Citizens unveils Citizens Pay, a buy-now, pay-later virtual line of credit offering

By Pavithra R

Citizens has announced the further expansion of its national point-of-sale (POS) offering for merchants, renamed as Citizens Pay, to reflect its proven and straightforward approach in providing businesses with budget-friendly payment options for customers looking forward to a more transparent and predictable way to finance purchases.

POS lending is converging rapidly, and retailers must adapt quickly to meet consumers’ evolving demands and improve customer loyalty. Citizens Pay is a simple and affordable, buy-now-pay-later solutions that can be customized to meet the needs of the business, and customers. It provides consumers with a better way to finance their big purchases with easy-to-understand, low fixed monthly payments through a virtual line of credit that can be used for repeat purchases without a new credit application or managing multiple loans.

Retailers can benefit from immediate sales and average order value increases by taking advantage of the platform’s best-in-class digital and in-store customer experiences, combined with comprehensive product and financing options for consumers across the credit spectrum. Citizens Pay is easy for merchants to integrate and available to launch in a matter of days while being scalable for the largest and most complex merchants.

“Our platform has demonstrated the ability to drive impressive sales growth with a best-in-class customer experience. Citizens Pay helps merchants boost sales and increase consumer loyalty by enabling their customers to make repeat purchases and upgrades in a financially responsible way,” said Andrew Rostami, president of Citizens Pay. 

Citizens Pay also offers manufacturers the ability to embed financing into their products as a “Product as a Service”, offered through multiple retailers. This state-of-the-art capability was launched initially by Citizens in partnership with Microsoft to sell Xbox All Access using integrated Citizens financing at retailers such as WalMart, Target, Best Buy, and GameStop.

Citizens Pay features:

• Omni-channel solution allowing for flawless, repeat purchases without additional credit checks
• Simple, digital application with just a few pieces of customer information necessary
• Flexible APR and term lengths to meet your specific goals and objectives
• Cover a full spectrum of purchase sizes to offer the lowest monthly payments

Besides existing partnerships with major consumer electronics brands and retailers, Citizens is focused on further expanding into other retail verticals. Citizens Pay has expanded to:

• Retailers in health and fitness, including Horizon Fitness, a subsidiary of Johnson Health Tech, Echelon Fitness, and FitNation, an Echelon subsidiary.
• Home improvement contractors, in a partnership with Arlington Financial.
• Educational products and services with Wiley Efficient Learning, a company offering exam preparation products across 9 disciplines including accounting, finance, and general business.

“The point-of-sale lending space is a high-growth area and attracts customers that exhibit strong credit performance. We have invested consistently over time to deliver a state-of-the-art payment model and look forward to further accelerating its adoption with Citizens Pay,” added Rostami.

Established in 1828, Citizens Financial Group is among the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $179.2 bn in assets as of Sept. 30, 2020. The bank is a leader in POS financing, and since the inception of this program over $6.4 bn in loans have originated, and the company has served more than 5 mn accounts.