Apple rolls out Apple Pay Later to randomly selected users, ahead of the big release

Some time ago we learned that Apple is soon going to officially introduce the Apple Pay Later service. Now some news coming in indicates that the company is going to test the service by inviting some random users to utilize a prerelease version of Apple Pay Later. The prerelease version is available through the Wallet app. Initially, the service is available in the United States. Do note that it requires iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 to operate.

Apple states that in the next few months, the service will be widely available to iPhone users in the US. The only restriction is age. To access Apple Pay Later services, a user must be above 18 years of age. Last year, in June, the company announced the new financing option at the WWDC 2022. Apple Pay Later is basically a buy now, pay later program. It permits the users to split the payment of any Apple product into four parts over the span of six weeks. Interestingly, it carries no interest or additional charges.

The company states that users can apply for loans of $50 to $1,000. These loans can be used for both online as well as in-app purchases made with Apple Pay on iPhone and iPad. Users can simply apply for a loan within the Wallet app. Note that applying for a loan doesn’t impact the user’s credit.

How to use it?

Users are required to enter the amount they like to borrow. Read and proceed with the Apple Pay Later terms. Users will be given a soft credit check during application processing. Once a user is approved, Apple Pay Later will be accessible as an option when using Apple Pay.

For iPhone users, Apple pay Later is provided as a built-in option in the Wallet app. Thus, enabling users to view, track, and manage loans in one place. The upcoming payments could be set on a calendar. Moreover, users can select to receive notifications regarding upcoming payments via the Wallet app as well as email. Furthermore, a debit card must be linked with the app in order to repay the loan. Since the app doesn’t accept credit cards.

Apple Financing LLC, a subsidiary of Apple, is in charge of credit assessment and lending to users. Apple Pay Later utilizes the Mastercard Installments program. Given this fact, dealers that accept Apple Pay don’t require anything additional to implement it. Do note that Apple Pay Later was already available to the company’s corporate and retail employees, as part of initial testing. Now the company is going to roll out the prerelease version of the service to random users as part of initial testing.