I'm thinking of linking up with somebody like "First National" in the UK to offer customers the opportunity to finance their purchases over a longer period of time.
I know it is used extensively on the high street but has anybody got any experience of using this kind of method online? I know it won't suit every site / product but for higher priced items it looks like it could be an extra revenue generator.
Any ideas?
[edited by: elgumbo at 12:29 pm (utc) on Aug. 26, 2004]
We've been asked to look into this for one of our customers. A couple of other sites in the industry seem to be using a company called "Able2Pay" (or something like that), but I haven't got around to checking them out yet.
A site that I know of has added an option for interest free credit, one of those schemes where it's interest free if you pay it all off quickly otherwise you end up paying extortionate interest rates (over 30%) for extended credit.
It's doing very badly. The only people seeming to want to use it have no credit cards and very bad credit history. Over 90% of applications are turned down by the finance company. There is a fair amount of work for the merchant to do before the application is forwarded to the finance company, so 9 times out of 10 it's wasted effort.
I wouldn't recommend it. Incidentally goods are priced between £150 and £1,000 so not really big priced items.
