[imagesource: freepik]

Unless you’re sitting on more cash than you know what to do with, you’ve probably found yourself in a situation where you needed (or wanted) something that your bank balance just didn’t agree with.

There are also those points in the year when expenses seem to accumulate, like when everyone you know was somehow born over the course of the same three consecutive months and the birthday present overload has you eating two-minute noodles for weeks to balance things out.

When in these situations, buying something on lay-by might seem like a good idea, but you’re going to have to plan well in advance if you want to make that happen.

A lay-by allows you to purchase an item using a deposit, which the store then holds onto until you have paid it off in full. Once the payments are complete you can collect your goods.

This purchasing option has been popular in South Africa for years, but alternatives that have popped up recently are giving these sorts of payment methods a run for their money (pun intended, not sorry).

One, in particular, caught the attention of CapeTalk’s Bruce Whitfield, who sat down with PayJustNow CEO Craig Newborn.

Some background on PayJustNow, before we dive into that interview.

PayJustNow is a ‘buy now, pay later’ payment option that allows you to shop, split your payment into three interest-free instalments, and still get your goods as if you’d paid in full.

Instant gratification and preserving your cash flow. As consumer journalist Wendy Knowler describes it:

“You see that pair of shoes for R1 200.”

“You pay R400, you take the shoes, and then next month and the month after that you pay R400.”

So, while you maybe can’t afford to fork out the full amount in one go, those three instalments are a great deal more manageable.

Newborn told Whitfield that they came up with the idea over a braai. They wanted to create something that was interest-free with zero hidden fees, which is why PayJustNow makes all of its revenue from the merchants rather than the consumers.

“The consumer must pay nothing more – that was the starting point… We approached merchants… We make all our money from them…

The reviews we’re getting are unbelievable! … The consumers pay us back… We absolutely love the South African customer!”

You can listen to that full interview with Newborn below:

As an added bonus, and to say thanks, PayJustNow is also running a giveaway until the end of February.

Every day, every 30th customer to make a purchase using PayJustNow will get back the full value of their purchase, meaning there could be multiple daily winners.

You can also tell that, unlike other credit payment services, the consumer is central to the company’s way of doing things.

Signing up is free and takes no more than a few minutes to complete, which means more time to check out what’s on offer over at their online mall:

[source:capetalk]