Travel purchases can get expensive, especially when packaging hotel stays with flights. After the pandemic took a massive toll on the travel industry, hospitality and air travel prices have risen significantly. To ensure that consumers can still afford their vacations, travel companies have started looking for financing partners to increase their customers’ buying power.

Uplift has emerged as a common go-to for businesses looking to partner with a fintech company to offer travel financing. They offer the Uplift buy now, pay later (BNPL) service solely for travel purchases, with a software platform that integrates with their partner websites so that consumers can apply without leaving the site. Uplift isn’t the only provider in the space, and businesses are always looking for the best possible partner.

To help travel providers make the right decision, we are going to cover the following:

• The pros and cons of the Uplift buy now, pay later plan
• Alternative fintech providers to consider
• How to get started

Uplift Buy Now, Pay Later Pros and Cons

Uplift provides a convenient service that many businesses take advantage of, but as with any other service, there are pros and cons to theirs. After combing through Uplift buy now, pay later reviews and the offerings on their website, we have discovered the following:

Pros

✔ Clean, user-friendly interface

✔ Flexible payment schedules up to 2 years

✔ No late fees

Cons

✘ Long customer service response times

✘ Hard to get a live agent on the phone

✘ Unexpected identity verification failures

From what we saw, Uplift is a quality financing provider in the sense that its platform is simple to use and disperses funds quickly. They also offer very flexible payment terms of up to 2 years, and their lack of late fees creates peace of mind for many of their customers.

Where they fall short is customer service. Many reviews discuss how difficult it is to speak to a live agent, with their automated system keeping people stuck in a loop without getting the assistance they need. When they do get on the line for a live agent, hold times are reported to be quite long.

One of the most cited reasons for this is their identity verification process. It seems that many consumers end up being declined due to failure to verify their identity, even if they had already acquired financing through Uplift and were using the same account.

Alternative Fintech Providers to Consider

While Uplift's buy now, pay later offerings are convenient enough, the customer service experience is vital to creating lasting relationships with consumers. In fact, 93% of consumers will likely make repeat purchases with a business that offers a quality customer service experience. On the other hand, 80% of customers say they’d rather do business with a competitor after one bad experience.

As a result, finding a fintech partner that focuses on taking care of customers before, during, and after the sale can work wonders for businesses. Here are a few other fintech providers that have a better reputation when it comes to customer service while still offering the same (or better) financing options:

• PayPal
• Affirm
• Skeps

For PayPal and Affirm, we are largely going off their reviews to inform us of their customer service processes. With our own Skeps BNPL offerings, we can guarantee a dedication to a quality customer experience that will incentivize consumers to keep coming back.

Experience Cutting-Edge Travel Financing With Skeps

Skeps offers the only true end-to-end consumer financing platform that can be used for any purchase. Consumers in the travel industry will love our convenient one-click financing applications, and we partner with banks to offer the following features to ensure that consumers can get the financing they need without the obstacles that they don’t:

• Low-to-no interest financing for any purchase.
• Soft credit checks that don’t affect credit.
• APR ranges displayed during the application process.
• Multiple financing options including BNPL, credit cards, loans, and more.
• Quality customer service with quick, thorough responses.

If you’re looking to partner with a forward-thinking fintech company that will keep consumers' eyes on the purchase while offering best-in-class financing, Skeps is the perfect fit.