Commonwealth Bank of Australia has today launched StepPay, its new buy now pay later offering, which is available to up to 4 million CBA customers.
CBA's Executive General Manager, Marcos Meneguzzi said: "We're excited to create the first BNPL from a major bank which can be used anywhere our cards are accepted. We know BNPL is a popular choice among customers, but is hampered by its limited use and availability in only selected retailers and businesses. With StepPay, customers have freedom around where they'd like to shop, offering the same accessibility as our other CBA cards. "
CommBank customers are able to download and start using StepPay from today - which should take most customers less than five minutes to do. As CommBank's first cardless payments offering, eligible customers can start using it as soon as they have activated it online.
Over 86,000 customers have already pre-registered for StepPay showing the appeal of a bank offered BNPL.
This reflects recent research[1] which shows 76 per cent of Australians who currently use BNPL are interested in using a BNPL service offered by their main bank.
Available to eligible CBA customers, StepPay links to an eligible CBA bank account, with no ongoing fees[2] and at no additional cost to businesses[3].
"StepPay is a win particularly for smaller businesses who may be charged a high fee in order to offer BNPL to customers. With no additional merchant costs or integration costs, StepPay levels the playing field and allows businesses to better compete," Mr Meneguzzi said.
StepPay applies robust criteria to approve customers based on specific eligibility and credit assessments.
"Creating a responsible BNPL is at the forefront of StepPay's design. And while we expect it will have great appeal among customers, it will only be available to eligible customers so we can offer the most responsible option we can," Mr Meneguzzi said.
Eligible customers must show evidence of regular income or deposits into a CBA transaction account to cover repayment instalments and is subject to internal and external credit assessments.
StepPay's features include:
- Can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted
- Initial limit of up to $1,000
- Use for everyday spend for transactions less than $100
- Four easy, fortnightly instalments for transactions higher than $100
- A new card issued to customers' digital wallet on their mobile, so no need for a physical card
- No ongoing fees[4]
- No foreign exchange fees
- Late fees of $10 per missed instalment repayment. And caps are in place to minimise the amount of additional fees charged
- No additional merchant fees above standard merchant service fees
- Does not provide access to cash advances or gambling
- Is not available to customers in arrears or hardship
