Alt-Credit Love Is In The Air

The alternative or alt-credit space — known variously as point-of-sale (POS) credit, “buy now, pay later” (BNLP) or installment payments — remains one of the hottest business stories of the past few years, as players stream in and consumers fall in love with the concept.

PYMNTS tracks the mobile app scene in this and other sectors, and our latest Provider Ranking of Alternative Credit Apps may not hold any surprises, but that in itself is testament to the stability of POS lending, especially during a time of economic hardship.

The Top 5

Blasting our way down the list we first come to No. 1 ranked Klarna, which is heavily promoting BNPL in a fun new ad campaign. At No. 2 is Australian wonder Afterpay, which picked up about 1 million new users during the height of coronavirus lockdowns. At No. 3 is Affirm, whose recent deal with Shopify made headlines, as did the No. 4 ranked Zip Pay with its interest-free value prop.

Rounding out the Top 5 for this ranking at No. 5 is QuadPay, which was recently acquired by Zip Co Ltd. “The deal creates a $1 billion global payments company with more than 3.5 million customers and 26,000 merchant partners,” PYMNTS reported.