Pay rent, income tax with credit cards via start-ups
Two fintech start-ups here want to sweeten paying big-ticket expenses such as rent and income tax by allowing customers to use credit cards and rack up perks including airline miles.
CardUp and iPaymy Technologies allow consumers and businesses to use credit cards to pay recipients who do not accept them.
The customer pays by credit card to either start-up, which transfers the money to the intended recipient, and customers are charged a transaction fee of 2.6 per cent for the service.
CardUp founder and chief executive Nicki Ramsay said Singapore's high credit card penetration and savviness for scoring bargains make it an ideal market for CardUp, which has handled 26 million transactions since its launch in October last year.
"What we are doing is extending that benefit to all their spending," she said.
Singaporeans had four credit cards on average last year, a survey by personal finance portal MoneySmart.sg shows.
While CardUp has focused mostly on consumers paying bills, Ms Ramsay said it plans to court small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs comprise 90 per cent of iPaymy's transactions, said Mr Ethan Dobson, its chief executive and founder.
"We are focused on providing working capital to businesses who cannot get it otherwise," he added.
Formed in October 2015, iPaymy now serves about 300 SMEs, including restaurant chain Saybons.
Saybons' director of sales and marketing Ian Choo said the productivity savings from digitalising its transactions are worth the transaction fees.
Mr Aaron Wong, founder of the Milelion blog that tracks credit card rewards, said some cards have adjusted their policies to exclude CardUp and iPaymy transactions from earning rewards.
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