You can use SmartPay at Walmart to finance your new cell phone and accessories on a lease-to-own term with no hard credit check required.

There is no doubt using buy now pay later options at Walmart is one of the best ways to utilize your purchasing power assigned to you by many of the split payment providers.

While some can be through shopping and checking out with top digital payment wallets, others like SmartPay can be used directly when you visit any of the Walmart locations close to you.

SmartPay

Max. Amount

$2,000

Credit Check

Soft

Type

Lease

Tip: Before you use Smartpay at Walmart to purchase a device, note that this is a lease-to-own payment plan option for Straight Talk and Total Wireless phones that requires a minimum cart value of $100 and cannot exceed $2,000 with an opportunity to enjoy the best savings within the first 90 days or you continue monthly payments for up to 24 months (varies depending on the value of the device).

SmartPay lease financing is a popular offline method to enjoy buy now pay later phone purchases at well-known retailers like Metro by T-Mobile, Net10 Wireless, and others.

While you can utilize it both online and at physical retail outlets of many of its partners like how SmartPay works with Straight Talk, the Walmart option is only usable offline (you need to visit a location nearest to you).

How to Use SmartPay at Walmart for Financing

There are three primary processes involved when using SmartPay at Walmart to finance your cell phone purchases.

Below are each of the steps you need to follow to get your new device on a lease-to-own:

Click to view items

Lease Application

The process starts online through the SmartPay website where you first need to apply to be assigned a purchasing power for payments at a Walmart physical location.

Follow the details below:

Visit the SmartPay portal and apply

You will need purchasing power before you will be able to use SmartPay at Walmart for payments for your preferred smartphone.

To do this, simply visit the dedicated page dedicated to Walmart SmartPay financing and click the apply button to be redirected to the form page.

Fill out the application form with your details

Once you have been redirected after clicking the apply button, a form page will open requesting some details, including your email, first and last name, mobile number, date of birth, zip code, and last four digits of your social security number.

Please, ensure to fill in the correct information, especially your mobile number as you may need to authenticate through an SMS that will be sent if you are a new user.

After entering all required details, simply check the necessary boxes and click the ‘Continue’ button to proceed to the next stages.

Wait for the automated soft credit inquiry and purchasing power determination

After submitting the details, SmartPay will start the approval process through what is called a soft credit check.

This is done for informational use only and will not leave any real impact on your credit score since it is usually not visible to other lenders.

It uses the information you have provided to query your financial details like your monthly income and others to know your creditworthiness which will assist the platform to make a decision on your request as well as determine the spending limit to assign for you to use for making cell phone purchases.

Once this process is complete, you may be offered a purchasing power between $100 and up to $2,000.

However, note that not all users are approved and your application can be declined if the company feels your financial information obtained through secondary sources is not sufficient for its payment plans.

Visit a nearby Walmart location

If your application for a lease is approved, it means that you can proceed to use SmartPay at Walmart to handle payments for your choice of mobile phone.

While you may only need your name, date of birth, and the last four digits of your social security number when you visit a Walmart location to process the lease, make sure to go with a phone with your active SIM installed in case any authorization is required.

Device Processing at Walmart

This stage happens at a Walmart location and should be handled by a store attendant:

Set up the WARP system and the card reader

You will need both the WARP system and card reader (possibly the Ingenico reader at most locations) to be ready before you can start processing the application submitted on SmartPay at Walmart.

While the WARP is required to trace the lease application, the card reader is needed to process the initial payment (0 – 25% of the smartphone’s price).

Once these devices are ready, plugged in, and connected, you can continue with the next steps.

Login to the WARP system and tie user to a carrier

You will need to log in to the WARP system to start processing the lease financing by first creating a profile for the customer who wants to make payment with SmartPay at Walmart.

Walmart WARP System Sample Screen

Once you are successfully logged in, you will need to select the Carriers / New Orders option from your menu items.

As explained previously, you can only use SmartPay at Walmart for Straight Talk or Total Wireless mobile phone devices and accessories hence, ensure your choice device meets this requirement.

For all SmartPay orders, you will need to select the ‘Lease Device with Airtime Purchase’ option on your screen.

You will need to specify if the customer is an existing user of the carrier chosen or not, if the person says yes, you will be able to look up their account for confirmation.

Look up the customer’s lease application

The process of using SmartPay at Walmart starts from the application phase where the user must have an approved request with an assigned spending limit hence, the customer has applied on the SmartPay website and has active approval to use this option.

However, this first step can also be done in-store at Walmart if the user has a smartphone to use for the lease application.

If approval exists for the user, simply look it up using the details below (as used for the application):

Date of birth
last four digits of the social security number
Last name of the customer

Once you have entered the correct information in the form fields, click the appropriate button and if the user has an active application, it will be populated.

Create an order by adding the customer’s preferred device and plan

Now that the user details have been populated with active approval, you will need to create an order and tie that to his account.

To create this order, simply add a device and a service plan.

