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Rent-A-Center Teams with ChargeAfter, Expands Preferred Lease Retail Partner Base
June 30,
2020 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCII) has announced a partnership with ChargeAfter that will allow retailers to add the "Preferred Lease" lease-to-own option to ChargeAfter’s consumer point of sale financing solution, providing greater flexibility for customers whether they want to buy or lease retail items.
ChargeAfter is a multi-lender technology platform used online or in-store for buy now pay later financing options and lease options at the point of sale. The platform provides their global network of eCommerce and retail merchants with multiple personalized financing and leasing options for consumers at checkout.
Through the partnership, Preferred Lease will be integrated into the technology platform to provide additional options for consumers. ChargeAfter’s platform provides a faster go-to-market solution because the technology enables a single solution for retail partners to serve a broader consumer base. Investors in ChargeAfter include PICO Venture Partners, Propel Venture Partners, VISA, MUFG, BBVA, Synchrony, and Plug and Play VC.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with ChargeAfter and believe the innovative technology platform will enable an improved and more consistent customer experience for our Preferred Lease retail partners who recognize the value of providing customers with a compelling lease-to-own option in addition to financing options," said Paul Hamilton, VP of national accounts at Rent-A-Center. "Our differentiated offering of staffed and virtual lease-to-own options increases the revenue opportunity for retail partners by serving both banked and unbanked customers”
“We believe this new partnership with ChargeAfter will introduce us to new retail partners, speed up the implementation time, and reduce integration cost as we grow our Preferred Lease business,” added HaMilton. “The challenging retail environment due to the pandemic has accelerated conversations with our pipeline of new retail partners, and this partnership further enhances and modernizes our Preferred Lease offering by improving the customer experience and enhancing our digital capabilities."
"ChargeAfter is excited to partner with Rent-A-Center, a leader in the lease-to-own industry, and to include its Preferred Lease offering into our consumer financing and leasing waterfall," said Meidad Sharon, CEO of ChargeAfter. "Consumers selecting to pay with ChargeAfter submit a simple, four-data-point credit application at the point of sale. ChargeAfter’s proprietary decisioning engine then processes the request across our network to find personalized, approved financing or leasing offers for the consumer which leads to high take rates, 85% approvals, and increased sales. Including Preferred Lease as a lease-to-own option in the network will enable us to further diversify our offers for the consumers and help merchants convert more shoppers into paying customers."