Aussies ditching credit cards to travel without debt
- Written by Tess Sanders Lazarus
According to ASIC, Australians owe a whopping $45 billion on their credit cards. In June 2017, there were almost 550,000 people in arrears, an extra 930,000 with persistent debt and a further 435,000 people repeatedly repaying small amounts.
Aussies are well known around the globe for their adventurous personalities and love for travel. The Skyscanner Australia Travel Trends 2018 report found that travel was on the rise for Aussies this year, with a 30% increase in bookings.
While many people have previously turned to their credit card or bank for finance products to fund holidays, community anger in response to the banking royal commission has seen many opt for alternative means of funding. This combined with PayLater Travel’s growing body of supporters, has resulted in the Aussie owned lay-by travel service experiencing unprecedented growth.
“The banking royal commission has exposed some serious issues with traditional financing options,” CEO of PayLater Travel, Farouk Ismail said today.
“People were shocked and disappointed by the stories that came out of the royal commission and looked for other ways to fund their holidays.
“We offer an interest free lay-by travel service which means that people can book in advance and pay for their travel in instalments before they depart and never have to deal with a bank.
“The feedback from consumers has been overwhelmingly positive.”
PayLater Travel was established in 2018 by Farouk Ismail and Yannick Darma. Both have a finance background. The business offers a platform which enables users to book travel in advance securing cheaper fares and then pay for it in instalments prior to travel. Users benefit from securing cheaper flights in advance and then receive the tickets once the travel is paid for. Lay-by payments can be made weekly, fortnightly or monthly and the full amount has to be paid for four weeks prior to travel.
“Most of our clients are students, young professionals and families wanting to visit relatives in other countries or take the family on a vacation,” Farouk added.
“The benefit of our service is that it is not a loan, it is simply a lay-by system for travel. It doesn’t involve credit checks, create a debt or affect your credit score.
“Our customers simply pay a small upfront deposit to confirm their travel and the rest is then paid for in regular instalments, and there is no interest.
“Many people can’t afford to pay for their travel upfront. By enabling people to pay in installments, they can keep their money in the bank for emergency or other investment purposes.
“We created PayLater Travel to help as many people as possible to enjoy the wonders of travel. No one wants to return home with huge travel debts. Our system helps people to pay it off before they go without interest and reap the rewards.
“Often market disruption comes out of an industry crisis. In our case, the royal commission has encouraged people to look at alternative ways to fund a holiday and we offer the perfect solution.”
PayLater Travel will be implementing new platform functionality in 2019 to augment the range of services and features available to customers and to provide travel agents with the ability to offer customers lay-by travel arrangements also.
