Float, a card-linked installment platform, has launched in the UK, allowing merchants to offer customers interest and fee-free installment options using existing Visa and Mastercard credit cards without issuing new credit.
The launch introduces a different approach to installment payments, with Float enabling shoppers to split purchases into up to 12 monthly installments while staying within their existing credit card limit. The company’s technology is designed to remove the need for new credit applications, additional sign-ups or separate payment products at checkout.
With the platform already used across more than 2,000 stores globally, including at Samsung, Trek, Reebok, The North Face and Diesel, it has now expanded into the UK as its first step towards wider international growth. The card-linked model works across Visa and Mastercard credit cards, allowing customers to select installment payments at checkout while retaining existing card benefits, including rewards and protections.
Float’s card-linked instalment model differs from BNPL by allowing shoppers to split payments using their existing Visa or Mastercard credit card, without creating new credit. The platform targets high-value sectors including electronics, furniture, automotive, luxury fashion and healthcare, with Float reporting a 134% increase in average order value across its merchant base.
The UK launch aims to help merchants offer more flexible payments while giving consumers more time to manage existing credit without taking on additional borrowing.
Float founder and CEO Alex Forsyth-Thompson said, “Nearly every merchant we speak to in the UK is keen to solve the same equations – getting bigger baskets without discounting or offering shoppers new loans and getting more conversions without more friction. Not only does Float answer these challenges but merchants can also be confident they are offering a benefit to their shoppers – better payment terms without the need to take on new credit. We have witnessed first-hand how merchants offering credit card-linked installments using Float’s technology are winning shoppers’ spend.”
He added, “Instead of a trade-off between paying down their credit card balance, taking out new credit or point-of-sale finance, or abandoning the purchase entirely, with Float, merchants can now offer their shoppers an alternative. Our tech allows merchants to give shoppers more time with the credit they already have on their existing bank-issued credit cards. That drives more value for merchants and supports responsible credit usage for banks. That’s the first step in our mission to redefine the way the world pays with credit.”
Float CEO Alex Forsyth-Thompson also commented, “Our technology allows merchants to give shoppers more time with the credit they already have on their existing bank-issued credit cards.”
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