Later this fall, Apple Pay Later will let customers in the United States pay for online and in-app purchases through a six-week installment plan with no interest or fees.
Previewed at WWDC, Apple Pay Later will let customers split a purchase into four equal payments paid over the course of six weeks. Apple Pay Later will include zero interest and no fees and will be available "everywhere Apple Pay is accepted," according to Apple.
Inside the Wallet app, users will see a new overview of all of their upcoming payments and how much they owe and can set a personal budget. Apple says that Apple Pay Later will only be available to qualifying applicants, but no further details have been shared.
Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update.
Apple Music
- Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...
Apple has unveiled a whopping eight new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and now the AirPods Max 2 this week.
iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's...
I find the 3 x fortnightly payment thing a bit strange. The use case for this would normally be to spread the cost across salary payments which, in the UK, normally happen monthly. I appreciate this is US only, so perhaps the payment frequency is different in the US?
US workers generally get paid fortnightly, and this is a US-only feature for now. Here in the UK it is common to have a credit card where, if you pay back your debt monthly with direct debit, you end up having ~1.5 month interest-free (I have that with my Amex). PS autocorrect wrote that US workers get laid fortnightly, does Apple know something I don’t?
Well that would be the fiscally responsible thing to do... but so many people lack the discipline to do that.
(those with such discipline, as well as not spending everything they make, typically don't use buy-now-pay-later financing...)
Paying cash when you can get an interest-free loan is not smart, financially speaking.
I can afford to buy anything that Apple currently sells in online store, but given the choice between paying all upfront, or paying over time, I would choose paying over time, every time, and I do.
Now, if there was a discount for cash, that would be a totally different story.
For more info about Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), CNBC ('https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/13/buy-now-pay-later-is-not-a-boom-its-a-bubble-harvard-fellow-says-.html') has some good articles. Search for "BNPL"- this is still a new 'product' in the US, "without much regulatory oversight, the BNPL market currently exists in “a legal gray space,” according to Lux."
The merchants / stores are able to ring up higher purchase totals; the banks loaning out the money are making their money through late fees, etc.
Good point...I was thinking about the money they make if the customer pays on time...the banks stand to make even more money on late fees, etc if the customer pays late. They only lose in a complete default which is probably relatively rare given the short terms and relatively low amounts of the funding.
Bleagh, now that it's clear what this product really is, it feels pretty unsavory for Apple to be getting involved with it.
