If you want to buy something now with postpay, you have to rely on payment partners such as Klarna and AfterPay. Some webshops also offer their own variant of this. New rumors indicate that Apple plans to add such a service to Apple Pay, called “Apple Pay Later”. For this, Apple is once again partnering with Goldman Sachs. The two already work together for the Apple Card credit card.
‘Interest-free repayment possible with Apple Pay Later’
Apple would work on two variants of the service: an interest-free period with which you pay in 4 installments of two weeks, but also a longer period with interest. The first program is more pleasant for smaller purchases of £100, while for a large purchase such as an expensive television you may want to have a little more time to pay it back. It is not yet known how much interest Apple wants to ask in the second case. In the first program you immediately pay a quarter of the amount. How that works in the second program is still unknown.
Subscribers to the service can choose to pay in installments when making an online purchase and in the physical store. No Apple Card is required to use Apple Pay Later. This credit card is not available with us, which gives a little more hope for a Dutch and Belgian introduction of Apple's new service. Nevertheless, we would take that hope with a grain of salt.
Paying afterwards with Apple Pay: a wise move?
While such a feature will undoubtedly work well and be pleasant to use, we have doubts about how sensible it is to introduce it. Apple is currently under fire over its dominant position with the App Store and other services. The company would retain too much power and prevent fair competition.
When Apple customers use the postpay service, they are in debt to Apple and it becomes even more unattractive to switch from the iPhone to another device. It is almost certain that the market watchdogs will look closely at this. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg emphasizes that Apple wants to adopt PayPal's payment terms in America. In this way, Apple plays the game carefully.
Before paying afterwards with Apple Pay can really get off the ground in the Netherlands, we think that more webshops should first use the service. At the moment, that number is quite limited. Large stores such as Media Markt, Amazon and bol.com, for example, do not participate in online Apple Pay. In our tip you can read which online stores accept Apple Pay.