Using Visa Instalments

Overview

The ecommpay payment platform supports the capability to process payments in instalments enabled by Visa: these are purchases that customers can repay in fixed, equal parts over a defined period of time. This capability is available for eligible Visa credit cards from participating card issuing banks that are signed up for VIS—Visa Instalments Solution.

Visa Instalments capability can be used in various business industries and comes in handy when it is more convenient for customers to pay in portions instead of a full amount. In particular, it is a useful option in tourist industry and luxury retail as it helps merchants to attract and retain new clients while building an efficient and profitable business.

Figure 1. Purchase in instalments enabled by Visa

With Visa Instalments, the customer selects the instalments plan and agrees to pay fixed payments to the issuer according to the specified schedule. Note that the full purchase amount is held against the cardholder’s available credit limit at the time of purchase—on the terms of the instalments plan defined by the issuer. After the initial purchase is processed, the customer settles directly with the issuer.

In turn, the The merchant is paid the full amount (minus any applicable fees as in the case with other types of purchases) because this amount is paid by the issuer of the card used at the time of purchase.

Merchants can monitor processing of purchases that involve using the Visa Instalments capability in their ecommpay projects via callbacks (learn more) and payment information tabs in Dashboard (learn more).

Special aspects and limitations

When working with the Visa Instalments capability, consider the following special aspects and limitations:

  • This functionality is available only for UK-based merchants.
  • Only Visa credit cards from participating card issuers based in the United Kingdom and supporting Visa Instalments Solution are eligible.
  • Customers paying for their purchases in instalments enabled by Visa must be notified that this is a type of credit with the purchase amount deducted from the existing available credit limit on the card and with the responsibility to repay the debt (according to the instalments plan selected). If the cardholder delays or misses a payment, the issuer can charge additional fees.
  • Eligibility for instalments enabled by Visa is determined in each individual case by the card issuer.
  • The functionality is supported for the 5th generation Payment Page and can be used for one-time one-step and two-step purchases, with the card details specified as is or in the form of saved data and tokens.
  • When Visa Instalments purchase has been processed in the payment platform, together with the regular fee for processing a payment the merchant is charged an additional fee payable to Visa and ecommpay. To learn more about this or any other fees, refer to your ecommpay account manager.

If you have questions about limitations, conditions, and possible availability of this functionality in other geographic regions, contact your ecommpay account manager. If you have any technical questions, refer to the ecommpay support specialists.

Processing scenario

Below is a user scenario of the basic purchase made with the Visa Instalments capability.

Figure 2. Proceeding to payment
Figure 3. Entering the card number
Figure 4. Notification about determining eligibility for Visa Instalments
Figure 5. Visa Instalments eligibility determined
Figure 6. Available instalments plans
Figure 7. Selecting an instalments plan
Figure 8. Confirming the payment
Figure 9. Payment complete

The scenario has the following steps:

  1. A customer initiates a purchase in the web service.
  2. The customer selects the payment method in the payment form and enters the card number.
  3. The customer is shown Checking instalment eligibility—a notification that their eligibility for paying in instalments is being determined (because for the project in use the Visa Instalments capability is supported).
  4. Once the eligibility has been determined, the customer is shown a corresponding notification. Then the customer enters the rest of the card details if necessary and proceeds to the next step.
  5. The customer is shown available instalments plans, together with the option to pay for the purchase in full amount at once (without splitting it into parts).
  6. The customer selects an instalments plan most fitting to their needs and proceeds to the next step. If at this step the customer requires additional information about Visa Instalments, they can use the Learn more link (clicking which opens a pop-up window with the option overview).
  7. The customer reviews the instalments plan terms and conditions and accepts them by confirming the payment.
  8. The customer is shown the preloader page and then the payment complete page.

When the payment has been processed, the information about the terms of the instalments plan is provided to the customer in the receipt (sent to the email or the phone). In addition to the data contained in a standard receipt, this receipt will contain:

  • Number of instalments
  • Total purchase amount with fees
  • Total fees amount
  • Applied annual percentage rate (APR)
  • Monthly payment amount
Figure 10. Receipt with instalments plan information

Setup

To set up the functionality of Visa Instalments:

  1. With your ecommpay account manager, discuss and agree upon the roadmap for setting up this functionality for specific projects, whether testing is necessary, and what data set about instalments plans to include in payment result callbacks.
  2. If you need, testing, get notified by the ecommpay specialists that the payment form is ready for being used in test mode, test the functionality, and inform ecommpay that everything is ready to launch.
  3. Get notified by the ecommpay specialists that the functionality has been added and fully set up.

Data format

Information about the instalments plan selected by the customer is specified in the installment_plan object that is passed in the final callback about the result of processing the Visa Instalments purchase. Including this object in the callback payload is set up with the ecommpay support specialists.

Figure 11. Example of installment_plan object
{
    "installment_plan": {
        "payment_frequency": "M",
        "payment_count": 9,
        "cost": {
            "currency": "GBP",
            "total_cost": 60000,
            "total_fee_amount": 3825,
            "regular_payment": {
                "total_amount": 7092
            },
            "first_payment": {
                "total_amount": 7092
            },
            "last_payment": {
                "total_amount": 7089
            },
            "annual_percentage_rate": 8.5
        },
        "reference": "Y38135539",
        "terms_and_conditions": {
            "text": "text_eng",
            "url": "https://www.fornaxbank.co.uk"
        }
    }
}