For people
set the rule while you're thinking straight
Not while you're not.
The 2am Buy Now Pay Later order. The overdraft that's crept from safety net to normal. The payday loan app you keep deleting and reinstalling. You know the moment it's happening.
Credit Stop is a rule you set now, one your future self will thank you for.
how it'd work for you
Pick a pause or a stop for the products that give you trouble. A pause adds a delay to the application itself. You choose how long. A stop blocks the product outright.
You're browsing a catalogue website and a laptop catches your eye. Normally you'd have a £5k credit limit approved in ten minutes. With a pause set on that kind of credit, the ten minutes becomes a week. Enough time to find out if you actually want the laptop, or just wanted it in that moment.
The week before payday always goes the same way. Money's tight, mates are going out Friday, and a payday loan covers the gap. A pause means that application doesn't clear in time for Friday. One month without it might be enough to break the pattern.
Earning well isn't always the problem. A credit card covers last month's card, and now a third one's needed to cover that. There's no single Friday night causing this. It's a pattern, not a moment. A stop keeps new credit off the table until you decide to lift it.
This has no effect on your credit score. It's not something lenders report.
Apply somewhere that checks with Credit Stop and the lender sees one thing: your flag. Not your balance. Not your history. Not why.
Nobody at Credit Stop asks why you're setting a pause or a stop. Nobody at the lender sees a reason either, just the flag. You don't explain yourself to anyone, not even us.
Think of it like GAMSTOP, but for credit.
where we're at
We're working with regulators and lenders to get this right before we open registration.
Leave your email and we'll tell you the moment it's ready.
Founder's note
I'm helping build Credit Stop because I still need it myself.
I'm the ADHD trope. Two weeks of fermenting everything in the kitchen. Two weeks of being Buddhist. A full Warhammer army I've painted about six models of. Supplements that were, this time, definitely going to fix my brain. Some of it bought on credit, in months I didn't have the money to spare.
Two weeks later the urge is gone and the gear's in a cupboard. Not because I couldn't afford it. Because I didn't want it any more, I just wanted it then.
That's the whole point of a pause. An enforced two weeks before the credit clears, to find out if I still care by the time it does.
— Stephen, co-founder