Revolut is piloting a buy now, pay later (BNPL) product in Ireland for its 1.9 million customers there, with plans to launch the installment credit service in Poland and Romania later this year.
The new offering is prompting users to pay off balances within two months, “rather than calling on overdrafts and credit cards which don’t carry the same emphasis on quickly paying back the amount borrowed,” Joe Heneghan, CEO of Revolut Europe, said, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday (June 24).
See also: BNPL Rethinks Model as Trying Times Strain Customers’ Wallets
Buying cryptocurrencies or stocks, or withdrawing cash, won’t be allowed as part of the new product, Revolut said in a statement seen by Bloomberg.
Revolut’s BNPL product enables people to make payments for products across three installments. Customers who qualify will be given a credit limit of 499 euros ($524), Bloomberg reported.
Customers’ creditworthiness will be assessed by Revolut using open banking data prior to transactions rather than at the point of sale, with the goal being to help prevent users from getting into unmanageable debt. Revolut will charge users a 1.65% fee per purchase.
Read more: Revolut Expands Into LatAm, Middle East
Headquartered in London and founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky from Russia and Vlad Yatsenko from Ukraine, Revolut originally started as a digital banking and payments platform. It has since grown to offer a range of products, including crypto trading, savings accounts and stock trading. Revolut processes more than 150 million transactions monthly.
The company has more than 18 million customers and 500,000 businesses using its products and said that it’s planning to have a presence in up to 90 countries by the end of this year. Customers can make international transfers to bank accounts in 40 currencies and more than 160 countries, PYMNTS reported.
Related: Lack of UK Bank License Thwarts Revolut’s Super App Ambition
Revolut’s quest to become a financial super app is missing a banking license from the U.K., something the company had hoped to have buttoned up by the start of 2022.
A license will give Revolut the ability to offer loans and overdraft protection. The digital payments startup was granted a bank license for the European Union last year.
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