Loyalty program: cashback that grows with the company’s stock
cashback, while the market offered 2–3%
Standard, Silver, Gold and Platinum
to rebuild the entire tier logic
Context. Everyone offered 2–3% cashback. The bank needed a program people would switch banks for.
Before, cashback at Freedom was just a percentage of purchases.
Tiers. Four tiers: the higher the tier, the bigger the cashback — up to 7%.
| Tier | Base cashback | Monthly cashback limit |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 1% | 50,000 ₸ |
| Silver | 2% | 100,000 ₸ |
| Gold | 3% | 150,000 ₸ |
| Platinum | 4% | 200,000 ₸ |
On top of that: +2% for paying with Apple Pay, +1% for a task (spending 50K ₸ or more last month) and higher cashback within the Freedom ecosystem. In total, on Platinum: 4% + 2% + 1% = 7%.
Freedom Currency. Cashback is tied to the holding company’s stock: when the stock goes up, so does the cashback.
At the same time, you can pay with it, transfer it and exchange it for any currency. 10,000 units of Freedom Currency equal one share of the holding company.
In tests with employees, the hardest part was explaining the link to the stock.
We settled on this line: “Cashback will be paid in Freedom Currency — it’s tied to the holding company’s stock on the market and changes along with it.”
The pivot. When the design was almost done, the goal changed: not spending, but saving.
For the first month, we designed around “spend more — get a higher tier”. Then the holding’s leadership decided it mattered more to the bank that people kept their money there. Now the tier depends on the average monthly balance:
- Standard — up to 100K ₸
- Silver — up to 300K ₸
- Gold — up to 1M ₸
- Platinum — 1M ₸ and above
We rebuilt the entire logic in 2 weeks. Engineering didn’t stall: they had started working while the design was still in progress.
Edge case. A single phone purchase could eat up a whole month’s cashback.
At the holding’s electronics store, one purchase could earn up to 200K ₸ in cashback — the entire monthly Platinum limit. We excluded that store from the limit.
Result. Up to 7% cashback against the market’s 2–3% — launched in 2.5 months.
- The program launched in 2024: a month and a half of design and a month of engineering, partly in parallel.
- I don’t have exact numbers for the program: they hadn’t been calculated yet when I left.
What I learned. Product logic can change at any moment. What matters is adapting fast.
I managed to rebuild the whole mechanic in 2 weeks because I understood not just the screens, but why the business needed the product.