in the app. Just enable your card and when you come back to the app for your card details, we'll show you the voucher code, too.

Read more: How do I use vouchers with Zilch?