At a time when users are complaining about the price of train tickets, SNCF is offering a new payment option. In partnership with Alma, a young French company specializing in split payment, the railway company now allows users to pay in 3 or 4 instalments from 150 euros of purchase for train tickets (TGV INOUI, OUIGO, INTERCITES, TER, Lyria, Eurostar, Thalys) and buses (Flixbus and BlaBlaCar Bus) on the SNCF Connect website and application. Customers can also modulate their schedule for free.
This new service, promised last summer, is “in the launch phase”, specifies the transport company, “the deployment will be done gradually to expand the services and offers offered”. The option, which should appeal to customers at a time when budgets are constrained by inflation, is however not free. Alma charges a fee of 1.5% of the total trip price. Split payment has been on the rise since soaring prices, and more and more merchants and websites are offering it. The offer is attractive for customers and often easy to subscribe to, but it is not without risk for the consumer, encouraging him to spend more than necessary.
Despite criticism of prices, the French continue to favor the train. After transporting 23 million passengers in the summer of 2022, the company expects to break a new record this summer. Faced with the controversy over prices, the company notably offered 300,000 train tickets at 49 euros and the sale of 200,000 Intercités tickets at 19 euros.
