Another buy now, pay later provider will end services in Australia

Another buy now, pay later provider is ending its operations in Australia, citing uncertainty over government regulations.

Buy now, pay later lender LatitudePay is pulling out of Australia.

The financial services company announced on Friday it would no longer be available in Australia from April 11 this year.

Major retailers such as JB Hi-Fi, Kogan and The Good Guys use LatitudePay as a payment option, allowing customers to spread a purchase over 10 weekly interest-free payments.

“Your account will be accessible until your plan is fully paid and then we will close the account for you,” LatitudePay said on its website.

Existing customers can still make purchases before April 11 and payment plans will continue as scheduled until the balance is paid in full.

Generic Latitude pay image

“Thank you for being a customer, we’ve loved helping you shop for life’s moments big and small, but we had to make the difficult decision to stop offering this service,” the company said on its site.

The company said that more than 500,000 customers used the service and would be impacted by the closure.

It said the decision was made because of the uncertainty around the sector.

“We have decided to stop offering LatitudePay services in Australia as a consequence of the uncertainty surrounding the future regulatory environment for the BNPL (by now, pay later) sector,” it said.

Latitude Pay signage

It advised merchants at more than 5,000 retailers across Australia that it should remove its service from advertising.

“Existing customers can continue to use our products. New customer applications will no longer be accepted from 28 February 2023. We suggest you remove any advertising as soon as possible,” it said in advice to merchants.

“Customers still need to continue to pay. If they don’t, they will incur late fees and their credit file may be impacted.”

The company made the announcement just weeks after fellow buy now, pay later service Openpay announced it would be closing.

Openpay went into receivership after a disastrous three months saw it land $18.2 million in the red.

Customers with Openpay will no longer be able to use the platform for new purchases but will still need to pay outstanding balances.