You are likely to see only eligible devices based on the user’s spending limit but if however, you are seeing some above its approved purchasing power, inform the user to only pick. a device within his limit because anything above that will not go through.

It is worth mentioning again that you can only buy devices of Straight Talk and Total Wireless when using SmartPay at Walmart for your purchases.

Scan the chosen device details and select a service plan

Once the order is created, you can get the product from the inventory as you will need to scan the UPC details.

Depending on your preference, you can either directly scan or manually enter the information.

Once this is done, you will need to also select a SmartPay lease plan for this purchase.

You may also be able to select the carrier service plan at this stage.

When using SmartPay at Walmart, the payment plan varies depending on the worth of your cart or the device you are purchasing.

Below are the available plans and the required purchase value:

4 months maximum for devices worth $450 or less
Carts up to the amount of $850, you can spread the payments for up to 9 months
Cart worth up to $1,000, maximum of 12 months
For purchases worth at most $1,500, it can be extended for up to 18 months
While the 24-month length payments require up to $2,000 in cart value

To complete this step, you will need to scan the IMEI, MEID, or ICCID information of the phone and SIM card to UPC.

Let the customer review the lease contract agreement and sign to proceed

After scanning and selecting the plan, SmartPay will automatically generate a contract that will contain every required for the activation of the lease, including the initial downpayment, monthly repayments, and others.

The customer is required to sign this hence, let him read the agreement and understand everything before proceeding.

One key aspect of the contract that may interest you is the 90-day early buyout option which is the opportunity offered by SmartPay to enable you to avoid paying so much on lease cost.

Within the first 90 days of the contract, you can decide to own the device 100% by paying the original cost of the cell phone in addition to a certain percentage of the price and this varies depending on your selected plan.

Below is how much you will pay using the SmartPay 90-day buyout option:

6 months plan: cash price + 20%
9 months plan: cash price + 20%
12 months: cash price + 20%
18 months: cash price + 10%
24 months: cash price + 3.5%

If you wait to complete the contract after 90 days, you may end up paying double or more of the original cost of the device hence, work towards utilizing its early buyout when using SmartPay at Walmart for your purchases.

Though an optional requirement, you will also have an option to print the agreement in physical form which can be given to the customer for review.

Once the customer is satisfied with every detail of the contract, he can sign to proceed to the next stage.

Pay the initial and first-month lease installments using the card reader

When using SmartPay at Walmart, you are required to make a downpayment which is the same everywhere else it is accepted.

While you are only required to pay a percentage between 0 – 25% of the original cost of the cell phone when using it online as your first payment before you get the item, you will need to also make your service plan payments inclusive of that.

To have an understanding of how much this could be, here is the default downpayment when using SmartPay for financing depending on your plan:

6 months: 22%
9 months: 22.4%
12 months: 15%
18 – 24 months: 0

If you bought a device that costs $300 using SmartPay at Walmart, it means that you will pay:

First is the 22% of $300 which is $66

Second is the carrier service plan costs: assuming it is $10

Your total downpayment will be $66 + $10 and that totals $76 as your downpayment.

Once everything is set and the card reader is configured and ready, the customer can swipe his debit card to process the downpayment.

Note that when using SmartPay at Walmart for handling your mobile phone financing, you will need a card tied to your bank account as a prepaid version is not allowed.

The customer should complete the Q&A section

Once the payment is processed and the order process is confirmed, the customer will be asked to complete a series of multiple-choice questions.

While you can assist the user, it is recommended this part be completed by him or through his choices and not that of the store attendant.

Print the relevant documents needed for final processing

After the Q&A section is completed, you can assist the customer in printing the following documents as they will needed to complete the sales process:

How to Transact a SmartPay lease at POS
Order Confirmation
SmartPay Leasing Receipt
You can optionally print the SmartPay Agreements

You can give these items to the customer to proceed with the next stage of using SmartPay at Walmart.

Note that you may also assist the user in handling the next steps as it is almost done.

Lease Finalization and Device Pick-up

Sales completion is the last phase when it has to do with using SmartPay at Walmart for handling your product purchases and the processes are:

Go to the POS device and scan the barcodes

With the printed documents, you can proceed to the POS device and scan the barcode on the document “How to Transact a SmartPay lease at POS”.

You should also scan the barcode of your credit card used for the initial payment for tender.

Once you are done with this, you can proceed to the last step.

Activate the cell phone with the carrier

While you have purchased the mobile phone successfully using SmartPay at Walmart, note that it is not active yet, especially if you are new to the selected carrier.

To fix this (new user), look through the “SmartPay Leasing Receipt” document for the service plan activation PIN and make use of it to make it active.

If you are an existing user, the above is not required since at the point of order creation, it was specified and for such, the service plan will placed in reserve.

While it is a good move to utilize SmartPay at Walmart for your device purchases considering its widespread network of stores, note that the option is a lease-to-own financing and may be expensive compared to other buy now pay later options.

However, it provides the 90-day early buyout option and you should try as much as possible to utilize that to avoid the high cost attributed to long-term leasing.

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