Apple’s “Buy Now, Pay Later” service to view users’ spending history, Apple devices they own

As Apple enters the lending business with a “buy now, pay later” service, the company is setting rules for how it will approve transactions. A key factor: if you have been a good customer in the past. The Apple Pay Later service – announced last year but still in testing – will assess borrowers based on their spending history and even the company devices they own. The program, which allows shoppers to make purchases and then pay installments, will also check whether customers have applied for an Apple Card credit card and other cards they have linked to their Apple Pay accounts.

The offering is part of a broader push into financial services, which is seen as a big growth opportunity for the tech giant, but also one with potential pitfalls. Already, the Pay Later service is falling behind: it was originally planned last year. The company is also working on an internal infrastructure for financial products that will help reduce its reliance on banking partners.

The lending criteria were revealed as part of a test of the service with Apple employees, who can now use the option for their own personal purchases. The assessments determine whether the company is willing to lend applicants money and how much it will approve. Many testers are seeing loan approvals for $1,000 (around Rs 82,900) and below.

Apple Pay Later loan offers expire after 30 days, and applications will sometimes require a copy of a government ID, a full social security number, and two-step verification on an Apple account, according to the release notes. service testing. Loan status with Apple Pay Later will not affect access to other company services.

A spokeswoman for Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., declined to comment. Bloomberg originally reported on the company’s lending strategy last March.

Apple is counting on new services to help sustain growth, especially after a recent slowdown. The company posted disappointing holiday sales early in the month but gave investors a reassuring outlook. And stocks have gained 18% this year.

The new service will allow Apple to leverage its wealth of customer data, including their spending at company outlets, App Store transactions, and services like peer-to-peer payments. peer Apple Cash. Apple Pay, a mobile payment service launched in 2014, and the Apple Card, which debuted in 2019, have given the company an even closer connection to consumers’ financial lives.

The Pay Later system is integrated into the Wallet app on the iPhone and allows users to make an Apple Pay purchase in four installments over the next six weeks. When customers sign up, they are asked to give an amount they want to borrow, then the system returns with an approved total, similar to the Spending Authority feature for American Express cards.

The service marks the first time the company has used an in-house payment platform and made loans itself. Apple has created a company called Apple Financing that will handle credit applications, loans and approvals. Yet Apple Card partner Goldman Sachs is the issuing bank and the payment network provider is MasterCard.

Apple Pay Later documentation shows that transaction histories are stored with its funding subsidiary, Goldman Sachs and MasterCard – but not with Apple itself, for privacy reasons.

The company is gearing up to launch Apple Pay later in the coming weeks after rolling out the test to thousands of retail employees earlier this month. Prior to expanding to retail staff, Apple had been testing the program with company employees for several weeks.

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