As we’ve reported before, a massive change has already arrived in the form of digital payment solutions and personalized banking, such as E-Complish Text2Pay and Apple Pay. These systems have been created to both make point-of-sale transactions more simple, in the case of Apple Pay, and to make reoccurring billing more convenient, in the case of E-Complish Text2Pay. But what about personal banking, including private loans? In order for the payment landscape to undergo a fully-digital revolution, the financial institutions behind payment processing must follow suit, and according to a recently-launched payment infrastructure, that change is happening now.
Affirm and Digital Personalized Banking
The underlying idea behind the release of payment systems like E-Complish’s MobilePay and Text2Pay is that a new generation of technology-savvy customers is ready to go fully digital, motivated by the convenience and security of these platforms. That idea now extends to personal loans. Affirm, a new company spearheaded by PayPal creator Max Levchin understands the dangers credit card companies and traditional bank loans pose to this new generation of consumer. According to Levchin, customers now know that they need to use credit in order to build their credit score, but also know that every purchase brings them further into debt, often with a high APR.
Instead of simply looking at your credit score, making a decision, and either paying out the loan or passing in a few weeks’ time, Affirm looks at 40,000 different variables to determine the likelihood a consumer will pay their balance and funds the loan immediately. This is done in real time though an app available on iOS and Android. Here’s an example: let’s say you want to purchase a new mattress, but don’t want to use a credit card. By purchasing from an Affirm partner, you may borrow the money immediately and make monthly payments that are structured specifically for you. If you think this sounds exactly like a credit card, you’re not wrong. The difference is that there is no fine print, no hidden fees, and all repayment and APR information is crystal clear. This is a payment system designed from the ground up for mobile-ready consumers looking to not only save money, but consumers who require absolute transparency and have shown hesitance toward signing on with big banks.
In order for any payment system to function after this personal banking revolution, it must be simple, convenient, and digital.
How Does This Affect Your Business?
According to Time, Millennials are ditching plastic cards in droves. The results of a recent study speak for themselves: 6 out of 10 Millennials have never opened a credit card, a number that has doubled in size since the economic collapse of 2007. Evidently, they’d rather scrimp on their purchases than get snagged on fine-print fees or mired in debt. “Which is wrong,” Levchin says. “If you are living hand to mouth every month you’re not going to improve your standard of living and you’re not going to scale up.”
The truth is that as digital payment solutions proliferate, any business that refuses to adapt will be left behind. Steven Price, CEO of E-Complish, has seen this trend coming since the foundation of the company, and so E-Complish’s payment solutions have been built to adapt to an ever-changing payment landscape. Services like E-Complish Text2Pay and MobilePay were designed with businesses in mind, and are adaptable for companies of all sizes as well as local governments. These Millennials can’t simply choose not to participate in the financial market, and so look for solutions that are secure and convenient.
That’s where E-Complish DevConnect comes in. No matter what platform your business is currently using, DevConnect makes it easy for developers to integrate their legacy systems with E-Complish’s ACH and credit card back end processors using a single API, so businesses can collect payment information through their existing system and seamlessly submit it to E-Complish’s suite of tools for instant authorization.
Regardless of your business model, the future of the payment industry has arrived. Don’t let your business become irrelevant. Take a look at all the solutions E-Complish offers.