BillMeLater to get BilledNow by Credit Crunch?

The credit crunch that is striking at the heart of Wall Street's largest, oldest and most venerable firms also has impacts in the payments industry. Bear Sterns, an 85 year old investment bank was sold to JP Morgan for pennies on the dollar last weekend. Today, the New York Times is reporting that CIT Bank tapped its entire line of credit in order to fund its on-going operations. That line amounted to $7.3 billion in emergency credit.

CIT is a diversified financial institution including student loans and commercial lending. However, CIT is also responsible for the financing offered at Dell computers and by alternative payment processor, BillMeLater.

BillMeLater has a large cadre of internet retailers, including WalMart.com, and provides an instant line of credit to consumers in the checkout process. There has been angst about both the high rate of rejection of some customers, and the impact on your financial score the way the company pulls your credit report. Both those factors could get worse.

Consumers are being hit by hiking of credit card interest rates regardless of payment history, mortgage lenders are also increasing rates to reflect a risk premium in the housing market.



If the tightening of credit standards reduces CIT's ability to offer credit, and it has trouble selling "non-strategic" assets or finding someone to merge with, the BillMeLater experience could go downhill quickly.

Mpayy - Alternative Payments for YOU

Mpayy continues to look for new ecommerce retail partners to provide consumers with a secure alternative for secure payments directly from their checking accounts. Mpayy provides 1% Cash Back on purchase amounts over $50, and the same Chargeback protections as credit cards. Certainly, Mpayy doesn't extend credit to its Personal account-holders, but it does offer the best consumer protections for online shopping available.