Online payments

Overview

Instalments allow consumers to pay for a purchase in parts. An instalment typically covers one purchase/order and multiple payments over time.

Instalments differ from a recurring payment because in recurring payments it is not a single purchase, but an ongoing service like bills or subscriptions. In an instalment transaction, a single transaction is sent to the issuer, which in turn splits the total amount into several monthly payments.

Instalment Types

There are two instalment types: issuer-funded (credit instalments) and merchant-funded (regular instalments).

Issuer-funded (credit instalments)

• The bank issuing the card to the consumer offers the instalments to the consumer
• The bank charges the consumer's account in the agreed number of instalments and charges an interest
• The merchant receives the total purchase amount at once
• The issuer takes the risk

Merchant-funded

• The merchant and consumer agree on the number of instalments, free of interest fees
• The bank charges the consumer's account according to the instalment plan between the consumer and merchant
• Merchants receive payments as the bank charges the consumer's account
• The merchant takes the risk

Use cases 

Credit Instalment

You can offer consumers a credit instalment plan with a selection of the number of instalments, subject to the ABS terminal's issuer parameters.

• The customer will provide the number of instalments
• This instalment type carries interest fees
• The payment terms (period, fees, etc.) are between the cardholder and the issuer (Verifone is not part of it)
• Verifone does not manage the following instalments

Standard instalments 

You can offer consumers an instalment plan with a selection of the number of instalments and an option to set the first instalment amount.

• The first instalment amount and the number of payments will be decided by the merchant and consumer
• The amount of the following instalments is the quotient of the total purchase amount minus the first amount, divided by the number of remaining instalments. No interest fees are charged.
• Verifone does not need to manage the following payments

If you are using Virtual terminal and you select instalments the values selected will be visible at a second step as follows.

Set up an instalments transaction via Checkout API

Additional information can be reviewed in the Checkout API documentation located here. 

1. Configure credit_term schema based on the table. Combinations of fields that are not described in the table will be rejected.

2. Configure number_of_instalments <= configurations.card.max_number_of_instalments.

• If number_of_instalments = 1: perform transaction with credit_term=SALE
• if number_of_instalments > 1: perform transaction with credit_term=INSTALMENT_STANDARD + instalment object 

Instalment standard example:

"configurations": {
        "card": {
            "payment_contract_id": "{{ppc_contract_id_abs}}",
            "dynamic_descriptor": "SNEAKERS DELUXE",
            "cvv_required": false,
            "capture_now": false,
            "authorization_type": "PRE_AUTH",
            "shopper_interaction": "ECOMMERCE",
            "credit_term": "INSTALMENT_STANDARD",
             "instalment": {
                "max_number_of_instalments": 2,
                "down_payment_amount": 10
            }
        }
    }

Instalment credit example:

"configurations": {
        "card": {
            "payment_contract_id": "{{ppc_contract_id_abs}}",
            "dynamic_descriptor": "SNEAKERS DELUXE",
            "cvv_required": false,
            "capture_now": false,
            "authorization_type": "PRE_AUTH",
            "shopper_interaction": "TELEPHONE",
            "credit_term": "INSTALMENT_CREDIT"
        }
    }