Visa and DealMe are piloting a cross-border installment payment solution in South Korea and plan to expand it to Vietnam, the United States, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
In the pilot program, Visa and DealMe partnered to enable shoppers with locally issued credit cards in Vietnam to access real-time installment payment services offered by merchants in South Korea, the companies said in a Friday (Jan. 24) press release.
South Korea is the top leisure travel destination for Vietnamese consumers, and this new offering will allow them to use their Visa credit cards issued in Vietnam to shop at duty-free shops, department stores and medical institutions in South Korea, according to the release.
With this collaboration, international consumers who use their Visa cards at participating merchants will be checked for eligibility for the cross-border installment service and, if eligible, offered the opportunity to choose the installment duration and complete their payments, per the release.
“This innovative cross-border installment solution offers greater flexibility for both inbound and outbound travelers, supporting Vietnam’s future tourism payments and contributing to the nation’s digital transformation,” Dung Dang, Visa country manager for Vietnam and Laos, said in the release.
Kim Tae Hong, senior vice president of DealMe, said in the release: “This gives consumers an additional payment option when traveling overseas.”
Having the right cross-border payment solutions creates seamless customer experiences, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “The Treasury Management Playbook: Spotlight on Cross-Border Payments.”
Visa’s partnership with DealMe is the latest of several collaborations the company has launched to facilitate cross-border payments.
In December, CARD.com, a FinTech specializing in mobile banking and card payments, collaborated with Visa to enable its users to make cross-border payments via Visa Direct.
The partnership enables CARD.com users to benefit from card-based payments in more than 180 countries and territories, account transfers in more than 90 countries and wallet transactions in more than 50 countries.
In August, Visa launched a cross-border business payments partnership with London-based FinTech Revolut.
The collaboration allows instant card transfers for Revolut’s business customers via the Visa Direct system, allowing them to send money around the world in real time. The solution is available for Revolut business customers in more than 78 countries and supports more than 50 currencies.