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| Apple wants you to buy things without paying for them right away |
Apple is developing a new service that enables consumers to purchase Apple Pay in installments, similar to PayPal's "buy first, pay later" products.
The upcoming service, internally called Apple Pay Later, uses Goldman Sachs as a lender for the loan required to pay the installments.
Goldman Sachs has been Apple's partner for Apple Card credit cards since 2019. The new offer has nothing to do with Apple Card and should not be used.
Buy-to-pay could help drive Apple Pay adoption and convince more users to use iPhones instead of standard credit cards to pay for their goods.
Apple charges a percentage of fees from Apple Pay transactions, bringing the company's annual revenue to more than $50 billion.
The service is currently expected to work like this: When users make purchases on Apple devices using Apple Pay, they can choose whether they want to make four interest-free payments every two weeks or interest over several months.
New Apple services are still in development in development
The 4-stage payment plan is internally called Apple Pay at 4 and the long-term payment plan is called Apple Pay Monthly.
When purchasing with the Apple Pay Later program, users can choose which credit card to pay for.
The service plan can be used for shopping in retail stores or online.
Apple offers monthly payments through Apple Card to purchase its own products. But this service extends this technology to every Apple Pay transaction.
It's not clear what interest rate Apple wants to charge in monthly installments. These four interest-free payment plans are comparable to similar systems like PayPal's popular Pay-in-4 service.
Users who want to use Apple Pay later must be approved by requesting the iPhone Wallet app, where they can also manage payments.
Users are also required to provide a copy of their local ID in order to apply for the program. Apple also offers customers the option to opt out of a payment plan to settle the remaining purchase balance.
Some Apple Pay Later plans do not include late fees and processing fees, and users only receive interest on long-term plans. The service also does not require a credit check on the user.
The company is also testing a feature that will allow users to create temporary digital credit cards for personal purchases through Apple Pay Later.