Visa aims to make purchases easier for shoppers by providing the ability to choose how they pay before, during or after purchase with the introduction of a suite of Visa’s instalment solutions APIs.
Through a pilot program, participating issuers and merchants will be able to offer their customers an instalment payment experience at checkout using a Visa card they already have in their wallet.
With Visa’s instalment solutions, Visa cardholders will have the option to divide their total purchase amount into smaller, equal payments over a defined time period on qualifying purchases, at the store and online or while traveling abroad.
“Visa’s instalment capabilities are changing the game by allowing issuers to leverage an existing payment account consumers already have and are familiar with, instead of asking them to submit to a credit check, download an app or open another line of credit,” said Sam Shrauger, senior vice president, global head of issuer and consumer solutions, Visa.
“We expect instalments to become a foundational method of payment at checkout for both domestic and cross-border commerce payment transactions.”
Visa’s instalment solutions aim to simplify today’s friction-filled and time-consuming instalment process at checkout for buyers and sellers. Online shoppers today are typically presented with an instalment offer at the final checkout screen.
Consumers are then required to sign up with a designated provider, apply for a line of credit and – if approved –use their funds toward a given purchase. Each time a consumer shops with a different merchant who offers a different instalment capability, they need to complete the same process again to obtain a new line of credit.
Now, merchants can leverage cardholders’ existing relationships with financial institutions to provide Visa’s instalment solutions at the point of sale – online or in store – through a single API-based integration.
This will ultimately help merchants enhance sales, improve customer loyalty and overall cash flow, while offering their shoppers a friction-free payment experience at checkout.