Installment Transaction Service

Offer flexible payment options to consumers at checkout.

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Getting Started.

What is Visa Installment Solutions?

Installment payments (installments) refers to the option of paying for purchases over time, where the purchase amount is divided into smaller equal payments over a defined time period. 

The following example shows how installment payments work for a big ticket purchase of $900 paid over 6 months with 0% APR. 

Visa Installment Solutions integrates with REST APIs or SFTP batch files via Visa Developer Center (“VDC”). On VDC, Merchants and Acquirers can access Visa Installment Solutions’ APIs and features via "Installment Transaction Service."

Installment Transaction Services enable merchants to offer installment plans (issuer-defined) to consumers at the point of sale, online or in-store, helping drive a potential increase in sales and volume. Installment Transaction Services offer consumers the flexibility to pay for the things they want now, or over time, driving customer acquisition, loyalty, and retention. These plans are for eligible Visa cardholders and require the participation of Issuers, Acquirers and Merchants.

Availability

North America Asia-Pacific Europe CEMEA LAC Notes
    KEY
  • Available in entire region
  • Not available
  • See notes for available countries

How does it work?

This diagram shows a sample installment transaction flow during-purchase for a credit card purchase.

 

Installment credit-card transaction flow

 

The transaction flow is as follows:

  1. Merchant Participants (1a or 1b or 1c) sign up for Visa Installment Solutions. Visa representative registers and onboards  on the participants’ behalf, providing them access to Visa Developer Center (VDC), where they can log in, manage their profile and credentials, and create users. Merchants upgrade their checkout flow and necessary processes to incorporate installments offers and plans.
  2. For Card-On-File use case, batch eligibility check can be performed before the shopping journey. Merchant checks if an individual cardholder is (or a set of cardholders are) enabled for Installments using the Matched Candidates API (Batch)
  3. Consumer starts the checkout process at the point of sale. Merchant retrieves Installment Plans available to the Eligible Cardholder using the Eligible Installment Plans API.
  4. Visa looks through eligible installment plans in the repository. 
  5. Eligible plans are returned to the merchant and displayed to the cardholder.
  6. Cardholder selects an installment plan and agrees to the Terms & Conditions.
  7. Business As Usual: Authorization of purchase, for full amount of transaction, using ISO.
  8. Merchant uses the Plan Selection API to send the selected installment plan to Visa.
  9. Visa validates and stores the selected installment plan.
  10. Issuer gets a list of confirmed installment plans from Visa and finds the matching transaction in clearing file based on different filters like date/time, PAN, and Transaction ID.
  11. Business As Usual: Clearing & Settlement process, for the full amount of the transaction, using ISO.
  12. Visa-facilitated scheduling (optional) – Visa credits the original transaction and posts the installment amount monthly through scheduling service.
  13. Client-to-client fee settlement (mandatory) – Visa facilitates fee settlement between the Issuer and the Acquirer (on behalf of the Seller).

 

Sample Use Case for E-Commerce Purchase

Shop at participating merchant

Select an installment plan

Review payment schedule and accept terms & conditions

View installment transaction on monthly statement

*Issuer is solely responsible for updating their mobile banking app for installment solutions.