After a long period of testing and regulations, Apple is finally launching its new financial service. From the same house of ideas behind the game-changer Apple Pay, here comes Apple Pay Later. In case you don’t know, it does basically what it says. If you live in the US, you can use the service to split your purchases into four payments with no interest and no fees. Yeah, this is a very interesting feature that may put a threat to traditional banks and credit cards. However, you will still need the luck to get it.
Apple Pay Later is official, but there is a catch
The service works like Klarna and other “Pay Later services”. The difference here is that it’s part of Apple’s ecosystem and is part of the Apple Wallet. The feature is available, but only for those who got an invite. That part will require some luck, after all, no one knows exactly what parameters Apple is using. To be honest, it seems that the invites are being sent randomly. The selected users will get early access to the pre-release version of Apple Pay Later.
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Pay Later works on online and in-app purchases through the iPhone or iPad running iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4. These are mandatory steps to do anything with the new payment system. You can’t go to the street and pay for a coffee with Apple Pay Later. Perhaps, in the future, we may see something like that. Worth noting, however, that right now, merchants also need to accept Apple Pay.
As per Apple, the new Apple Pay Later is “designed with users’ financial health in mind”. Perhaps, Apple believes that there is some sort of financial health in paying your purchases in four installments. Well, we have to agree that it gives certain room and time, but in the end, the payments are split over six weeks. That’s right, you won’t pay in monthly installments, but over a period of up to six weeks. So keep that in mind before proceeding with your purchases. Worth noting, that it’s easy to track your purchase and future payments through the Apple Wallet.
Worth noting that you can apply for Apple Pay Later loans of $50 to $1,000. Once you’re approved, you’ll see the Pay Later option when you open the Apple Pay checkout. Once Apple Pay Later is ready, you can also apply for a loan directly in the checkout flow when proceeding with a purchase.
As you may expect, the full-fledged version of Pay later will arrive “in the coming months”. Of course, the wider release won’t need random invites.
