What the bank charges the seller
With pay-in-parts the shop receives the full amount at once, minus the bank's fee, and the buyer repays the bank in equal interest-free payments. The fee depends on the number of payments the shop allows. The buyer makes the first payment on the day of purchase, so 3 payments mean two months of instalments and 25 mean twenty-four.
The tariffs of two banks, read on their business pages on 2 November 2026:
| Payments | PrivatBank, "Pay in Parts" | monobank, "Purchase in Parts" |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2.3% | — |
| 3 | 2.5% | 2.9% |
| 4 | 3.6% | 4.1% |
| 5 | 5.3% | 5.9% |
| 6 | 6.5% | 7.2% |
| 7 | 7.7% | 8.3% |
| 10 | 11.2% | 12.0% |
| 13 | 14.8% | 15.5% |
| 19 | 21.1% | 21.9% |
| 25 | 27.3% | 27.8% |
The full grids from 2 to 25 payments are on the PrivatBank and monobank pages. Both banks charge the fee on the purchase amount and deduct it at once. PrivatBank's calculator shows UAH 293.10 credited for a UAH 300 purchase in 2 payments, exactly minus 2.3%. monobank gives an example: a UAH 10,000 purchase over 2 months, 2.9% fee, UAH 9,710 credited. monobank also states there is no acquiring fee for Purchase in Parts, and the service rules forbid passing the fee on to the buyer, that is, raising the price for them.
PrivatBank has a second model, Instant Instalment. Here the buyer pays the interest: 1.9% a month on the loan amount, an effective annual rate of 52.53%. The shop pays only the 1.3% online acquiring fee, as for an ordinary card payment. For the shop it is no more expensive than a card; for the buyer it is.
Tariffs checked on 02.11.2026 on the banks' business pages. For comparison: a card payment at 1.3% costs UAH 130.
The fee grows almost linearly: each extra payment adds 1–1.2 percentage points. Thirteen payments cost the shop as much as a 15% discount.
Break-even formula
A shop that switches on pay-in-parts gets two kinds of orders:
- New. The buyer would not have bought without instalments: they lacked the money now or would have gone to a shop that offers them. The shop earns its margin on such an order, reduced by the fee.
- Switched. The buyer would have bought anyway, by card, but saw the "in parts" button and chose it. The shop earns nothing extra and loses the difference between the instalment fee and the card fee.
Let c be the pay-in-parts fee, a the card payment fee, m the order margin when paid by card (all as shares of the price). Then:
- a new order brings m − (c − a);
- a switched order takes away c − a.
Profit does not fall if the share of new orders among all instalment orders is at least:
share of new ≥ (c − a) ÷ m
This is the same logic as the Black Friday discount calculation: the instalment fee acts as a discount, but only on orders that went through instalments. If all instalment orders are switched, the required growth equals the discount formula, (c − a) ÷ (m − c + a). If all are new, any fee below the margin pays off.
An illustrative example. A shop with a 25% margin, an average order of UAH 4,000, card payment at 1.3%, 5 payments with PrivatBank (5.3%). Each switched order costs 4,000 × 4% = UAH 160. Each new one brings 4,000 × 21% = UAH 840. Per 100 instalment orders:
- 10 new and 90 switched: 8,400 − 14,400 = minus UAH 6,000;
- 16 new and 84 switched: 13,440 − 13,440 = zero;
- 30 new and 70 switched: 25,200 − 11,200 = plus UAH 14,000.
The threshold is 16%, as the formula gives: 4% ÷ 25%.
Table by margin
The minimum share of new buyers among instalment orders, calculated for a card payment fee of 1.3%: c − a for PrivatBank is 1.2 points at 3 payments, 4.0 at 5, 6.4 at 7 and 9.9 at 10; for monobank 1.6, 4.6, 7.0 and 10.7.
| Order margin | 3 payments | 5 payments | 7 payments | 10 payments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15% | 8% / 11% | 27% / 31% | 43% / 47% | 66% / 71% |
| 20% | 6% / 8% | 20% / 23% | 32% / 35% | 49% / 53% |
| 25% | 5% / 6% | 16% / 18% | 26% / 28% | 40% / 43% |
| 30% | 4% / 5% | 13% / 15% | 21% / 23% | 33% / 36% |
| 40% | 3% / 4% | 10% / 12% | 16% / 18% | 25% / 27% |
In each cell the first number is PrivatBank, the second monobank. Margin here is what is left of the price after purchase cost, delivery, packaging and the card fee, but before advertising. How to calculate it for your shop is shown in the unit economics calculator.
What the table shows:
- Three payments are almost safe at any margin. Even at a 15% margin it is enough for every ninth to twelfth instalment order to be new.
