Customer Experience Workflows

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The below guidance is for merchants on Bread's Classic platform.
For merchants on Bread's 2.0. platform, please refer to our 2.0. documentation HERE.

Applying For Installments

The customer enters a few pieces of personal information into the Bread modal:

• first name
• last name
• email address
• mobile phone number

Bread sends a four-digit token to the mobile phone number provided for identity verification purposes. The customer submits this token into the modal.

The customer is then asked to supply their:

• address
• date of birth
• the last four digits of their social security number

The customer then receives their application outcome with Bread in seconds.

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Compliance Consideration: Customers Fill Out Their Own Applications

As Bread does not require a physical signature, each applicant must input their own information and check the disclosure boxes agreeing to the terms.

Frontline teams must never fill out the customer’s application on their behalf. Additionally, using a family member, spouse, or friend’s information to apply for credit is strictly prohibited and could have legal consequences for the customer. For more information, please review our mandatory policies and procedures under "Account Settings" in your merchant portal.

Installments Application Outcomes

After a customer applies for Bread’s installment loan product, there are four possible outcomes:

Outcome 1: APPROVED

Great News! The customer is presented with their pre-approval amount and loan terms with corresponding APRs. The customer selects the option they would like to move forward with at checkout.

You should let the customer choose their payment terms based on their preference. It is important for legal reasons that frontline team members not influence or have discretion over this decision.

Approved customers will retain their status, rates, and loan capacity with Bread for seven days before they need to apply again.

Outcome 2: CREDIT DENIED

Bread is a prime lender, and thus not every customer will pre-qualify for financing.

Your tasks:

• Do not make assumptions as to why the customer was denied
• Remove the stigma of denial. Consider offering incentives to convert the customer

There is never an instance where Bread can manually override credit decisions.

Customers who do not pre-qualify for credit reasons will receive an adverse action notice to the email used in their application, specifying the reasons for the decline decision. The customer can re-apply 90 days from their original application date.

Outcome 3: INELIGIBLE

Ineligible customers are notified that Bread cannot offer them financing within the Bread modal.

Bread’s installment loan product has certain age requirements. Due to strict consumer financing laws in certain states, Bread’s installment loan product is not available to customers who reside in Idaho, Iowa, or West Virginia.

Outcome 4: "PLEASE CONTACT US"

Customers may be asked to call Bread member support so that Bread can perform a manual identity check to ensure that their information is protected and secure.

Frontline team members cannot expedite this review.

Down Payment

In some cases, Bread will only approve the customer for part of the purchase price or cart value. In order to complete the purchase, Bread invites the customer to pay the remaining portion (up to a certain limit) on their credit card (provided the merchant has this feature enabled). This feature is called “Down Payment”.

Installments Payment Logistics

Upon checking out with Installments, the customer will receive an email to set up their Bread account and review their payment schedule and instructions on how they can make payments. The customer will also have the opportunity to enroll in Autopay.

The customer’s first installment loan payment is due 30 days after order settlement.

Customers can make payments towards their Installments loan via bank account, debit card, money order, or check. There are no prepayment penalties with Bread.

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Order Management Details

You can read more about merchant order management, including refunds and payment capture in the "Manage Bread Transactions" section above.

Applying for and Checking out with SplitPay

SplitPay is a payment product from Bread that enables merchants to offer shoppers the ability to instantly split purchases between $50 to $1,000 into four easy payments, paid every two weeks on a debit or credit card. Merchants can offer SplitPay at different points in the customer journey.

SplitPay is always 0% APR. Checking out with SplitPay won’t impact your customer’s credit score

SplitPay checkout requires that the customer provide:

• a name
• email
• debit/credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) with at least enough capacity to support the first and second payments of their order, determined by putting temporary holds on the card

The customer makes a payment of 25% of the purchase price upfront, and the remainder is paid in 25% increments, every two weeks.

After checking out, the customer receives an email providing Bread account access to review their payment schedule.

SplitPay is available to customers in all U.S. states except for California.