EasyBuy App is an offline consumer financial product offering flexible mobile phone installment loans, with options 3 and 6 months available, with a down payment as low as 30%. The loan obtained is therefore available for buying new phones of any brand.
EasyBuy Covers 2000 Stores, Supports All Mobile Phone Models
Easybuy mobile installment business, currently covers more than 2,000 stores in Nigeria and supports all mobile phone models, more than one million users, according to Newedge Finance Ltd, the co-owners of the phone app.
EasyBuy started operations in January 2019. To get a loan, the app requests the user’s Bank Verification Number (BVN), valid ID card and their ATM information. While EasyBuy is an app, the service has a larger offline operation.
It has partnered with some smartphone retailers to advance device loans to buyers. One of its partners is 3CHub, the prominent offline retailer with shops in Ikeja and Lekki. The retailer is one of the biggest sellers of Transsion devices (Tecno, Itel and Infinix)
3CHub Ikeja outlet is perhaps its biggest. Daily, the ground floor of the building is packed with customers. Hundreds if not thousands of people walk through its doors every day to check out the latest devices and get the price of a device for a future purchase. Located right in Computer Village, the outlet is perfect for EasyBuy.
Its team of agents, over a dozen of them, wait close to doors, yelling “EasyBuy! EasyBuy!” at every customer that walks in. It’s a crude tactic that sometimes works.
The sales agents double as phone sellers, sometimes helping the customer to find a device to buy. It’s not because they like the customer, but because they have targets to meet. Leaving the customer is a lost loan order for that agent.
“On a regular day,” says Ayomide* an EasyBuy sales agent, “around 200 people signup for loans daily.” And that’s just for the 3CHub outlet in Ikeja, according to Techcabal.
EasyBuy Buy Now Pay Later
EasyBuy’s service loan service is actually called a “buy now, pay later.” According to the FIS World Payment Report 2020, buy-now-pay-later is a “payment option that delays full payment at checkout.”
It’s a flexible payment system that’s designed to encourage consumers to buy items they want especially when they don’t have enough money to cover the full cost at that point in time.
Buy-now-pay-later is designed to encourage consumerism; and for ecommerce, it could spur customers to actually complete orders rather than abandon their carts and not checkout.
EasyBuy is not the first buy-now-pay-later service in Nigeria. In 2018, Jumia introduced Jumia Flex for Nigerian customers. “Buy now, pay small small,” that was how Flex was described in 2018. For an ecommerce service looking to boost ecommerce users in Nigeria from less than 4%, Flex was a smart play.
But the service didn’t last and has since been discontinued.
Slot, a leading phone retailer, also offers a buy-now-pay-later service. A number of other merchants offer the service too, sometimes in different forms and to particular customers like salary earners.
However, EasyBuy’s case is an interesting one. As a standalone service, its pay later feature could be extended for other use cases including online and offline commerce.
EasyBuy, another Transsion move
The service is owned by a company called Transsnet Financial Nigeria, a company that is owned by Transsion Holdings. In addition to EasyBuy, Transsnet has an interest in other financial services.
On its website, Transsnet lists PalmPay as one of its portfolio companies. It also owns PalmCredit, a digital lending platform. It owns the lender through a subsidiary called New Edge Finance, and PalmCredit confirmed this in an email.
Features Of EasyBuy Loan App
1. Mobile Phone Staging Loans Limit Range From NGN 10,000 to NGN 50,000
2. Loans Duration Ranging Between 91days to 180days
3. Loan Monthly Interest Rate: 6% to 9%, Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is 72%~108%
Example: If you choose a 6-month loan and borrow NGN50,000, Easybuy charges an interest rate of 6% per month.
180 days Repayments the interest of NGN 18,000. Total amount payable is NGN68,000
HOW TO APPLY FOR EASYBUY PHONE LOAN
1. Register and apply
2. Get Approval
3. Pay down payment
4. Get new phone
FEATURES
1. No paperwork
2. no collateral
3. 30-60 minutes to complete the application
CONTACT
* They are available 24/7 to assist you with your request
* Service-Hotline: 018888188 (9 am – 5:30 pm, Mon-Fri)
* Service Email: easybuy.support@newedgefinance.com
* Our Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/easybuy.loans
*Our Office Address: 9 Ogunnusi Road, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos
To download EasyBuy app on Google Play Store, CLICK HERE.
Terms And Conditions Apply
EasyBuy’s terms and conditions are somewhat scary and raise important questions about user data protection.
For starters, how the service uses people’s data is not compliant with Nigeria’s data protection regulation, the NDPR.
The NDPR mandates that user data should be stored locally, and if a user’s data will be transferred abroad, it requires the explicit permission of that user. EasyBuy does otherwise.
“The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside Nigeria,” the app’s terms reads. “It [user data] may also be processed by staff operating outside Nigeria, who work for us or for one of our suppliers.”
Instead of requesting for explicit user permission, EasyBuy said: “by submitting your personal data, you agree to the collection, transfer, storage or processing of your personal data in the manner set out above.”
For an app that is collecting sensitive information like users’ BVN number, the above terms and conditions puts user data at risk. EasyBuy did not respond to our request for comments.
Another part of EasyBuy’s terms says something interesting. EasyBuy will share user data “to other business entities, should we plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity.”
It said this three times in the same section.
What does that mean?
It’s not clear. What is clear however is that EasyBuy has created a safeguard for any future acquisition. The way the terms were worded suggests that the app may not have been built to last as a standalone service.
It feels more like an offline growth tactic to onboard as many people as people before merging with a bigger entity. This theory gets stronger when the terms for PalmCredit and PalmPay are considered.
Almost like a carbon copy, PalmCredit said it will disclose user data should it merge or be acquired.
For PalmPay, nothing of such exists.
The theory here is that EasyBuy and PalmCredit could be merged under the PalmPay brand to offer their current services.
In an email response, PalmPay does not dispute this.
“PalmPay is not currently partnered with either of these two companies [EasyBuy and PalmCredit],” the company wrote in an email. “[but] We encourage you to watch this space for upcoming announcements of partnerships.”
REVIEWS AND FEEDBACK FROM EASYBUY CUSTOMERS
ryke SS
October 24, 2021
This app is faustrating me, I have made payment on the first month instalment but they haven’t cleared it of my dashboard and still including it to the rest month, my phone have been blocked since then till now even after the first month payment on that month , am regretting ever getting my self into this loan , they are rubbing me alot
Olakunle Oluwatoyin mercy
October 7, 2021
I just updated this app this morning and since then it has been given me problem. Today is my due date I want to do repayment but I couldn’t do it. This app is rubbish. Am giving you just one star. I don’t know why I always encounter problem with this app every month. To make payment is trouble. What is going on here please?
Promise Jinali
October 7, 2021
The app is awesome. I like it. I wish it had an answer about what to do when the phone gets stolen or missing. The phone I got from Easybuy is stolen about 2weeks ago & I’m still paying for it. I tried contacting the customer service numbers, but it never connects. Plz how can Easybuy help me recover the lost phone?
It’s Godstime
October 25, 2021
How can you put a payment option that is not even functional? This is so frustrating.. I tried paying via card, and it’s reading unknown error. How am I even supposed to access my email when you’ve obviously locked it? The virtual payment provided is what I don’t even understand. Tufiakwa!
Credits: Additional Content were Sourced from Techcabal.com