- From seven payments the risk climbs sharply. At a 20% margin a third of instalment orders must be new. Without measurement you do not know whether that holds for you.
- Ten payments at a 15–20% margin are a bet that half or more of buyers came because of the instalments. For a typical online shop that is a strong assumption.
Calculator
Enter your order value, margin and number of payments. You do not know the share of new orders in advance; start from the table, and after a month enter the actual figure (how to measure it is below).
Where average order value fits
The fee is a percentage of the amount, so the break-even threshold does not depend on order value: (c − a) ÷ m is the same for a UAH 1,000 purchase and a UAH 20,000 one. Order value affects other things.
- The number of payments the buyer chooses. Few people need 10 payments of UAH 100 on a UAH 1,000 purchase; on a UAH 40,000 laptop it is 4,000 a month instead of the whole sum. So for expensive goods the share of new buyers is probably higher, but they also take more payments. How much depends on your category; the banks do not publish general data on it.
- Whether the order goes through at all. At PrivatBank the loan amount ranges from UAH 300 to 500,000, within the buyer's limit. Buyers with a small limit drop out on expensive goods. PrivatBank offers an advance payment for this: the buyer pays part by card and the rest in parts.
- What average order value shows in your reports. If average order value rose after you added instalments, that does not prove they paid off. It may have risen because the same buyers took a pricier model and the shop paid the fee on each.
The practical conclusion: allow a different number of payments for different goods. PrivatBank lets you cap the maximum number of payments in the merchant account, and the shop sets the term from 1 to 24 months itself. Cheap goods get 2–3 payments; expensive goods with margin to spare get more.
Terms that change the maths
- Is the order margin below c − a for the chosen number of payments?Every instalment order loses money, even a new one. At a 15% margin this happens from 15 payments at PrivatBank and from 14 at monobank. Yes → reduce the number of payments or do not connect
- Can you measure the share of new buyers?For example, switch instalments on for part of the range for a month and compare sales with the rest. No → keep 3–5 payments, where the threshold is 4–20%
- Are your buyers willing to pay interest themselves?With PrivatBank's Instant Instalment the buyer pays 1.9% a month and the shop only 1.3% acquiring. Yes → start with it: for the shop it costs the same as a card
- Is the actual share of new buyers above the threshold in the table?Then extra payments pay off as long as the threshold for the next number of payments is still below your share. Yes → extend the number of payments for expensive goods
Three more details from the banks' terms worth checking before you connect:
- Returns. At monobank, for a return within the first 14 days the shop's account is debited the amount it received, net of the fee. After 14 days the full purchase price is debited, and the shop's fee is not refunded. If your return rate is noticeable, calculate its cost separately: for instalment orders it is higher by the fee. PrivatBank's product page does not describe return terms; check them in the contract.
- The price for the buyer. monobank forbids raising the price for those who pay in parts. The fee cannot be hidden in a separate "instalment price"; it can only be built into the general price for all buyers.
- Information on the website. PrivatBank asks shops to state the main loan terms on their site so that buyers can read them. A template text is on the bank's page.
Separately, the fiscal receipt. monobank states that Purchase in Parts payments move between accounts and a software cash register is not mandatory for them. Whether you need a receipt for your payment setup overall is covered in the article on online acquiring and fiscal registers.
How to measure the share of new orders in practice. The simplest way is to compare two product groups: instalments on for one and off for the other, over the same month. The difference in sales growth between the groups is roughly the number of new orders. Divide it by the number of instalment orders in the first group. The method is crude: season and advertising affect the groups differently. But it gives a number you can compare with the table instead of the bank's promise.
Our position
Connect pay-in-parts, but start with 3–5 payments and count how many instalment orders are genuinely new. The break-even threshold is (c − a) ÷ m. For 3 payments it does not exceed 11% at any margin from 15%, and the risk here is small. Switch on long instalments of 10 or more payments only for goods with a margin of 30% or higher, and only after you have measured the share of new orders. If PrivatBank is your bank, connect Instant Instalment first: the shop pays for it as much as for a card.
The position does not hold if instalments are the norm in your category, as with electronics or furniture, and without them buyers go to competitors. Then there are almost no switched orders, because without the "in parts" button you lose the sale rather than save the fee, and the question is no longer the threshold but how many payments to offer so as not to fall behind competitors.
Checked on 2 November 2026 on PrivatBank's pages (Pay in Parts and Instant Instalment for business: tariffs, calculator, loan terms) and monobank's (Purchase in Parts for sellers: tariff grid, answers on fees, returns and cash registers in the monobusiness knowledge base). The example shop with a 25% margin and a UAH 4,000 order is illustrative.