Immensely popular in Latin America. Interest-free for the buyer and are collected month-by-month or anticipated by the merchant.
Known as parcelas in Brazil, cuotas in Argentina, meses sin interés in Mexico, this is the most popular payment method in the region.
In Brazil, they accounted for 80% of USD14.4 billion ecommerce payments.
The merchant can anticipate the payment of the full amount but this generates a fee which is charged by the acquirer, depending on amount and volume.
A practical example:
the average laptop computer in Brazil costs around USD 580
that is almost 3x the minimum wage salary (~USD 200/month)
40% of the working population earns less than the minimum wage
Yet over 77% of Brazilian households own a laptop computer
How is that possible? You guessed it, installments.