All-in-one finance app Revolut is rolling out a new feature allowing its credit-card customers in Ireland to pay through instalments, which it plans to shortly expand to other markets
Under the new feature customers will be able to space payments out over three, six, nine or 12-months at a discounted interest rate. Multiple purchases can be consolidated into one instalment plan.
The service, available to both new and existing credit card customers, will charge an annual rate of 9.98% APR.
By comparison, Revolut’s standard credit-card annual rate is 17.99%.
A Revolut press representative said: “In using ‘Instalments’, customers have already been assessed and approved for a credit limit based on their affordability, and this feature helps them to utilise that limit as flexibly as possible. “
They told the Good Money Guide the firm is introducing the new feature in Poland and will do so in Spain “very shortly” afterwards.
The instalment service is one of several new lending products planned for launch this year in Ireland, where Revolut has around 3 million customers.
The new feature targets customers who may otherwise consider using a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service, after these have exploded in popularity in recent years.
Revolut already has a BNPL feature for debit card users in Ireland, which charges a fee of fee of 1.65% of the purchase price of an item. This is equivalent to a credit rate of 21.4% APR.
While BNPL is typically arranged at point of sale/pre-purchase, the new credit card instalments are a post-purchase feature.
The update comes as Revolut, which now has over 50 million customers around the world and more than 10 million in the UK, announced plans to introduce a host of new features at the end of last year.
These included an AI-powered assistant, mortgages and Revolut cash machines, as well as its first business credit product.
Robin has more than six years of experience as a financial journalist, most of which were spent at Citywire, and covers the latest developments in the investing, trading and currency transfer space. Outside of work, he enjoys reading literature and philosophy and playing the piano.
You can contact Robin at robin@goodmoneyguide.com
