CrediSmart turns the phone into the guarantee

A smartphone bought on credit has two prices. One appears on the shelf. The other emerges over months, in installments, fees and the consequences of being late. CrediSmart adds an unusual detail: the object being financed can also enforce the agreement. Miss payments, and the phone can be locked remotely. The device that connects its owner to the world becomes the lender’s guarantee.

• The offer: phone financing without a credit card, including applications from people with little credit history.
• The mechanism: allied stores, digital enrollment and a handset-backed guarantee.
• The catch: a low initial payment does not describe the full cost, and missed payments can mean losing use of the device.

Founder and CEO Miguel Gorostarzu frames the business around financial inclusion: making credit and technology accessible to people conventional finance overlooks. That arrangement explains both the appeal and the difficulty of CrediSmart. A handset can help someone work, study or run a business before they have saved its purchase price. Yet the usefulness that makes the phone worth financing also makes a lockout consequential. Understanding this company means keeping both sides of that bargain in view.

The loan is already at the counter

CrediSmart places credit where people buy technology. Customers choose a device through an allied seller; the lender evaluates the application and handles the financing. The Colombian mobile page asks for a physical citizenship card, an active email address and a mobile line. It says applicants aged 18 to 75 can apply, including people without a credit history. Eligibility is broader than a conventional credit-card checkout, but approval still requires evaluation.

The distribution is deliberately physical. In its January 2026 account of the business, CrediSmart named Claro, Tigo and Movistar, alongside retailers including Éxito, Olímpica and Cencosud. It also reported more than 1,000 traditional technology points of sale. An adviser and a shop counter become the front end of a digital lending operation. The customer does not have to discover a financial app before discovering the phone.

This is a useful distinction in a market often described as if everything happens on a screen. The screen is the purchase. The store helps arrange the credit. CrediSmart supplies the financing and servicing, while the seller remains responsible for the device’s delivery and product warranty.

A small first payment. A bigger question.

The mobile page advertises a down payment starting at 5%, with plans of six, eight, ten or twelve installments and monthly or fortnightly payment options. These are advertised possibilities. A buyer’s actual offer depends on their profile and sales channel; Claro’s own financing page lists different terms. The opening percentage is an invitation to ask for a quote.

For a hypothetical COP 1,000,000 handset, 5% is COP 50,000. That calculation describes only the initial payment. It leaves COP 950,000 of the purchase price before any applicable financing charges. Comparing offers means adding the down payment, every installment and any separately charged services.

CrediSmart earns money through the interest and applicable charges set out in its contracts. Its broader portfolio also includes payroll-deducted lending, which has its own published tariff. Those rates cannot simply be pasted onto a phone offer. The commercially meaningful number is the total payable under the particular contract in front of the customer.

The lock is part of the product

CrediSmart calls its approach Credi-Block; its help material also refers to Security Guard. The financed handset acts as collateral while remaining with the buyer. The company’s mobile FAQ says removing the app or restoring factory settings can cause an automatic lock. This makes the software a condition of the financing relationship, rather than an optional convenience.

“Tu eres tu propio aval con nuestro Sistema Credi-Block.”

CrediSmart’s marketing: you are your own guarantor.

PayJoy offers a closely related device-backed model in Colombia. CrediSmart therefore competes within an established category, alongside other retail-credit alternatives. Buyers should compare payment frequency, charges, support and what happens after a missed installment. Two offers that both promise access without a credit card can create quite different obligations.

Repayment also extends beyond the app. CrediSmart lists physical channels including Efecty and bank correspondents, with digital options selected through its application. That matters: digital account management need not require every customer to pay digitally. The payment system has to accommodate the customer’s actual habits.

The cost problem has a history

There is a documented complication. Colombia’s consumer authority, the SIC, lists a COP 104,400,000 sanction against CrediMinuto S.A.S. in May 2023 for usury. A notice on the company’s legacy site says excess interest must be returned to affected customers, identifying the period from March 2020 through May 2023.

The commercial register connects the names: CrediMinuto S.A.S. became CrediSmart Colombia S.A.S. in April 2025. The episode makes pricing central to the story. Easier approval and an affordable first payment cannot, by themselves, establish whether credit is affordable over its full life.

After the last installment, another offer

CrediSmart’s next step is visible in CrediCash. The company advertises cash loans up to COP 1,200,000 for preapproved customers who have finished repaying earlier credit and meet additional conditions. The product requires the app and Security Guard to remain installed. A completed phone loan can therefore become the basis for a continuing lending relationship.

Capital is arriving to support that ambition. In April 2026, CrediSmart announced a structured financing facility of up to US$48 million with Lendable for its Colombian business. This is debt capacity for expansion, carrying repayment obligations; the headline amount does not establish how much has been drawn.

The transferable lesson is practical: meet customers at the purchase, make repayment accessible and let demonstrated payment behavior inform later offers. The limitation follows just as clearly. If income is irregular and the handset is essential to earning it, a lockout can deepen the problem. CrediSmart’s proposition works best when access, total cost and continued usefulness of the device can coexist.