Apple Discontinues 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Service (9to5mac.com) 17
Apple said on Monday it will no longer offer its "buy now, pay later" service, Apple Pay Later, in the United States, and will instead focus on bringing installment loan offerings to Apple Pay users globally later this year. The company told 9to5Mac that the new feature will allow users to access installment loans from eligible credit and debit cards, as well as lenders, when checking out with Apple Pay.
Existing Apple Pay Later users in the U.S. will still be able to manage their loans through the Wallet app. Apple Pay Later, which launched in the U.S. in March last year, allowed users to split purchases of $50 to $1,000 into four equal payments over six weeks without fees or interest. The company said the shift to a global installment loan offering will enable it to provide flexible payments to more users worldwide in collaboration with Apple Pay enabled banks and lenders.
Existing Apple Pay Later users in the U.S. will still be able to manage their loans through the Wallet app. Apple Pay Later, which launched in the U.S. in March last year, allowed users to split purchases of $50 to $1,000 into four equal payments over six weeks without fees or interest. The company said the shift to a global installment loan offering will enable it to provide flexible payments to more users worldwide in collaboration with Apple Pay enabled banks and lenders.
Will it still be interest free? (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean, I don't care who services it, as long as I get 12 or more months interest free.
I'm debt free....I save and have cash on hand to buy things...I save to generally buy 1-2 BIG ticket items a year.
But, I have no problem doing the purchase at 12mos interest free, as that I'll keep that cash in an interest bearing account, and make a little money while paying something off....
I bought a coupe of large Apple items because they gave me 12mos interest free AND with using Apple Pay...I got 3% off....
Every little bit helps.
I hope they don't lose that type deal with the new process.
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Re:Will it still be interest free? (It depends) (Score:5, Interesting)
Originally, alongside Goldman Sachs (and financially secured by Apple itself), they could have leveraged GS' networks worldwide to roll-out a global BNPL (buy now, pay later) scheme. But once the GS relationship changed (and Apple found itself at the losing end of securitizing various BNPL loans), Apple had to pivot.
The result is simple: instead of rolling out their own product worldwide, they'll simply provide the platform for other players to jump into the fray. Any possible lending fees (which vary per market) will become the onus of the borrower (consumer) and lenders -- Apple simply provides the glue (at minimal partnership costs).
In short, they're passing off the securitization burden off from themselves to the traditional lenders who have more sophisticated risk management models and broader consumer spending habits data upon which to determine if you're a good borrower (lower interest rate) or not-so-good (subprime, higher interest rate) for the very same $500 purchase.
Someone I know is terrible with paying back credit. They have a terrible credit score, never pays their credit card's negligible $500 credit limit, and always breaks things. They're a great consumer (for retailers) but a terrible risk (for lenders). They're the type of consumer Apple wants to avoid, so they're deferring those lending decisions... which also means Apple is realizing their customers are not platinum-level (unlike the overall reputation they've cultivated).
Re: Will it still be interest free? (It depends) (Score:2)
which also means Apple is realizing their customers are not platinum-level (unlike the overall reputation theyâ(TM)ve cultivated).
They famously sell large numbers of computers to students, and offer buy now pay later financing for things like laptops and phones.
They already have their customers figured out, and certainly did not suddenly realize their customers might not even have a credit history, or cash. I can't imagine why anyone would think otherwise.
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They famously sell large numbers of computers to students, and offer buy now pay later financing for things like laptops and phones.
They already have their customers figured out, and certainly did not suddenly realize their customers might not even have a credit history, or cash. I can't imagine why anyone would think otherwise.
There's many facets to "market research" including knowing your past/existing customers from a retail/manufacturing standpoint... and then there's knowing the personal spending/lending habits of their nascent BNPL service customers.
The decision whether to further roll-out a self-secured financing option for the BNPL service should be data-driven based on current spending/lending habits of their service users. Clearly the maths to support the multi-year investment into a BNPL service (for third-party purc
Re: Will it still be interest free? (Score:1)
Depends on your credit really, the in-store pay later systems have been replaced across most retailers as they are a huge debt/burden especially with people that donâ(TM)t tend to pay back their loans. Right now Apple just eats it as you canâ(TM)t get blood from a rock anyway, putting it in lenders hand lets others manage the risk and government will eventually pay off those bad decisions for them like they are doing with student loans whenever an election is coming up.
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This is a product to do installment payments at third-parties via Apple Pay. Apple's various payment plans for it's own first party products (iPhone upgrade program, Apple Card monthly installments) are not affected, and are still 0% interest.
They got tired of hiring repo-man (Score:1)
to repossess stuff from people who couldn't afford the stuff in the first place.
So the board members are pushing a strategy... (Score:2, Troll)
Apple is a recidivist offender and it's entirely irresponsible for any government to allow them to function within their borders: https://violationtracker.goodj... [goodjobsfirst.org]
They've racked up almost $1.4 BILLION (with a B) in fines since 2000. They were a productive company up until Tim Cook took o
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I wish you were right, but the government isn't going to go after anyone at Apple. $1.4 Billion in fines over 24 years is just the cost of doing business and letting the gov. get *some* PR points so they can pretend that big companies don't have free reign. The company is worth over 3 trillion dollars, even if they got those fines all this year that's only ~0.05% of their total net worth (yes I know it get more complicated when they actually try to liquidate).
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I wouldn't want him to get real sad and hurt himself. I'm pretty sure Apple only wants kids that are excluded by the color of their bubble to get that sad.
Interest Rates (Score:4, Informative)
I think this has more to do with interest rates being up. When they were low, Apple can get a low interest rate loan against the incoming revenue to fund these sort of things. That loose money flow is what low interest rates try to achieve. The spread is so small that it works out with the additional purchases and revenue streams.
But now, their loans aren't renewable at a low rate, it now costs too much to finance this operation. So they bail, I expect many others to do too. It doesn't make sense in our economy.
Outside of a very risk adverse economy, these things are not good and nice to see them go. The savings of people going down and economy tightening are just extras on top.
It was doomed (Score:1)
You can't sell an item that's worth 25% of the selling price and then expect people to pay 4 times.
Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
Buy now, pay later is a terrible idea primarily used to suck money out of people foolish enough to believe their life circumstances will suddenly improve for the better in just a few short months. The fact that WalMart now offers it at their self-checkout should tell you all you need to know. It's predatory.
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Buy now, pay later is a terrible idea primarily used to suck money out of people foolish enough to believe their life circumstances will suddenly improve for the better in just a few short months.
It's not a few short months. These had to be paid back over six weeks, so one and a half months.
You can very nearly do that with a credit card already. Anything I buy on my credit card now won't come due until the next billing cycle. So, worst case, if I buy something with a credit card whose billing cycle ends today, I wouldn't have to pay that back for another month. If I buy something where the billing cycle just started, I could effectively push needing to pay for it to very nearly two months, and all i