Apple launched its buy now, pay later (BNPL) service in the US to compete for the more than $100 billion in purchases Americans making using this payment method.
The service, named Apple Pay Later, will allow users to split purchases into four payments spread over six weeks with no interest or fees. Initially offered to select users, Apple plans a full roll-out in the next few months.
Apple Pay Later will be enabled through the Mastercard Installments program, with Goldman Sachs as the issuer of the Mastercard payment credential. Providing consumers with an ability to make purchases they might not have afforded otherwise—and doing so, potentially, with no fees or interest payments—is a definite win for consumers.
Helping to enable sales that might not have happened otherwise is, likewise, a win for the merchants.
Apple has about 50 million Apple Pay users and 6.5 million Apple Card holders. Driving buy now, pay later purchases with Apple Pay users will help Apple identify potential Apple Card converts to grow that business.
Observers on social media and blogosphere often claim that “BNPL is here to stay.
That’s an odd perspective because BNPL—sometimes referred to as installment payments or point-of-sale financing (POSF)—has been around longer than some of the observers.
Source: Forbes
In other news – Zahara causes a scene at the airport as she fights security
What was supposed to be a wonderful week of introducing her fiancé to her parents ended in tears for musician Zahara after she missed her flight back to Johannesburg, following an altercation with airport staff on Friday night.
The Loliwe hitmaker was filmed in an eight-second video, which the publication has seen, in which she and her fiancé Mpho Xaba were blocked from going through the boarding gates by security. Learn more
