As the holidays approach, some supermarkets are offering deferred check transactions.
This allows customers to pay for their groceries, but not be charged until the next month.
A TF1 team is looking into this system.
Follow the full coverage
The 1 p.m.
What if you check out, but don’t pay until the following month? In some supermarkets, this is now possible. As the end-of-year holidays approach, some brands are increasing operations “deferred check” or “postponed check”. For any purchase, with a minimum of 20 euros, the store offers to cash your check 40 days later. This payment method does not incur any additional costs, simply request it at checkout.
This system, which has existed for two years, gives a second life to the checkbook, used less and less by the French. “Now, we even get calls to tell us ‘this week, you are going to write your deferred checks, can we come and do our shopping?’ There is this loyalty aspect which has surely brought us a clientele that we did not have previously, who were perhaps with the competition, but who through that means come to us from now on”welcomes Kévin Boisbunon, director of the Leclerc store, in Épinay-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis).
“I would be afraid of getting into debt”
On the stores’ social networks, there are numerous announcements. Le Mans, Roubaix, Bordeaux… during the Christmas period, many brands decide to implement this system, with flow periods which may vary. We therefore suggest that you only debit your check in January, February, or even March.
“Especially at the end of the month, for holidays and everything, it could be very interesting,” applauds a customer in the TF1 news report visible at the top of this article. “If we can debit 30 or 40 days later, knowing that with the holidays, there are still quite a few costs…”boasts another. But this solution is not unanimous. “I would be afraid of getting into debt, really, I do my accounts almost once a week”underlines a last customer.
-
Read also
Christmas 2024: gifts, meals… What the French plan to spend this year
This payment method can actually turn out to be expensive in the long term. “We have to be extremely careful because we are completely disconnected from the moment of payment, with the present moment which is the moment of spending. So, we have this mental disconnection which can mean that we will spend much more than what we ‘we had planned’explains Gaëlle Le Floch, consumer expert and marketing director at Kantar. Be careful not to forget to check your bank balance a month later. If it is not sufficient, you risk finding yourself paying fees.
