VISA Installment Credit (6/19/97)

SUMMARY:

VISA Desjardins of Montreal launched a new POS financing service yesterday which offers cardholders both a deferred payment financing plan and an equal installment financing plan in addition to VISA credit card services. The new service, 'Desjardins accord D FINANCING' provides cardholders with all the options via one card, one monthly statement and one monthly payment. Desjardins says non-cardholders can apply for the VISA program at the POS and be approved within 15 minutes.

FULL STORY:

VISA Desjardins launches a new point-of-sale financing service associated with its VISA credit card, Desjardins accord D F I N A N C I N G . VISA Desjardins is the first North American credit card franchisee to offer this new service associated with its credit card to consumers and to merchants with a point-of-sale terminal. Desjardins accord D F I N A N C I N G will create some sixty jobs.

Desjardins accord D F I N A N C I N G aims at making it easier to purchase durable goods costing less than $5,000, such as furniture, household appliances, electronics and computers. The financing terms proposed to consumers are the following :

-     Deferred payment financing plan (buy now, pay later).  The full cost of the purchase is
      deferred according to the terms offered in the merchant's plan, for instance a full year.  These
      are purchases for which no credit charges, nor installments, are required by the merchant during
      the exemption of payment period.

-     Equal installment financing plan.  With this type of financing, the full cost of the purchase
      is divided into equal reimbursement according to the merchant's plan, for example 6 months. 
      The purchase is settled in a number of installments, with or without credit charges.
This new service aims at helping VISA Desjardins credit card holders better manage their personal finances. All VISA Desjardins credit card holders will be entitled to a Desjardins accord D F I N A N C I N G credit limit, to be used at participating merchants. Thus, there will only be one card, one statement of account and one monthly payment.

In addition, for all VISA Desjardins credit card holders, purchase authorization is done by terminal, at the point-of-sale, and in no more time than would be the case for a regular credit card transaction. For those clients who are not VISA Desjardins card holders, authorization takes less than 15 minutes and a VISA Desjardins card is issued. Desjardins accord D F I N A N C I N G is already available at more than 350 merchants.