Apart from the initiatives of Amazon and other big names on the web or specific promotions for smartphones, computers and household appliances, buying in installments and paying without interest is increasingly difficult. Despite the ECB’s maxi-rates, there are specific solutions, such as buy now pay later, which allow you to spread expenses over time without any additional costs. Let’s see the main ones.
KLARNA, CLEARPAY AND SCALAPAY The Klarna app allows you to shop in stores by paying in three installments without interest and without additional costs. Before you’re charged, you’ll receive a reminder that your payment is due. Even with Clearpay you can purchase what you want and pay in three installments, always interest-free. The same goes for the Afterpay service which has no additional costs for the customer if the installments are paid by the due date. The first installment is paid at the time of purchase, the subsequent installments are on a monthly basis.
SATISPAY Satispay is the mobile payment app alternative to credit and debit cards, through which it is possible to pay in physical and online stores but also to “exchange” money between friends. Satispay, in fact, is not a buy now pay later solution. It also offers other services such as company meal vouchers, telephone top-ups, payment of household utilities, pagoPA and car and motorbike tax, donations, gift bags and savings. Today, over 4 million users use Satispay, including private individuals and merchants, including small shops and large brands such as Esselunga, Benetton, Carrefour, Boggi, Trenord, Eataly, Tigotà, Decathlon, Autogrill and Trenitalia. The agreement with Viva.com then allows Italian customers to accept over 40 payment methods in 17 languages and nine currencies.
PAYPAL AND AMAZON Paypal is one of the most used online payment systems in Italy, due to the numerous advantages it provides, primarily simplicity and convenience, which allows users to connect various instruments to their Paypal account, including credit/debit cards and bank accounts, and to pay in three installments without interest and without management costs. However, Paypal reserves the right to evaluate the reliability of the applicant (i.e. his creditworthiness). Amazon’s payment in 3, 5 or 12 installments, however, only applies to products where the “monthly installments” option is available as a purchase method on the product detail page. The group founded by Jeff Bezos then offers CreditLine, a credit line granted by Cofidis for an amount between 100 and 3 thousand euros, to be paid in convenient installments of up to 24 months. In this case, however, interest is paid.
PAGOLIGHT The “buy now pay later” solution of Compass, a Mediobanca group, is PagoLight. Also in this case the service is designed to pay little by little for purchases made both in-store and online.
For the end customer there are no additional costs. For online purchases of up to 5 thousand euros in expenditure and in a maximum of 24 installments there is PagoLight Pro, which can include a cost borne by the customer or the shopkeeper.
For both products the management process is 100% digital and the outcome of the loan installment request is in real time and without an income document.
