Dark patterns in finance apps

09 Jul 2025

One of the biggest challenges in building a financial services business is that the incentives are often skewed toward doing what’s good for the business and not for the customer. It’s very hard to consistently put customers first.

This is one of the main reasons why finance apps are full of dark patterns, more than almost any other category. Dark patterns are design tricks used in apps and websites to make you do things that are not in your best interest. From pointless “gamification” and casino-like features to manipulative notifications, lack of transparency, and pushing harmful financial products, many platforms are, in some ways, incentivised to work against their own users.

“Show me the incentives, and I’ll show you the outcome.” - Charlie Munger

One reason Zerodha users trust us with their money is because we’ve avoided these practices from day one. Doing what’s right for our customers has always been at the heart of our philosophy.

We recently recorded a video breaking down the most common dark patterns in finance apps.

Read this post for more.

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