Technologies

How Apple’s New Buy Now, Pay Later Plan Works

A prerelease version of Apple Pay Later now lets select users quickly finance purchases up to $1,000.

Apple has finally launched its long awaited buy now, pay later plan — Apple Pay Later — but only for some iPhone owners.

In a press release Tuesday, Apple announced that a “prerelease version” of Apple Pay Later is now available for “select users.” The company didn’t specify which users or how many, though it says it “plans to offer it to all eligible users in the coming months.”

Apple Pay Later was first announced in June 2022 at Apple’s WWDC event and was expected to be released sometime in the fall of that year, but the product’s launch was delayed due to “significant technical and engineering challenges,” per Bloomberg. Apple’s new features page for iOS 16 still says that Apple Pay Later is “coming in a future update for qualifying applicants.”

Apple Pay is a feature within Apple Wallet, the iPhone’s digital wallet app that also includes Apple Card and Apple Cash. Apple Pay lets you save debit and credit cards electronically and make purchases online or in brick-and-mortar stores; Apple Card is a digital credit card issued by MasterCard and Goldman Sachs; and Apple Cash is a peer-to-peer payment service.

Apple’s entry into BNPL financing with Apple Pay Later comes at a time when many retailers are accepting payments from BNPL apps such as Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay. Most of these apps provide similar short-term interest-free payment plans, while a few offer longer installment plans with variable interest rates.

Learn everything there is to know about Apple Pay Later, including how it works, where it is accepted and when it will be available for all iPhone users.

For more on iPhones, learn all the cool new features in iOS 16.4 and 22 iPhone settings you should change right now.

How do I use Apple Pay Later?

Apple Pay Later lets you break the cost of purchases into four equal payments spread over six weeks. The first payment is due when you make your purchase, and the remaining payments are due every two weeks after that.

Once Apple Pay Later is set up on your phone, you have two options when completing a purchase: Pay in Full and Pay Later. Selecting the latter option will bring up a payment schedule displaying the amount of each of the four payments and when they will be due.

Stores and merchants don’t have to implement any changes in order to accept payments through Apple Pay Later. Transactions occur as they did before — the only difference will lie in how back-end payments are made. Apple Pay Later will work with any merchants who accept Apple Pay.

MasterCard Installments, the credit card company’s white-label BNPL service, is providing the merchant payments for Apple Pay Later. Apple has created its own financial subsidiary — Apple Financing LLC — that handles loan approvals and credit checks. Banking partner Goldman Sachs is the official loan issuer.

Payments for Apple Pay Later must be made with a debit card; you can’t use a credit card. You can set up automatic payments or make additional payments at any time. Each BNPL purchase will be reviewed and approved or rejected using a soft credit check.

Apple Pay Later has no plan to charge fees for late payments, though it may use late payments as an excuse to reject future BNPL loans. The minimum purchase for Apple Pay Later is $50; the maximum is $1,000.

When can I use Apple Pay Later on my iPhone?

If you’re one of the “select users” to receive an invite from Apple, you can start using Apple Pay Later now. For the rest of us, based on the wording in Apple’s press release, Apple Pay Later will likely be enabled for all Apple Wallet users in a future update to iOS.

Apple has already released four point upgrades since iOS 16 launched in September 2022. The first update — iOS 16.1 — came in October 2022; the second — iOS 16.2 in December 2022; the third — iOS 16.3 — in January 2023; and the fourth — iOS 16.4 — in March 2023.

Based on that bimonthly release schedule, all Apple Wallet users can probably expect access to Apple Pay Later some time in May 2023.

How is Apple Pay Later different from Apple Card Monthly Installments?

Apple Card Monthly Installments is an Apple program that lets you finance the purchase of certain Apple products when using the Apple Card credit card. The length of the 0% APR period for these purchases depends on the product. Installment plans range from six months to two years.

Apple Pay Later isn’t restricted to Apple products, nor does it require the use of the Apple Card. With Apple Pay Later, you can finance any purchases from $50 to $1,000 using a debit card, as long as it’s connected to Apple Wallet. Also, the interest-free installment period for Apple Pay Later — six weeks — is much shorter than the payment plans offered by Apple Card Monthly Installments.

What other Apple Wallet features were added in iOS 16?

