Opy and parent company Openpay Pty Ltd. said it inked a card acceptance agreement with American Express to offer installment payment options to participating health care and auto repair/maintenance merchants. The retailers will use Opy’s 2.0 version of buy now, pay later (BNPL) called “buy now, pay smarter (BNPS).”
“In addition, American Express will help support merchants in these industries who are interested in offering BNPS by introducing them to Opy’s team,” the company said in a statement.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The news of the partnership follows the rollout of Opy’s BNPS service in the U.S. that was unveiled in October.
Opy said its BNPS offering “is differentiated from traditional pay-in-four BNPL plans through its industry-leading, fair, transparent and fixed fee BNPS payment solution that extends up to $20,000 with plan lengths of up to 24 months.” The company said its products are now readily available in the U.S. “and are customized for a wide variety of important larger purchases connected to key life decisions over longer terms.”
Colleen Taylor, American Express president of merchant services in the U.S., said with Opy, “we are pleased to offer another payment option for customers who make and accept larger health care, auto repair and maintenance purchases” and added that American Express is “constantly striving to drive additional value to our card members and merchants.”
The companies said they also expect to “explore opportunities to collaborate on product development initiatives that would leverage Opy’s b-to-c BNPS and b-to-b trade account management platforms. This collaboration will seek to deliver a balanced merchant and customer-friendly offering.”
In the October announcement of its BNPS offerings, Opy said the context of the rollout in the U.S. comes as “U.S. demand for BNPL options continues to rise” with forecasted transactions expected to exceed $100 billion in 2021.