From NPAs to NPR

What Lending Taught Me About Subscription Churn

Setting up UPI and Credit Card Autopay mandates has never been easier, making payment workflows incredibly effortless. Users sign up, forget they're paying, and generate revenue that looks healthy on paper but actually signals future churn.

My colleague explains this concept really well. Founders should track what he calls "Non-Performing Revenue," which is simply revenue from users who aren't consuming the product or service (the lower the NPR, the better).

Consumer behaviour has shifted dramatically. We're in an era where people accumulate subscriptions like digital clutter. Many users now pay for "just-in-case" access. They want services available when life demands it, even if they rarely use them. It's about owning peace of mind, not daily engagement.

(Worth noting: this is primarily affluent behaviour. Middle-India/Bharat users are much more cost-conscious about unused subscriptions.)

I believe the companies that will win long-term won't just acquire users, they will obsess over engagement quality from day one. Just like NBFCs track 30/60/90 DPD cycles to predict loan defaults, subscription businesses should track M1/M2/M3 NPR cycles to predict user churn before it happens.

This creates a ticking time bomb: revenue that looks stable but comes from users who've mentally already moved on. They're paying out of inertia, not intention.

The real question isn't whether your users will churn, it's whether you'll see it coming early enough to do something about it. What engagement patterns are you tracking that your revenue dashboard can't tell you?