Amazon links with Barclays for UK BNPL

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Dec 21, 2021

With fears over the UK economy growing, interest rates and prices rising, the buy-now-pay-later industry looks set to boom. And joining the financing option are two heavyweights: online retail giant Amazon has teamed up with Barclays to enable UK customers to pay for purchases in instalments on the webstore.

Barclays announced Monday it has launched ‘Instalments by Barclays’ in Britain, providing access to a ‘reusable credit account’. This will let customers spread the cost of eligible purchases of £100 or more on amazon's website in equal monthly instalments. The service had previously launched in Germany earlier this year.

Customers can also pay for additional purchases through instalments without needing to reapply, as long as they stay within their spending limits. Monthly instalment payments are automated, “giving shoppers a simple and convenient way to pay on time”.

Barclays said the reusable credit account is available to use on millions of products, including those from thousands of small and medium businesses selling on Amazon.

“With Instalments by Barclays, customers will have greater flexibility to pay for their purchases, with financing options available on terms between 3-48 months”, the bank said.

Barclays noted that all lending is fully regulated by the FCA, with the bank carrying out robust credit and affordability checks “to ensure that the customer is not given access to more credit than they can comfortably afford”.

Once approved, the reusable credit account is added to a customer’s wallet and available at checkout while shopping on Amazon. This will allow them to make repeat purchases without needing to reapply, as long as they remain within their overall credit limit and monthly payment limit.

The account can be managed directly through the Barclays App, even if the customer doesn’t bank with Barclays.

Ruchir Rodrigues, Head of Barclays Cubed & Consumer Bank Europe, said: “This is another major step in our ambition to reinvent payments at the point-of-sale and delight customers.Amazon offers a world-class shopping experience, and this new service gives users a fully reusable payment-by-instalments option, which they can use to spread the cost of purchases over a longer period.”