Latitude Pay Launches With Harvey Norman

After announcing it would seek to raise capital in order to pay out more in dividends, Harvey Norman will soon give the ability to make similarly questionable financial decisions to its customers.

Harvey Norman stores will soon offer Latitude Financial’s buy-now-pay-later platform after the company was announced as a launch partner for Latitude Pay.

Latitude Financial, formerly GE Money and now headed up by former Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour, already backs Harvey Norman and rival retailer JB Hi-Fi to offer interest free repayment plans.

The new Latitude Pay platform will join an increasingly crowded market led by Afterpay, Zip and Humm to offer deferred payments.

Commonwealth Bank will soon enter the market with Swedish fintech Klarna.

Latitude Pay will have a spending limit of $1,000, which is paid back in 10 installments.

Users have to link a credit or debit card to their account, which will automatically be charged weekly.

If users miss a payment they incur a $10 late payment fee.

Shoppers are able to change the day the payment is charged and will also receive an email reminder that the debit will occur to make sure they have funds available.

Buy-now-pay-later services have been identified as a key way to attract younger shoppers who have largely shunned credit cards due to high interest rates, however the “interest free” payment plans can end up costing more than the interest on a credit card through backdoors like account fees and late payment penalties.

While it seeks to chase younger shoppers, Harvey Norman is also facing social media backlash over its continuing support of under fire Sydney shock jock Alan Jones.

Recent comments to the Australian from Gerry Harvey that retailers like Myer and David Jones are seeing their profits fall because they’re too focused on gender diversity also haven’t helped.

But the company’s stance on supporting the controversial broadcaster in the face of increasingly frequent advertising boycott campaigns appears to have hardened from several years ago.