Volt partners with online travel company Motorhome Republic to offer PayTo at checkout in Australia

Volt, the global real-time payments platform, has been chosen by Motorhome Republic to power its PayTo payment option in Australia.

As part of the ASX-quoted Webjet Group, Motorhome Republic is one of the world’s largest motorhome and campervan rental agencies. It operates out of New Zealand and has vehicle pick-up locations in over 45 countries, with a particularly strong market presence in Australia, where it has now integrated Volt via payment infrastructure provider Optty.

PayTo is a real-time payment system developed by Australia’s New Payments Platform in 2022. It enables consumers to initiate account-to-account payments to merchants, thus bypassing cards, and avoiding having to pay a surcharge.

Volt’s integration of PayTo is the first to offer consumers a one-click checkout experience – a key point of difference in the Australian payments market.

When Motorhome Republic customers are ready to check out, they are now presented with a ‘PayTo – instant bank transfer’ option alongside debit/credit card and PayPal.

When selecting the PayTo option, the customer enters their PayID (or bank details) to set up a simple payment agreement, then the payment is initiated directly from the customer’s bank account. With the pre-authorised agreement in place, future payments can be completed in a single click.

Commenting on the integration, Jessica Kaukas, Webjet Group’s Payments, Revenue Protection & Finance Systems Lead, said, “We’re excited to bring PayTo and Volt to our customers through our integration with Optty’s payment orchestration platform. The level of support and collaboration from both teams has been outstanding. From early-stage planning to go-live, Optty and Volt have provided expert guidance and hands-on support that ensured a smooth and efficient integration. This partnership highlights our shared commitment to innovation, speed, and delivering a seamless payment experience.”

While initially going live in Australia, Motorhome Republic intends to utilise Volt’s global API to facilitate its acceptance of real-time payments in the UK and Europe.

In the UK, Volt processes real-time payments on the Faster Payments rails using a ‘Pay by Bank’ checkout option. In Europe, it utilises SEPA Instant.

The benefits, aside from easy expansion to new markets, are the same in the UK and Europe as they are in Australia: lowering the cost of payment acceptance, and speeding up settlement times.

Kristofer Rogers, Volt’s SVP Australia & New Zealand, commented, “We’re thrilled to welcome Motorhome Republic on board via our partners Optty. It’s fantastic to see such a highly regarded enterprise travel brand – the sixth in our merchant portfolio – realise not only the benefits of PayTo, but Volt’s specific integration of what has already become a serious challenger to cards. We look forward to helping Motorhome Republic realise these benefits, and to delivering a faster, better-optimised payment experience to its users – in Australia and beyond.”

The integration is notable given that POLi, which was widely used by travel merchants in Australia, has left something of a void after its closure in September 2023. The instant payments system, which was managed by Australia Post, received criticism from banks and customers owing to users having to share their bank account login credentials. This is not the case with PayTo, which utilises secure API connections to banks.

Steven Ritchie, Optty’s Interim CEO, added, “Volt is at the forefront of innovation in the payments industry; a company that simplifies their merchants’ payments in a way that meets their ever-evolving needs; a driving force behind the adoption of PayTo among enterprise merchants in Australia. Because Optty is a global payments infrastructure platform, we want to support and grow the demand for adaptable and cost-effective payment solutions. This partnership with Motorhome Republic and Volt ensures our joint partners and merchants will always have access to cutting-edge and cost-effective solutions through two platforms with global reach.”