Instalments: consumers can buy now and pay later

Offer your customers instalment payment plans on an API-based solution or on existing international standards.

Visa has developed instalment solutions

Visa has released capabilities on Visa Developer Portal to allow clients to develop and pilot instalment experiences to offer to their customers.*


Introduction to instalment payments

‘Instalment payments’ (instalments) refers to the option to pay for purchases over time by dividing the purchase amount into smaller equal payments. Consumers will typically use instalments to buy medium and large-ticket items (e.g., electronics, furniture). But in some markets, they may even use them to make everyday purchases (e.g., groceries, retail). So, what’s the key benefit for consumers with instalments? They get to spread their purchases, including transparent fees, into periodic (usually monthly) repayment amounts.

Donut chart showing 1 out of 4 payments.
Donut chart showing 2 out of 4 payments.
Donut chart showing 3 out of 4 payments.
Donut chart showing 4 out of 4 payments.

Common instalment payments models

There are two primary models in the global instalment payments landscape: During Purchase and Post-Purchase. These models differ by when the consumer is offered instalments, who presents the instalment payments plan and who pays for the cost of providing credit.*

Create plan

API for issuers to create instalment plans. Issuers to define plan attributes such as:

  • Duration of instalment loan
  • Participating merchant and cards
  • Interest and fees

Check eligibility

API for acquirers, technology platforms and merchant to look up eligible instalment plan(s) for an instalment transaction. Merchant can display eligible instalment plans and costs to a cardholder during purchases.

Example: 6-month instalment plan for all Visa Signature cards from Bank A at home appliance shops

Select plan

API for merchant to confirm the cardholder selected instalment plan for a given transaction.

Convert plan

API for issuers to convert the original transaction into an instalment plan.

Schedule plan

API for issuers to schedule payments of instalment transactions. The service will look up cardholder status and calculate monthly instalment payments due, so that issuers can manage general ledger and post to cardholder statement correctly.


Visa’s instalment solution can provide benefits to all parties in the ecosystem

Consumer

Increase payment options on existing cards in wallet

Merchant

Help increase sales volume and conversion rates

Financial institution

Help increase cardholder engagement and loyalty with new revenue stream

Acquirer

Help protect against volume erosion; new value-added service for merchant offering


Instalments are a large and growing opportunity

Globally, instalments represented $1.6 trillion in market value in 2020. And it’s growing quickly – up 5% YoY. In contrast, credit card expenditure declined by 4% globally.

Growth in installments in different sectors. See the detailed image description.

Globally, instalments represented $1.6 trillion in market value in 2020. This is comprised of 38% credit cards, 27% fintech loans, 20% traceable personal loans, 12% durables lending and 3% store cards.

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