Visa pilots installment payments in the U.S.

COVID-19 has accelerated an unprecedented shift to technology for consumers who want the convenience, speed and safety of digital technologies — from shopping online to tapping to pay, curbside pickup and in-app purchases.

„You can add installment payments to that list,” Visa announced. Paying in installments, or having the option to pay in a set number of equal payments for something at the point-of-sale, is the latest convenience offered by Visa and welcomed by a majority of U.S. millennials.

Visa’s installment solutions are becoming a key element of Visa’s strategy „to help our clients and partners give eligible consumers more flexibility to pay by simply using their existing Visa credit cards at checkout”.

„Installments are attractive to sellers, with many seeing an increase in average ticket size and average conversion rate when installments are available as a payment option at checkout,” the company said. 

Commerce Bank is the first bank in the U.S. to begin the installments pilot on a limited number of Commerce Bank Visa credit cards, leading up to commercial launch in Fall 2020.

These U.S. pilots expand on the recent installments deployment in Russia. In June, Visa launched installments for purchasing goods with a Visa stand-alone installment card Svoboda issued by Home Credit Bank. The service is available for purchases at DNS, a major home-appliance retailer in Novosibirsk. Russian Standard Bank is the first acquirer to provide this installments service on Visa cards in Russia.