Apple Introduces Buy Now Pay Later Service in US

The ‘buy now pay later’ service will allow users to split their bills into four separate payments over six weeks, with absolutely no interest or fees

Apple has just launched its ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) service in the United States, allowing users to split their bills into four separate payments over six weeks, with absolutely no interest or fees.

Evident by its name, the ‘buy now, pay later’ service will allow users to get any product with no down payment and pay for the product through four small payments divided over six weeks, thus making purchases easier.

It’s suggested that Apple has launched the ‘Apple Pay Later’ service as a competitor to firms like ‘Klarna’ and ‘Affirm Holdings’, both of which offer similar BNPL services to their users and have been dominating the fintech sector for a while.

A newer feature, the Apple Pay Later is only released in the United States and is offered to a small set of users, before Apple decides to launch it on a larger scale in the coming months.

Once signed up for the Apple Pay Later, users can get a loan of $50 to $1,000 for their online and in-app purchases from any seller that accepts Apple Pay as a payment method.

Now this feature can become wildly popular in the US because more than 85% of all US retailers accept payment through Apple Pay.

While Apple Pay has a significant user base throughout EU and some Asian countries, it also has a bunch of competitors, however once it introduces features such as the Apple Pay Later, it will surely go on to dominate competition there as well.

“Apple Pay Later will absolutely wallop some of the other players. Other companies would’ve taken a look at Apple’s announcement today because they are an ubiquitous name. This will take a bite out of the market share of other players,” said AJ Bell’s head financial analyst, Danni Hewson, while talking about the new feature.

Right after Apple Pay Later was announced, both Affirm Holdings and PayPal noticed a share price drop of 7% and 1% respectively.

 

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