The news: Block will pilot a real-time credit scoring model called Cash App Score, per a press release.

Users’ Cash App Scores are based on financial behaviors within the Cash App ecosystem: deposit frequency, spending habits, savings activity, repayment history, and other metrics. 

Possible rewards? Higher scores can open up bigger lines of credit through Cash App Borrow.

How we got here: Block is positioning itself as the antithesis of traditional credit providers, rejecting traditional markers like FICO scoring as misrepresentative of underbanked and underprivileged users’ real creditworthiness. 

Block’s Q3 2025 earnings demonstrate the expanding scope of this side of Cash App’s business:

• Post-purchase buy now, pay later (BNPL) volume on the Cash App Card tipped over the $3 billion mark in early September.
• Cash App Borrow originations spiked 134% YoY.

Who this is for: US adults with poor or thin credit histories, especially young people. As Block attempts to merge its ecosystems into one centralized product, it wants to court new users who will begin their financial lives within the app—and stay there. 

Our take: Cash App’s micro loans have acted as a proof of concept for its proprietary underwriting model, which it now likely wants to expand into larger-value (and more lucrative) lending. Giving consumers a visible—and highly manipulable—score can boost loan value and overall engagement in two key ways. 

• Gen Zers are highly focused on increasing their credit scores. Introducing real-time scores based on app engagement effectively gamifies consumers’ financial interactions—encouraging them to use the app and ancillary products like the Cash App card more often to watch their scores go up. 
• And as consumers engage more with the app, they give Block more financial data—improving the algorithm’s underwriting and allowing it to extend larger amounts of credit to more consumers. Longer-term installments have been key to helping BNPL providers drive volume and revenues, and Block doesn’t want to miss that opportunity.