Buy Now Pay Laters services

ronz91

ronz91

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Hey guys

I have been using Buy Now Pay Later services for a couple of years now. They seem to be slowly growing in popularity in SA.

I am finding more of them as time goes.

Here are the ones I know of thus far:
PayFlex
PayJustNow
ZeroPay
MoreTyme
Float

Thus far I have used PayFlex and PayJustNow without hassle.

I think these services are very useful for the responsible shopper.

Let me know if you know of others.

Thanks
 
My_King said:
Now that you mention it, how do they make money?
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www.npr.org

Buy now, pay dearly? : Planet Money

A wave of companies that allow customers to pay for items from their favorite stores in four interest-free installments has taken over the country. But is "buy now, pay later" lending too good to be true? | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
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Snyper564 said:
Have self discipline. Save and pay. Buying smaller items on debt is a slippery slope of poor financial decisions.
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Not really debt when it's split over 4x interest free payments (e.g. PayFlex).
Just make your payments, don't default and don't pay any extra you would incur if you did!
 
Snyper564 said:
I hear you, but still a dangerous path as some ppl legit can't afford it and it's not a "smart cash flow" thing
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Yep - I don't mind using them, especially for bigger purchases - but I never default on credit and my CC is cleared off monthly as soon as my pay cheque lands!

Not for the non diligent, just like CC's - debt is bad mmmkay!
 
My_King said:
Now that you mention it, how do they make money?
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As someone who has looked into it, by charging the merchant crazy amounts. I'm talking up to 9.4875% including VAT as well as a monthly "marketing fee" (quite small, around R 345/month). The cheapest offering was 5.4625% including but had a cap of R 5,000 per customer and assuming turnover THROUGH THEM of no less than R 250k per month. Basically, you need to meet a mental requirement of at least 50 orders of R 5k every month.

The R 250k isn't that bad, but people who want to pay things off are generally buying things in the R 30k+ range, which then increases the risk profile and thereby the percentage the merchant is charged.

You can negotiate the fees that they take for larger spend ceilings, but once you start offering payments of over R 50k per customer it's upwards of 11% including VAT that the merchant needs to pay.

To give some perspective, PayFast will allow card payments of up to R 1 million and only charge 2.76% including VAT with no monthly "marketing fee" (once you're in that TO region the fees drop - it's not their "standard" fee structure).
 
Snyper564 said:
Have self discipline. Save and pay. Buying smaller items on debt is a slippery slope of poor financial decisions.
Click to expand...
Or add the R200 discount for payflex + extra vouchers + ebucks == great saving. But I did have all the funds available for that air fryer via hirsch back then. It is not always about paying later... well I guess for payflex it is.
 
Yeah they charge the merchant a % but the more valuable thing might be the info they gain.
 
Snyper564 said:
Have self discipline. Save and pay. Buying smaller items on debt is a slippery slope of poor financial decisions.
Click to expand...
Interest rate hikes and inflation has all but wipe out my excess disposal income. I told my wife we going to have to cut our grocery shopping bill from R6000 to about R4000. No credit to be made. No one likes to suffer but this is the only way to keep a small problem small. I am also going to switch ISP's as the speed upgrade is permanent yet the ISP except Afrihost have not passed on the savings.
 
rh1 said:
Interest rate hikes and inflation has all but wipe out my excess disposal income. I told my wife we going to have to cut our grocery shopping bill from R6000 to about R4000. No credit to be made. No one likes to suffer but this is the only way to keep a small problem small. I am also going to switch ISP's as the speed upgrade is permanent yet the ISP except Afrihost have not passed on the savings.
Click to expand...
Every little saving adds up look at asking your insurance for a reduction too
 
shadow_man said:
Not really debt when it's split over 4x interest free payments (e.g. PayFlex).
Just make your payments, don't default and don't pay any extra you would incur if you did!
Click to expand...
Setting the debt/not debt argument aside, what I usually find is that a store that sells something and gives 4-6 months interest free payments option usually inflates the price to make up for the interest anyway. So you should be able to find the same thing cheaper somewhere else.
 
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