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For many years, the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) method of shopping has been a popular way to acquire products and services, especially when customers don’t have the cash to buy them outright, immediately.
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Zilch Buy Now Pay Later
BNPL companies allow consumers to buy the goods they want, when they want them, without having to pay all – or any – of its price straight away, making the cost of these purchases more manageable.
Likewise, Zilch allows customers to pay a fraction of the price of the products they need now, with the remaining repayments scheduled over several weeks – but with several unique perks.
Note Zilch is currently only available in the UK but is expected to expand globally in 2022.
What is Zilch?
Zilch is a virtual card that allows customers to buy the products they want or need immediately, while only having to pay 25% of the total cost straight away, with zero interest on repayments.
Unlike many other Buy Now Pay Later services, Zilch partners with more than clothing and homeware retailers – Zilch allows you to purchase flights, holiday accommodation, books, plants, beauty products and more.
Zilch works with over 5000 stores such as Amazon, eBay, Nike, H&M, Uber and Zara.
Is Zilch an app?
Zilch is both a website and an app, meaning you can access your virtual Zilch card on your desktop or through your phone, after downloading the app from the app store or from Google Play.
How does Zilch work?
Zilch users are given a virtual Zilch card, which they can access on the Zilch website or through the app. You can then select one of the Zilch compatible stores and activate the card for this store.
Then, Zilch card users purchase the products from their chosen stores through Zilch, paying 25% of the overall cost of the item up front and paying the rest in equal installments fortnightly for the following 6 weeks.
So, Zilch users pay 25% two weeks after purchase, 25% four weeks after purchase and the remaining 25% 6 weeks after purchase.
With Zilch, you pay 0% interest, despite paying the cost of the goods back in installments, as shops pay Zilch a small fee when customers use the service to shop with them. So, there’s really no downside as long as you can afford the repayments.
Zilch will notify you when your payments are due, so you don’t have to worry about keeping an eye on your repayment schedule – Zilch will let you know when you’re due to pay. What’s more, customers can snooze their repayments for a period of 4 days with no late fee, if they’re struggling to find the funds they need.
Moreover, you don’t have to adhere to the fortnightly repayment schedule if you don’t want to – if you can make repayments earlier, you can do so without incurring any additional cost.
And, if you don’t need any extra time to pay for your purchases – and you can pay for your products outright – then using Zilch and selecting the ‘pay it all now’ option at checkout allows you to get 5% cashback on your purchases. We love cashback options as they are a great way to save on purchases.
Certain Zilch users can upgrade to Zilch Anywhere, which allows consumers to shop and pay for their purchases over a period of 6 weeks at any store – even the ones that don’t currently work with Zilch.
However, at these stores you will have to pay a fee of £2.50 per transaction, and 11.5% APR is applied to the repayments.
Does Zilch check my credit?
Zilch carries out a ‘soft credit check’ when you first sign up with the service, and you’ll be given a Zilch credit score – this allows Zilch to come up with a maximum Available Spend amount suitable for your personal financial situation.
To upgrade to Zilch Anywhere, Zilch looks at more financial components, such as your payment history, how often you use Zilch, how often you pay on time and how often you pay late, since the Zilch Anywhere service functions more like a short-term loan and has stricter entry requirements.
Is Zilch safe and secure to use?
With Buy Now Pay Later services, one of the key considerations for those using the service is whether their financial details are safe.
Zilch prides itself on being as safe as using your bank card, describing itself as a ‘virtual Mastercard’ as the Zilch service is fuelled by its partnership with Mastercard.
In a more official capacity, Zilch is a PCI DSS Level 1 certified compliant service provider, meaning they are trusted to protect consumer credit card data in compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
As a part of this compliance, Zilch conducts frequent vulnerability scans and penetration tests in accordance with the PCI DSS and attests to this compliance annually, so you can be sure that your financial data stays safe.
Please spend responsibly. Credit is subject to status, 18+, UK residents only. T&Cs apply.