One new Apple Wallet feature that launched with iOS 16 is Apple Pay Order Tracking, which adds the ability for merchants to provide detailed receipts and delivery statuses for purchased products to customers via Apple Wallet.

Apple also expanded support in Apple Wallet for driver’s licenses and identification cards. Following IDs from Colorado and Arizona, Apple Wallet plans to add support for 11 more states.

These driver’s licenses can be used at select Transportation Security Agency checkpoints. They can also be shared with other apps that require identification, such as alcohol purchases through Uber Eats.

Apple Wallet has also added support for sharing keys for locations such as hotels, offices or automobiles. New features let users share keys with friends or associates using email, text messaging or other messaging apps.

What other online services let you buy now and pay later?

Some existing online payment systems provide buy now, pay later short-term financing similar to what Apple Pay Later is offering. PayPal’s Pay in 4 program works very much like Apple Pay Later, except that purchases are limited to between $300 and $1,500.

BNPL app Sezzle also uses a system of four payments over six weeks, but permits users to reschedule one payment for up to two weeks later at no cost and postpone further payments for an additional fee.

Other BNPL apps such as Affirm and Klarna offer interest-free installment plans for short periods, or longer installment plans that add a variable interest rate.

Technologies

Anthropic warns investors of AI’s ‘existential risk to humanity’ in IPO prospectus, reports say

Anthropic’s IPO filing dedicates 80 pages to the risks of AI, nearly double the 48 pages it spends discussing its business plans, according to Reuters.

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Technologies

U.S., Iran hold separate mediator talks as Mideast oil exports hit war-time high

Iranian and U.S. officials reportedly met separately with mediators Monday to push for a ceasefire, as Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded to war-time high.

Iranian and U.S. officials reportedly met separately with mediators Monday to push for a ceasefire.

Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded this month to around their highest level since the war began in February.

An outright export ban by Washington on diesel would keep roughly 1.2 million barrels a day at home, and risks overwhelming Gulf Coast storage, according to Kpler.

The building of the destroyed Shajareh Tayebeh primary school is pictured surrounded by rubble in Minab in Iran’s Hormozgan province on August 10, 2026. Six months on, a team of AFP journalists obtained rare access to the school which has remained largely in ruins, its collapsed walls and twisted steel now surrounded by portraits of the children killed as Iranian flags flutter above the rubble. Iran says the attack on the school involved two separate US Tomahawk missiles but neither the United States nor Israel has officially claimed responsibility for the strike. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images) /

Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Images

U.S. and Iranian officials have reportedly held separate indirect talks with mediators on Monday, reviving efforts to end seven months of war as Tehran presses for a response to a revised ceasefire framework and Middle East crude exports climb to their highest level since the conflict began.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Qatari mediators in New York, where he remained after the United Nations General Assembly, and reportedly said he expects Washington’s reply by Tuesday. “We talked about ideas and how to find solutions to fulfil Iran’s conditions,” Araghchi said, adding that he planned to return to Tehran once a response arrives. “Whenever the Qataris have a response, they know how to get it to us.”

Iran’s proposal, first presented on the sidelines of last week’s General Assembly, calls for a four- to five-day U.S. timeline to release frozen Iranian funds, lift sanctions on Iranian oil and end the naval blockade of Iranian ports, with nuclear talks beginning within seven days. Tehran has tied any reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to those steps.

President Donald Trump had on Sunday called the plan “unacceptable” and rejected it, telling reporters Iran wants a swift deal because of the economic pressure it is under. Speaking at the White House Monday, Trump said U.S. officials had spoken separately with mediators but gave no further details, adding: “We’re going to win. It’s going to go pretty quickly.”

The diplomatic push comes as physical supply data shows the war’s toll on the oil market easing. Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded this month to around their highest level since the war began in February, Kpler data showed. “Middle East crude exports at just under 80% of pre-conflict levels,” the tracking firm said in a note on Monday.

The Strait of Hormuz itself remains far from normal. Kpler’s real-time tracking showed total clearance through the strait at 10,591 kilobarrels a day on Saturday, against a pre-war baseline of 17,133.

Technologies

Oil prices fall as crude exports recover at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports

Saudi Arabia has restored flows through the pipeline to around 3.5 million barrels per day, according to media reports.

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