CNBC

PayPal says it’s launching a “buy now, pay later” service in the U.K. that lets shoppers finance their purchases over three interest-free monthly installments.

The U.S. tech giant is perhaps better known for its online payment tools, but it’s been branching out into credit in the years since it acquired lending platform Bill Me Later.

Now, the company is taking on the likes of Sweden’s Klarna and Australia’s Afterpay, whose point-of-sale loans have increased in popularity recently. It rolled out its “Pay in 4” product in the U.S. just last month and is now following up with a separate offering for the U.K. called “Pay in 3.”

“What we’ve seen over last 6 months or so is a significant rise in the shift from physical to digital transactions across the whole of the U.K. retail base,” Rob Harper, PayPal’s U.K. director of enterprise accounts, told CNBC in an interview.

“We’ve also seen the rise of buy now, pay later solutions in the market; brands like Klarna, but also smaller brands that are entering into the market that are not as recognizable as PayPal.”

Source

Looking for information about how COVID-19 has impacted the payments industry?

The Strawhecker Group (TSG) and Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) teamed up to survey a representative sample of U.S. consumers, and analyzed Visa’s proprietary spend data, with the goal of understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted consumer lifestyles, payments trends, and how behaviors may change after the pandemic.

Click here to download TSG and Visa’s infographic, Purchasing in a Pandemic.

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