Mastercard and Verifone Partner On Point-Of-Sale Financing

It is about to get a little bit easier for consumers in the U.K. to spread the cost of big purchases out over several installments — so long as they paid with a Mastercard.

As part of a new partnership with Verifone, Mastercard is launching the “Mastercard Installments” app which, will begin running on Verifone payment terminals in early January.

For eligible customers, the program will mean getting the option of paying for their purchases in fixed installments once they’ve inserted their card at the POS. Customers will also get a snapshot of how much interest they will be charged as part of the loan.

“For the merchant it’s an interesting value proposition because we’re saying: we’re going to give your customers a new way of financing their purchase that’s private — they don’t need to talk to anybody or do any credit checks,” Verifone Commerce Enablement and Global Innovation Vice President Nathan Gill told Reuters at the sidelines of the Trustech conference in Cannes.

“It’s very simple: they put in their Mastercard, they’re given an offer in real-time, and they can decide whether to accept it or not,” he added, saying he expected the app would lead to more high-value purchases being made.

The app will be a part of Verifone’s “Commerce Platform.” The platform lives within payment terminals made by Verifone — and is the locus for fintech firms like Mastercard or China’s Alipay to develop their own payments app.

“Just like in the mobile space, when applications started helping you with every element of your life, when it comes to payments, you’re now going to have apps that assist you with those,” said Gill.

“The functionality that you’ll have on payment terminals is now going to increase exponentially.”

Mastercard Installments is already up and running in Romania as part of a partnership between Mastercard and Romanian bank BRD–Groupe Société Générale.

This is a first-of-its-kind offer for Verifone.

“Verifone’s payment devices are used all over the country, so this is a big step forward,” said Mastercard UK & Ireland President Mark Barnett. “We believe consumers will welcome this new way to pay, by easily spreading the cost of expensive items.”