Acima, a $1.3 billion virtual lease-to-own FinTech company owned by Rent-A-Center, has unveiled the lease-to-own (LTO) industry’s first LTO payments card. The new Acima LeasePay™ card, which is powered exclusively by the Mastercard network, will eliminate the upfront transaction risk for retailers because Acima will purchase the goods from the retailer directly for lease to the customer.
“We’re creating a new payments category for retailers and consumers,” said Jason Hogg, Executive Vice President of Acima. “This is the first LTO payments card in the industry that provides retailers access to a significantly larger segment of consumers they couldn’t previously count as customers. With the LeasePay™ card, consumers will have access to an easy-to-use payments vehicle they can rely on to enter lease-to-own transactions with Acima.”
The LeasePay™ card unlocks a new level of shopping power for cash and credit constrained customers to lease eligible goods that improve their quality of life. Beginning later this year, consumers will be able to utilize the Acima LeasePay™ card across Acima’s suite of planned digital solutions including its mobile app, marketplace, and browser extension. Consumers can receive an instant approval for a lease transaction by applying through the mobile application and, if eligible, receive access to up to $4,000 through the Acima LeasePay™ card that can be used by the customer to complete lease transactions at participating Acima merchants for qualified goods in the United States.
“We are excited to be working with Mastercard, whose wide merchant acceptance and leading technology and solutions will ensure transactions are simple and accessible,” added Hogg. “This announcement transforms the transaction dynamic for merchants. They will be able to utilize a new transaction channel with no upfront risk and increase their revenue generation opportunities without additional spend on customer acquisition costs.”
Upon approval, customers can instantly access Acima’s LeasePay™ card by directly adding it to their mobile wallet from the Acima mobile app. This allows access to Acima’s LeasePay™ card information for lease transactions online, in app, and at the point of sale through digital wallet offerings. Acima also plans to issue a physical Acima LeasePay™ card to expand available options for customers where the virtual card cannot be used.
Acima, under the legacy brand Preferred Lease, recently released a lease-to-own web browser extension, enabling consumers to shop and lease at a wider selection of national retailers. The Acima LeasePay™ card will be integrated into this feature to further improve consumer choice and transaction speed in the LTO universe.
Acima will also work closely with Mastercard’s Innovation Lab, where product leaders from both companies will share their respective technology and payments expertise to continually refine and bring to market new tools to support the emerging needs of the underbanked and unbanked.
“The power of the Mastercard network and our longstanding commitment to providing choice in how consumers want to pay will enable Acima to deliver a new level of shopping power and a more frictionless lease-to-own transaction experience across whichever shopping channel consumers desire,” said Kush Saxena, executive vice president, U.S. Merchants and Acceptance at Mastercard. “We look forward to working closely with Acima to help provide people with more flexibility and power an inclusive economy.”
More information for merchants about the Acima LeasePay™ card can be found at www.acima.com/merchant.
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