Auto top-up
I designed and launched auto top-up from scratch — enabling seamless payments by covering low-balance scenarios and maintaining a target card balance
Role
Senior Product Designer
Scope
Product Strategy, UI/UX/IxD, Prototyping, Design system
Challenge
The Pay card isn’t the main salary account for most users, but it’s attractive due to cashback. We needed to increase card spend and reduce payment failures caused by low balances
Solution — 1
Top up card at purchase
Solution — 2
Maintain card balance
Step 1 — Launching MVP
In the MVP, auto top-up was located in general settings, as the debit card had no dedicated section. The MVP covered core flows to validate the feature and measure results.
MVP validation revealed
3 key issues
1.
The entry point was hard to find. Once the Pay card got its own section, we moved auto top-up settings there
Dynamic widgets
2.
The feature lacked error communication. Introduced a dynamic widget to surface issues and confirm correct setup
Сommunication
3.
Users didn’t understand how auto top-up works and hesitated to enable it. Improved guidance and added in-product communication to clarify the process
Step 2 — Next iteration
In this version, users easily found the entry point and understood the feature, but the linking payment remained a weak point, which we improved in the next iteration
Step 3 — Current version
After the first version, conversion on the linking auto top-up was low. Users had to approve the transfer in their bank app, but many couldn’t find it. In the next iteration, we made the linking payment optional, as many users had already granted permission via previous transfers. Instead of removing it, we added a recommendation screen with a quick link to check it, and introduced an optional test payment to verify setup.
Settings redesign
After validating that the feature worked well, we redesigned the settings. The goal was to clearly separate two flows within the same feature, as they are promoted differently. One keeps the card balance at a defined level, while the other tops up at the moment of purchase to avoid declined payments at checkout
Outcomes
Redesigned the debit account experience by introducing QR payments, cashback visibility, card details, and auto top-up — increasing GMV by 13% (€470M → €533M/month)
+20%
Auto top-up adoption rate
0 → 160K users
-33%
Failed payments due to insufficient balance
6 → 4%
+25%
Completed purchases with low balance
60 → 75%
+8%
GMV from auto top-up users
+€3.8M/month increase