Unicaja Banco, via Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago, of which it is an associated entity, puts at the disposal of its customers plazox, a new solution to finance purchases immediately, in an easy way and adapted to the needs of credit card holders.
This way, plazox becomes a solution to split the payment of purchases in instalments, boosted by Spanish financial institutions via Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago, allowing customers to choose how to repay the purchases they make in stores or online, immediately and without further steps or paperwork.
With this new service, Unicaja Banco expands its broad range of products and services available to its customers, especially those related to means of payments, such as different credit cards for customers to make the most usual daily payments and to finance their purchases. The service will be available initially for customers from Unicaja Banco origin network*.
Therefore, thanks to this new service, those credit card holders with this functionality activated will be able to split the payment of their purchases at any shop with the plazox service enabled.
When paying with the credit card, at a physical or virtual PoST, customers will have the option to finance the payment at 3, 6, 9 or 12 months, provided that the minimum amount of the purchase is 60 or 100 euros, depending on the activity sector2 -although it can reach up to 500 euros- and that the amount of each monthly repayment is at least 20 euros**. The conditions applied will be those that the customer has arranged with the bank, so there is no additional approval or paperwork.
The plazox service to split payments is available in most activity sectors with bank PoST (both for online and in store purchases), with the exception of purchases made at casinos, charities, massages and saunas, phone top ups, highways, transactions classified as low amount and Unattended Terminals.
Plazox is conceived to help the local business fabric to adapt to the demand of new ways of payment by their customers, helping them boost their sales, especially now after the economic consequences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago
Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago, of which Unicaja Banco is an associated entity, is the Spanish system of means of payment, participated by most financial institutions in Spain and born from the merger of the previously existing three card schemes: ServiRed, Sistema 4B and Euro 6000. Its creation is based on the convenience of having a domestic payment system, as other countries have. Its corporate mission is to facilitate electronic and digital payments to replace the use of cash, always working to offer a quality service.
As the Spanish system of means of payment, the company includes among its functions the commitment to ensure the correct operation of payment transactionality between card holders, shops, financial institutions and other payment service providers.
Moreover, Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago participates actively, together with other payment service providers, processors, shops, schemes and technology providers, in the main European forums on means of payments, thus contributing to individuals, companies and other economic agents to be able to make and receive payments in the same conditions, regardless the place in Spain where they are.
1Service to split the payment of purchases available for Mastercard and Visa credit cards for individuals and subject to the available credit limit. Credit cards where deferred payment option is the only way of payment, FIT Card and cards for legal persons are excluded.
2Shops may increase the minimum amount, prior agreement with their bank, to 500 euros. Activity sectors for both minimum amounts are:
60 euros for travel agencies, hotel, passenger transport, jewellery shops, rent-a-car, leisure and shows, phone/mail sale, retail shops and other department stores.
100 euros for department stores-groceries and supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies, drugstores and restaurants.
*Customers from Liberbank origin network are therefore initially excluded.
**Representative example of APR calculated for the above mentioned transaction, i.e., for a split purchase of 60 euros made on the first day of the month and split at 3 months with interest and calculated for a constant repayment system: NIR: 19%, APR: 20.77% repaid with two repayments of 20.63 euros and one last repayment of 20.62 euros. Total debited amount: 61.88, of which 1.88 euros are interests. Total cost of credit: 1.88 euros.
*** plazox is a brand owned by Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago, S.A.
