Tymit blocks new credit card applications as it pivots to B2B2C

Challenger credit card Tymit has stopped accepting new customers after yesterday announcing a dramatic shift to focus on its B2B business instead.

Tymit previously raised £23m from Frasers Group and subsequently launched a co-branded “Frasers Plus” credit and rewards account.

At the time Tymit’s CEO and co-founder Martin Magnone said the funding would help the business “switch from a pure B2C model to a B2B2C”.

Now it looks like that transition is near-complete.

Last month Tymit informed its credit card customers that it would begin charging interest across all of its instalment plans, having previously offered 0 per cent interest if payments were split over 3 months, in doing so removing one of the key advantages of having a Tymit card.

“Due to the very challenging market conditions which have seen sustained rises in business costs as a result of several increases in the Bank of England Base Rate, we have taken the decision to remove the interest-free feature for 3-month instalment plans,” the company wrote in an email to customers.

Yesterday Tymit announced a strategic partnership with Visa that will see the payment giant offer its clients co-branded and white-labelled instalment credit programs powered by Tymit.

"Our partnership with Visa signifies a significant milestone for Tymit as we empower financial institutions and merchants to swiftly and cost-effectively bring instalment credit solutions to market," said Magnone. 

"With our proven track record and expertise in instalment credit, we are poised to meet the needs of the industry by offering innovative co-branded instalment credit cards and white-labelled instalment credit programs."

The release said Tymit is "now focused" on its co-branded and white-label offering as part of a "strategic move" for the business.

At the same time, Tymit's website has been redesigned to focus on its B2B2C offering and demote its consumer credit card to a page in the menu bar, with a banner message that "We’re not accepting new applications at the moment".

For existing Tymit credit card customers, it’s unclear exactly what these changes mean for the future. The company wrote in an email to customers only earlier this week “Despite these changes, we remain fully committed to our vision of reinventing credit to better serve you.”

In a comment, Magnone told AltFi that Tymit plans "to continue to serve our existing base of customers, and we also plan to continue to bring innovation to the product."

"As we monitor market conditions, we are always open to opportunities which may result in reopening acquisitions in the future with a more up-to-date direct-to-consumer proposition."

The CEO pointed to recent innovations on Tymit's platform including digital token payments, loyalty and rewards, and improved payment options and said: "our Tymit Credit customers will soon be benefiting from some of these features, but also we will be announcing new and exciting partnerships which will include all these new features."