Thanks for the context. It’s just insane to me that things like this exist alongside $30 Android Go phones. A high end phone is an unnecessary luxury, and this infrastructure probably has some cost to the rest of us (bugs and diverted developer hours). I can understand why a “gig economy” worker might need a midrange phone, for instance, but decent used devices are very affordable.

I guess people finance other luxuries, too—rims are a great example—but those don’t seem to require digital repo men.

To add even more context: This is to finance those $30 Android Go phones. This is for the 'developing nations' schtick. They aren't Payjoy Locking some super high end phone here, it's gonna be the $40 no-name Android handset.

It's also to reuse the phone later as collateral again on another microloan, almost like digitally pawning the phone off for twenty bucks each time.