Online retailer Amazon is offering loans to UK customers in the form of a newly launched ‘Pay Monthly’ service.
Orders of more than £400, which can include more than one item, will be eligible for the service which could see more and more customers switching from high street shops.
Depending on the size of the order, the loan can be spread over two, three, or four year periods and Amazon will charge an interest rate of 16.9%.
No deposit is required and only products sold directly by Amazon, and not third party sellers, will be eligible.
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Amazon Pay Monthly, run by Hitachi Capital, which also runs a similar service for John Lewis, will be offered to customers on the checkout page.
Amazon has launched a raft of new services over the past year, including same-day delivery in several major cities, and Amazon Pantry, which sells groceries and household products.
The US firm has experienced a record-setting year, with 7.4 million orders placed on Black Friday (compared with 5.5 million in 2014), and 3 million new Prime customers signed up in the lead-up to Christmas.
The UK is thought to be the first country to see the launch of Amazon Pay Monthly and more information about the new service can be found here.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.