With Apple Pay Later, Cupertino is joining the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' crowd

[midian182]

What just happened? Apple made a huge number of announcements during its WWDC 2022 conference yesterday, many of them related to the latest version of its mobile operating system. One of iOS 16's new features is gaining a lot of attention: a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) option for Apple Pay called Apple Pay Later.

BNPL plans have been gaining popularity recently, especially with inflation hitting a 40-year high and the increased cost of living—Elon Musk recently said he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy. PayPal, Block, Affirm, Klarna, and Mastercard are just some of the firms offering BNPL, and Apple is joining in with Apple Pay Later.

The iOS 16 version is more rigid than some of its competitors. Buying something with Apple Pay will bring up the option of paying for the item in four equal purchases across six weeks. The first payment is made upfront, with the remaining payments occurring every two weeks. There's no added interest or hidden fees when using Apple Pay Later.

Additionally, users will be able to view, track, and repay Apple Pay Later payments within the Apple Wallet. The feature is available everywhere Apple Pay is accepted online or in-app, using the Mastercard network.

Apple will do a soft credit check on those who apply for Apple Pay Later. Your credit score won't be affected by this but, as with other loan repayments, it will be negatively impacted if you miss any payments.

For all the benefits of interest-free, zero-fee BNPL plans, there's always the risk of people borrowing more than they can afford, missing payments, and landing themselves even further in debt. There was a lot of outrage at Microsoft last December after it integrated a Buy Now, Pay Later app called Zip in the Edge browser.

Another new Apple Wallet feature in iOS 16 is order tracking, which gives users detailed receipts and order tracking information for Apple Pay purchases with participating merchants.

The iOS 16 public beta begins in July, with general availability coming later this year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94851-apple-joining-buy-now-pay-later-crowd-apple.html

 

[waclark]

Yeah, this is bound to end well. There was an article today about how many younger people have little to no idea on investing. This is one reason why younger people have a hard time getting ahead, financially speaking. They spend more than they should and fail to invest in their own futures. I have employees that don't even have bank accounts. I have to physically write them a check every 2 weeks when I could be direct depositing to their bank, if they had one.

The problem with BNPL is a lot of people just buy now, never realizing the size of the bill when it comes to pay later.

 

[elementalSG]

BNPL is a great way to make a few bucks in your savings account. Instead of paying in full, since Apple is giving a 0% interest rate, just put the money in a savings account and earn a bit of interest on the money in the savings account and pay only the Pay Later amount each month, instead of paying the full amount upfront.

 

[m4a4]

BNPL is a great way to make a few bucks in your savings account. Instead of paying in full, since Apple is giving a 0% interest rate, just put the money in a savings account and earn a bit of interest on the money in the savings account and pay only the Pay Later amount each month, instead of paying the full amount upfront.

Yeahhhhh, I'm pretty sure that they have a limit on how much you can owe. And that amount in a savings account isn't going to accrue more than pennies...

And if you're thinking it sounds like a great idea in the first place, you should probably learn smart money management...

 

[elementalSG]

Yeahhhhh, I'm pretty sure that they have a limit on how much you can owe. And that amount in a savings account isn't going to accrue more than pennies...

And if you're thinking it sounds like a great idea in the first place, you should probably learn smart money management...

I did it with my car back in the day too. Financed my car for $25,000 @ 1.9%. Bought a $25,000 corporate bond with a 2.9% annual coupon instead of paying $25,000 upfront. Made $1,250 this way over 60 months of the loan term.

Guess you need a course in interest rates and how banks in general earn money by borrowing money at a lower rate and then lending it out a higher rate. Not my fault if you can’t do math and can’t see how you can make money by financing a MacBook at 0% interest rates from Apple given the rising savings account and bond yield environment today

 

[m4a4]

I did it with my car back in the day too. Financed my car for $25,000 @ 1.9%. Bought a $25,000 corporate bond with a 2.9% annual coupon instead of paying $25,000 upfront. Made $1,250 this way over 60 months of the loan term.

Guess you need a course in interest rates and how banks in general earn money by borrowing money at a lower rate and then lending it out a higher rate. Not my fault if you can’t do math and can’t see how you can make money by financing a MacBook at 0% interest rates from Apple given the rising savings account and bond yield environment today

...Did you read what I said? Or what you originally said? Or read the article?

People using this aren't paying for a 25k car. Which, that example is something different than what you initially suggested (and is out of the scope of what this will support). This is 4 payments over 6 weeks, not 60 months.

Don't go pretending what you originally suggested was genius. Sure, gaming interest rates can earn you some money (at high volumes), but at the scale this article is suggesting, it's nothing to be proud of.

 

[elementalSG]

...Did you read what I said? Or what you originally said? Or read the article?

People using this aren't paying for a 25k car. Which, that example is something different than what you initially suggested (and is out of the scope of what this will support). This is 4 payments over 6 weeks, not 60 months.

Don't go pretending what you originally suggested was genius. Sure, gaming interest rates can earn you some money (at high volumes), but at the scale this article is suggesting, it's nothing to be proud of.

Did you read what I said? I guess you still can’t see it, so I’ll spell it out for you. A MacBook costs $1,299. Apple gives you a 0% interest rate loan to pay over 12 months. Instead of paying fully upfront, buy a 12 month CD at 1.5%, which now is a normal interest rate at banks. That’s nearly $20 of interest in the year.

Maybe you are so rich, so elite from being a genius your whole life yourself that $20 doesn’t matter to you anymore. For normal plebeians like the rest of us such as me, $20 extra for very little effort is still an extra $20

 

[m4a4]

Did you read what I said? I guess you still can’t see it, so I’ll spell it out for you. A MacBook costs $1,299. Apple gives you a 0% interest rate loan to pay over 12 months. Instead of paying fully upfront, buy a 12 month CD at 1.5%, which now is a normal interest rate at banks. That’s nearly $20 of interest in the year.

Maybe you are so rich, so elite from being a genius your whole life yourself that $20 doesn’t matter to you anymore. For normal plebeians like the rest of us such as me, $20 extra for very little effort is still an extra $20

Where does it say you can buy a Macbook with Apple Pay Later at 0% over 12 months?

Seriously, I just called you out for going out of scope of what is said in the article. And then you do it again.

Try again.

 

[Gameredic]

I did it with my car back in the day too. Financed my car for $25,000 @ 1.9%. Bought a $25,000 corporate bond with a 2.9% annual coupon instead of paying $25,000 upfront. Made $1,250 this way over 60 months of the loan term.

Guess you need a course in interest rates and how banks in general earn money by borrowing money at a lower rate and then lending it out a higher rate. Not my fault if you can’t do math and can’t see how you can make money by financing a MacBook at 0% interest rates from Apple given the rising savings account and bond yield environment today

Mister, are you not aware of HOW LOW interest rates are nowadays!!??? They literally pay you pennies even for the best bonds. And most of those still require you to have a good deal of money and in that case it isn't worth it to buy those bonds because you can almost always make more money elsewhere. And the money that you do make in this, you will almost certainly make more money from your job especially if you work in CS as do many readers of this website do. I know that I would make WAY more money if I spent the time working rather than dilly-dallying in this!