Apple has finally released Apple Pay Later, a significant upgrade to Apple Pay that allows users to divide the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments over the course of six weeks without interest or late fees. However, not yet, at least not for everyone.
With plans to make Apple Pay Later available to all “eligible” users on iOS 16.4 or iPadOS 16.4 in the coming months, Apple says it will start by inviting a small number of users at random to access a pre-release version of the service. According to Bloomberg earlier this year, the pay later buy now service was supposed to launch alongside iOS 16, but a number of technical and engineering challenges prevented that from happening.
The chosen Apple Pay users will have the opportunity to apply for loans from $50 to $1,000 through Apple Pay Later, which they can use to pay for online and in-app purchases made on their iPhone and iPad at shops that accept Apple Pay.
Users can apply for a loan within the Wallet app on iOS to begin using Apple Pay Later. They will then be asked to agree to the Apple Pay Later terms and enter the amount they wish to borrow. After a user is approved, they will see a “Pay Later” option when they select Apple Pay at the checkout when shopping online or in apps on their iPhone and iPad. Apple says a soft credit pull will be done during the application process.
Apple Pay Later loan repayments made by a user are shown in Wallet. The due dates for all of the user’s loans are displayed on a calendar in a 30-day window.
Technically, Apple is not supplying Apple Pay Later. Instead, Apple Financing, a subsidiary, manages credit evaluation and lending. Beginning this fall, Apple Financing intends to report Apple Pay Later loans to U.S. credit bureaus. Regarding the merchant end, the pay later buy now service is made possible by the Mastercard Installments programme, and Goldman Sachs is the one who issued the Mastercard payment credential required to complete all Apple Pay Later transactions.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services from PayPal, Affirm, Klarna, Sezzle, and countless others compete head-to-head with Apple Pay Later. According to Grand View Research, the BNPL could be worth $39.41 billion by the year 2030.
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