By; Nelly Ali

Visa is making it easier to provide shoppers the ability to choose how they pay before, during or after purchase with the introduction of a suite of Visa’s installment solutions APIs. Through a pilot program, participating issuers and merchants will be able to offer their customers an installment payment experience at checkout using a Visa card they already have in their wallet.

With Visa’s installment 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[1].

“Visa’s installment 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 installments to become a foundational method of payment at checkout for both domestic and cross-border commerce payment transactions.”

Visa is partnering with clients around the world to pilot a variety of installment use cases. CyberSource will be a leading payment management platform to support Visa’s installments capabilities for its participating merchant clients and acquirer partners that utilize CyberSource for global payments enablement. In addition,

MakeMyTrip integrated with Simpl platform and Kotak Mahindra Bank in India, Alpha Bank, eMAG, ING Bank Romania and PayU in Romania, Russian Standard Bank in Russia and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Mashreq bank in United Arab Emirates are all piloting Visa’s installments capabilities.

Visa’s installment solutions aim to simplify today’s friction-filled and time-consuming installment process at checkout for buyers and sellers. Online shoppers today are typically presented with an installment 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 installment 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 installment 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.

Globally, installments represented $1.2 trillion in payment volume in 2017 and have been growing 15 percent year-over-year, twice as fast as credit cards.[2] A recent study found U.S. cardholders think installments are helpful for budgeting (74%) and alleviating the stress of making large purchases (70%).[3] In addition, three-in-five (60%) of millennials in the U.S. said that they are interested in point of sale financing for large online purchases.[4]

While installments have been gaining traction in the U.S., they have also been a popular payment option internationally. In Brazil, an early-adopter of installment payments, approximately 50 percent of all credit payment volume is already on installments.[5] In Canada, 41 percent of cardholders surveyed said they would consider using install ment payments on purchases of $500 or more .