Zilch, a fintech payments innovator of the “ad-subsidized” payments network (ASPN), announces the launch of Zilch Travel.
This partnership will reportedly make booking and paying for holidays “easier and more rewarding.”
Powered by lastminute.com, a European Travel-Tech firm, the partnership aims to enhance Zilch customers’ experience of “searching, booking and paying for holidays, hotels and flights in the Zilch app.”
Customers can earn up to “3% back in rewards on their travel bookings or can opt to spread the cost of their trip with interest-free payments over six weeks or three months – always with complete transparency and no hidden fees.”
Travel is one of the largest household expenses, yet it’s also “a non-negotiable annual priority, and in 2024, it hit an all-time high.”
This surge has made travel a growing category for Zilch, with a “140% year-on-year growth as customers seek smarter, more flexible ways to fund their trips.”
Nearly half of families now book their travel plans “5 to 12 weeks before departure, and Zilch Travel is positioned to meet this demand.”
By offering payment options to spread out the cost of large bookings and rewarding customers with perks they can use on their holidays, Zilch Travel ensures that “planning the perfect getaway is both simple and rewarding.”
Alessandro Petazzi, CEO of lastminute.com, said:
“By investing in flexible financial solutions and leveraging our technology to enhance customers’ travel experience, we can unlock a world of possibilities for holidaymakers. We’re delighted to partner with one of the UK’s leading fintech companies by powering their new Zilch Travel service. This new offering will seamlessly combine lastminute.com’s cutting-edge platform for booking holiday packages, hotels, and flights with Zilch’s fantastic, flexible payment options.”
Philip Belamant, CEO and Co-Founder of Zilch, said:
“In 2025, travel is no longer a luxury – it’s a professional and family priority, with 84% of UK consumers exploring destinations at home or abroad, they’re spending over £72 billion on overseas holidays alone in 2023. Zilch Travel is designed to give our customers what they’ve been asking for, three years into an unprecedented cost-of-living squeeze: the convenience, security, and flexibility to design and pay for their trips seamlessly within the regulated app they trust to manage their money.”
As noted in the update, Zilch’s vision is to “eliminate the high cost of consumer credit.”
Zilch is a provider of the direct-to-consumer, ad-subsidized payments network (ASPN).
Leveraging its first-party-data business model, Zilch sets itself apart from the incumbent fintech industry with “a profitable global revenue source, bringing unrivaled value to customers and marketers.”
Today, Zilch is enhancing the $50 trillion advertising and payments industries by “merging the very best of debit, credit, and savings.”
Co-founded by Philip Belamant, Sean O’Connor, and Serge Belamant, Zilch provides customers the freedom to “go anywhere in the world (online or offline) and, when they pay, earn up to 5% cashback & rewards on debit payments (‘Pay Now’) or spread interest-free credit repayments over six weeks or three months.”
In the process, Zilch helps customers build their credit profiles “with the major credit agencies.”
Within 44 months of launch in 2020, Zilch claims that it has “amassed more than 4 million registered customers.”
