Accepting FLOA Pay as a merchant

You can contract FLOA directly, as a FLOA Pay merchant, and connect it through its API, or take it through a PSP that carries it. The routes differ in who holds the commercial terms. Computop asks for your own FLOA Pay merchant account and the credentials from the FLOA back end, so the rate is agreed between you and FLOA. Pay. activates FLOA in its own admin panel, and PayPal prints FLOA Pay in its fee tables, so there the price is the PSP's.

That makes the first question a structural one. With your own FLOA account you negotiate with the credit provider. Through a PSP that resells it, you negotiate with the PSP, at a list price that already contains FLOA's share.

FLOA states that one instalment solution covers France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Portugal. It sets basket ranges per product: 50 to 6,000 euro for three and four instalments, 200 to 75,000 euro for 10 to 48 instalments, and 30 to 1,000 euro for payment 30 days later. FLOA states that it has more than 4 million customers.

In store the shopper pays in instalments on the spot, according to FLOA. The French terms reserve the three month plans for adults resident in France with a Visa or Mastercard in their own name, so eligibility is set per country by FLOA's own terms, not by your checkout.

FLOA's terms run each short plan in two versions: with negligible fees charged to the shopper, or without fees at an APR of 0%. PayPal's two rates show what the second version costs the merchant. Take 3 million euro of FLOA volume in France at an average order of 300 euro, so 10,000 orders a year. At 5.49% plus 0.35 euro they cost 168,200 euro, at 6.50% plus 0.35 euro they cost 198,500 euro.

The difference of 30,300 euro a year is the price of offering the plan without fees. At an illustrative gross margin of 30%, the version without fees has to bring in 101,000 euro of extra turnover, about 337 additional orders of 300 euro, before it pays for itself. Below that it is a discount given at checkout, and it should be set per product and per basket, not once for the whole range.

FLOA sells three and four instalments, 10 to 48 monthly instalments and payment 30 days later. A PSP does not necessarily carry all of them. Pay. documents three or four instalments and payment within 30 days. Computop's developer documentation lists 3X, 4X, 1XD and 3XD, the last two being deferred plans. BNP Paribas's own Axepta documentation states that only Floa 3X and Floa 4X are available. None of the three names the 10 to 48 month credit there.

A merchant with high baskets who wants the 10 to 48 month credit at checkout needs a route that carries it, and the PSP with the lowest printed rate may be the one without it. Check the product list per route before comparing rates, because a rate for three instalments says nothing about the long credit.

What you pay for FLOA Pay is set in your agreement, not by a scheme. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, and if FLOA Pay carries a material share of your French or Belgian volume, set the cost of the version without fees against the orders it brings before you renew.

Relevant markets: France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal