Splitit

Splitit lets shoppers split purchases into instalments using the credit they already have on an existing card, with no application or underwriting, plus pay-after-delivery and digital wallet instalment options for merchants.

Using the shopper's existing credit card is a fundamentally different model from the rest of this category and it removes the part shoppers dislike most. There is no new credit application, no additional account and no second lender in the relationship, because the card issuer has already extended the credit and Splitit simply holds and releases it in instalments.

No underwriting is the direct consequence and it is the strongest operational argument, since an approval step at checkout is where instalment offers lose sales, and a mechanism that cannot decline anyone who already has available credit converts at a rate the underwritten services cannot match.

The trade is that it reaches only shoppers who already hold a card with sufficient available credit, which excludes exactly the customers the rest of the category was built to serve. Splitit states its customers spend 1,100 dollars against 350 dollars elsewhere, giving three times higher average order value. Merchant rates are not published.