Splitting the Bill: Does Offering a Payment Plan Help Shops?

Consumers sometimes choose national brands over independent shops thanks to brand recognition or advice from a glass claims administrator. But one customer’s reason for not giving a Minneapolis shop his business stumped the owner.

Jeremy Bergum of Clear Vision Auto Glass shared his confusion on the industry Facebook group, AUTOGLASS TECH TALK.

“This is a new one for me,” he wrote. “I lost a job to Safelite because I don’t offer a payment plan.”

Jeremy Bergum had never heard of Safelite offering a payment plan before a potential customer told him that’s why they preferred the national company.

Bergum had never heard of Safelite offering a payment plan before, but after some research, he found commercials and other marketing material promoting the option.

According to Safelite’s website, customers can pay through the Afterpay platform. This option allows customers to split payments into four interest-free installments over six weeks.

According to an Afterpay spokesperson, the service pays businesses up front for consumer purchases and protects them from chargebacks and fraud. Companies pay a 4-6% fee for the service.

The spokesperson says customers typically start with a $600 spending limit, though they can negotiate that limit with Afterpay. Customers must make their first payment at the time of purchase.

Some Say it Works

National companies aren’t the only ones offering payment plans. Many small auto glass businesses do, too.

Zuhair Madanat runs Auto Glass Experts, an Auto Glass Safety Council (AGSC) Registered Member with two shops in Huntersville and Hickory, North Carolina. When Madanat opened his first physical location in 2023, he offered a payment plan to help relieve the financial burden an unexpected windshield replacement brings.

“I remembered when I was on a strict budget with very little extra money each month after I first started my small business,” he says. “…you might have savings for emergencies, but few people expect that a windshield replacement could cost over $1,000.”

Madanat has always offered a payment plan through a third-party service. He used a local company at first, but it didn’t provide the convenience or flexibility he wanted for his customers. Now, Auto Glass Experts uses the service PayTomorrow. According to its website, PayTomorrow works with customers with any kind of credit score. It also doesn’t typically charge customers interest, which is an important factor for Madanat.

“Some financing options can be predatory and end up hurting people rather than helping them,” he says.

Of course, Madanat also wants to ensure that he’s paid. PayTomorrow sends Auto Glass Experts the full job payment the day after a customer starts a plan. Madanat says he pays a 2-3% fee for the service.

Zuhair Madanat says he knows it can be difficult for many people to pay for a surprise windshield replacement.

If a customer tells Auto Glass Experts that they’re paying out of pocket for an expensive replacement, Madanat or one of his employees offers the payment plan as an option.

“If they have that initial shock after we give them the quote, we explain the cost to them and say we have finance options,” he says. “You can just see the relief on their face that they can [afford to get a replacement] and continue using their vehicle.”

Tiffany Swindell co-owns AGSC Registered Member JJB Auto Glass in Atascadero, California. The shop offers payment plans through PayPal, Affirm and Afterpay.

“When I first started in the auto glass business, prices weren’t what they are now,” Swindell says. “Now, with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and the need for recalibration, they’re much higher.”

Though many customers pay through insurance, she says, their policies don’t always cover everything.

“People with high deductibles come in and are frequently shocked at the price,” Swindell says. A payment plan allows them to afford the necessary safety glass replacement.

She says this allows JJB to keep many customers who would otherwise not have been able to afford the work. Like Auto Glass Experts, the shop pays a small monthly fee for third-party services. Swindell says it’s more than worth it.

“It’s a minimal cost to us compared to the money we’re making off of it,” she says.

Others Say It Doesn’t

Payment plans don’t work for every business. Scott Fiorina runs Craftsman Auto Glass in Amsterdam, New York. After talking with a friend and fellow shop owner who offered payment plans, he tried them too. After about a year, he realized they weren’t a good fit.

Fiorina says he thought a financing option would draw more customers, especially since cash jobs make up about 25% of his work.

“I thought we’d get more inquiries about it,” he says. “But we really didn’t.”

Fiorina says Synchrony, the payment plan service he used, worked great while he had it. It cost him about $25 a month, paid him for each job in full up front, and ran customers through a credit check.

“If we even got one customer a month [using it], it would’ve been worth it,” he says. “But we don’t.”

Fiorina wonders if payment plans are more popular in some regions or communities. His friend, who offers payment plans successfully, owns a shop “down South.”

In Clarksville, Tennessee, Shannon Sherlock hasn’t offered a payment plan and doesn’t want to.

“I don’t like being owed money,” says the co-owner of S & S Auto Glass.

Several shops told AGRR that customers could just use a credit card, rather than a payment plan.

A third-party service that would pay S & S for the full cost of the job right away isn’t appealing to her, either. That would require customer credit checks and other paperwork that Sherlock says wouldn’t benefit the shop.

“Our business model doesn’t need it,” she says. “We’re not losing work by not offering a payment plan.”

Sherlock says S & S has several fleet accounts, and those companies don’t need payment plans. Nearby Fort Campbell brings the shop a lot of work, she says, and no one from the base has been interested in a payment plan.

Though he’d never heard of Safelite offering a payment plan before, Bergum had offered one himself about a decade ago. He didn’t use a third-party service, so he had to collect payments himself. Bergum soon realized that wasn’t sustainable.

“I would consider doing it again if I could be paid up front and don’t have to collect myself,” he says.

Bergum believes that offering payment plans could give small, independent shops the edge they need against national companies.