Tech giant, Apple, has announced that it has discontinued giving loans through its buy-now-pay-later program, Apple Pay Later, that was launched last year.
According to an Apple statement obtained by 9to5Mac, consumers will be able to apply for “instalment loans” via credit cards, debit cards, and lenders while using Apple Pay later this year.
This new service, available globally via iOS 18 on the Apple Pay platform, will allow customers to manage open loans from within the Wallet app.
The move follows Apple’s announcement that instalment loans would be available in its Apple Pay checkout process later this year through third-party companies like Affirm and credit and debit cards from issuers such as Citigroup.
Newsng gathered that Apple Pay Later users in the United States could pay for products up to $1,000 (£788) in four instalments over six weeks without incurring interest or fees.
The plan constituted a foray into financial services, with Apple effectively giving loans to users rather than relying on banks and other traditional lending institutions.
Apple confirmed to the publication that users with existing Pay Later loans will be able to pay them off and track them using Wallet. Apple had only begun submitting payment information to Experian in March, and not to the other two credit bureaus.
The tech company did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but informed 9to5Mac in a statement that the change will take place later this year (iOS 18 will be released in September), and that loans will be available through credit cards, debit cards, and lenders when customers pay for an item using Apple Pay.
“With the introduction of this new global instalment loan offering, we will no longer offer Apple Pay Later in the U.S.
“Our focus continues to be on providing our users with access to easy, secure, and private payment options with Apple Pay, and this solution will enable us to bring flexible payments to more users in more places across the globe, in collaboration with Apple Pay-enabled banks and lenders,” the company wrote.
We earlier reported that Apple has been working on processors that would enable artificial intelligence applications to function in data centres.