Malcolm Owen
Apple is allegedly working with Goldman Sachs to provide enhanced installment payment plans to its customers without using Apple Card, in a service internally known as "Apple Pay Later."
Apple currently provides customers with various ways to pay for goods in installments, including through Apple Card. However, the iPhone maker is apparently planning to offer a similar installment plan service for normal Apple Pay transactions.
Thought to be called "Apple Pay Later," Bloomberg reports the service will employ Goldman Sachs as a lender, but without requiring the customer to have an Apple Card. Instead, it will offer installment payment plans for typical Apple Pay transactions.
It is claimed customers making an Apple Pay purchase will have the option to break down the cost to four interest-free payments made every two weeks, or across multiple months with interest. The four-payment option is apparently called "Apple Pay in 4," while the latter is called "Apple Pay Monthly Installments."
When a purchase is made through one of the two plans, consumers will be able to choose which of their payment cards will be used for their payments. It would also potentially apply to practically any Apple Pay transaction, as it wouldn't be limited to just Apple products.
Some versions of the plan will exclude late fees and processing fees, with interest being the only real cost for some of the longer plans. It also apparently won't require a credit check to be run against the user, and will offer the opportunity for users to pay off the remaining balance early.
The move could put Apple up against other interest-free installment plan services, including PayPal's "buy now, pay later" service and offerings from Klarna and Sezzle.
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William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
32 Comments
Exclusive to the US, of course
At this rate it won't be long until Apple have more financial products than they have computer products.
Tying it in with Apple Pay opens it up to potential anti-trust problems as the competitors don’t have access to the low level Apple Pay features to offer a competing product.