No more buy now, pay later at tech stores

Electrical and electronic goods chain stores are particularly worried, not only because of the considerable drop in sales in recent years, but also due to major delays in payments from customers who have opted to pay for purchases in installments in recent months.

Certain stores have ceased offering interest-free payment programs for some months now, while others that still provide customers with the option have restricted it to a small number of commodities.

Even if some chains are keen to continue allowing for payment through interest-free installments, they are predictably under pressure from banks to stop. The phenomenon has grown significantly since the summer, following the introduction of capital controls, and is continuing apace.

A market research survey in the sector points to a reduction in products that consumers can pay for via interest-free buy-now-pay-later programs, regardless of the number of installments, while cards issued by certain credit institutions are not accepted at any such stores, upon the request of banks.

The latest data made available by market researchers GfK show that electronics sales in the second quarter (i.e. before the capital controls were introduced) declined by 10.5 percent from the same period in 2014.