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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple plans to debut interest-free payment plan options for customers who purchase iPads, AirPods, Macs, and more using Apple Card, allowing them to pay for purchases over several months.

apple-card-titanium-and-app.jpg

According to Bloomberg, Apple will roll out the Apple Card feature in the coming weeks, with customers given up to 12 months to pay for their products before interest is due.

The 12 month plan will be available for iPads, Macs, the Apple Pencil, iPad keyboards, and the Pro Display XDR, while six month payment plans will be offered for AirPods, Apple TV, and HomePod.

Customers will be able to make payments through the Wallet app, with charges added each month to their Apple Card bills.

Apple rolled out a 24-month interest free iPhone installment plan for Apple Card users back in December, which lets customers purchase an iPhone with the Apple Card and pay over the course of 24 months.

The new device payment plans will work in the same way. Customers will get three percent Daily Cash back for their purchases, and the plans will be compatible with Apple's educational discounts.

During Apple's most recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple was planning to provide payment plan options for devices other than the iPhone. "As you know, we launched the payment plan earlier on ‌Apple Card‌ for ‌iPhone‌," he said. "We're working on that for other products and you'll see something on that shortly."

Apple's upcoming payment plans are meant to boost sales of Apple devices by allowing customers to pay for their items over time, as well as bolster Apple Card signups.

Article Link: Apple Planning Interest-Free Apple Card Payment Plans for Macs, AirPods, iPads and More
 

konqerror

macrumors 68020
Dec 31, 2013
2,298
3,701
When your products are so overpriced that you need to sell a pencil with financing.

Because none of the PC vendors offer the same thing... oh wait

 

jb1280

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2009
869
255
This just reinforces the idea that Apple products and services are simply becoming subscriptions for their early adopters and best customers.

Couple this with their aggressive trade-in program currently in place and that becomes really clear

Win-win here. Good for consumers and good for Apple
 

zedsdead

macrumors 68040
Jun 20, 2007
3,436
1,251
I love the Barclays Card promo's throughout the year (although they go up to 18/24 months at times) but this will be welcome as well since the Barclays Card promos will likely come to a close. I assume the Apple promos will be anytime of the year though which is a benefit over the Barclays limited time offers.
 

konqerror

macrumors 68020
Dec 31, 2013
2,298
3,701
Yes, zero percent financing is quite common at this point in time. The anomaly is that credit card interest rates (including for the Apple Card) continue to be quite high compared to prime and bank rates.

It's not an anomaly because credit card risk is much higher. Besides the fact that zero percent financing is subsidized by the profit on the item itself, other reasons include the fact that credit cards can be used to purchase daily necessities and items subject to abuse, like alcohol, (whereas people usually don't buy new computers when they're poor), and that a credit card is a revolving line (that is difficult to shrink) whereas many zero-percent deals are subject to approval at the time of purchase.

The other thing is that the interest charged does produce profits that aren't derived from customers who don't carry a balance and reap rewards. As a comparison, look at American Express charge cards: by not being able to charge interest, the company ends up charging a minimum $150 annual fee plus roughly doubling the fee to merchants.
 
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CWallace

macrumors G5
Aug 17, 2007
12,522
11,539
Seattle, WA
I love the Barclays Card promo's throughout the year (although they go up to 18/24 months at times) but this will be welcome as well since the Barclays Card promos will likely come to a close. I assume the Apple promos will be anytime of the year though which is a benefit over the Barclays limited time offers.

Agreed. I would hope I can still do 18/24 on Barclays for my major purchases, but being able to finance smaller purchases at any time with an Apple Card would be nice.


Hopefully refurbs are eligible.

I would expect so. They are on the Barclays program.
 

lostngone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2003
1,431
3,804
Anchorage
I just applied for an Apple Card 2 days ago. I don’t have a credit score in the “excellent” range and I don’t make that much money but I am cautious when it comes to credit and don’t carry any credit debt I can’t cover.

However I found it almost frightening how quickly I was approved for a credit line. From the time I opened the wallet app, put in my information, took a picture of my drivers license and entered my income was less than 30 seconds before I was approved.
There is something to be said about convenience but that is a little scary.
 

Clix Pix

macrumors Core
I have been very happy with my Apple Card so far, and this adds more value to having it..... I am not in the market for a new Mac or iPad right now, but when the time comes it will be nice to use my Apple Card to purchase them and with zero interest payments for a while, so if I choose to make payments rather than plunking out the full amount immediately, that is a nice option.
 

lostngone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2003
1,431
3,804
Anchorage
A human who's never met or seen you isn't going to do any better. In fact, it brings into question potential discrimination (race, gender, etc). If you have a computer make a decision, and all the information is consistent, then why shouldn't it take seconds?

Well if someone doesn’t know how to manage money or have a understanding what 21% interest is going to do. To go from approved to in-debt that might take them years to get out of and screw up their lives in less than a minute, yes I think it should at least a little bit more in-depth.

Also you do realize computers are nothing more than the Sum of the person/people who programmed them so computers can be racist and just like with some humans they won’t even realize it or worse not have any ability to even care.
 

konqerror

macrumors 68020
Dec 31, 2013
2,298
3,701
Well if someone doesn’t know how to manage money or have a understanding what 21% interest is going to do. To go from approved to in-debt that might take them years to get out of and screw up their lives in less than a minute, yes I think it should at least a little bit more in-depth.

That's why they look at your credit record. Your credit score is hugely influenced by the number of lines of credit you have, how long they are open, what percent of utilization they are at and if they are in good standing. If all of those are positive, you have very strong evidence that they know how to handle credit.

Also you do realize computers are nothing more than the Sum of the person/people who programmed them so computers can be racist.

A computer algorithm can be easily audited and understood. For example, if none of the inputs are race or gender, then you can say that the algorithm does not consider race or gender in its decisions. On the other hand, a human approver can draw conclusions when they see a person's name (imagine somebody's last name is Sun or Wong) or things like their employer (i.e. person worked for a lingerie shop) and credit history (they have a loan at the Comunidad Latina Federal Credit Union), and it would be impossible to prove either way.
 

lostngone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2003
1,431
3,804
Anchorage
A computer algorithm can be easily audited and understood. For example, if none of the inputs are race or gender, then you can say that the algorithm does not consider race or gender in its decisions. On the other hand, a human approver can draw conclusions when they see a person's name (imagine somebody's last name is Sun or Wong) or things like their employer (i.e. person worked for a lingerie shop), and it would be impossible to prove either way.

That is incorrect,
let’s ignore things like facial recognition(The application made me take a picture of my drivers license) and like you mentioned someone’s name for this argument let’s only look at where does this person live, Income, purchasing history, place of employment(General type, not specifically), level of education and Credit history.

With just just those six data streams processed by an analytic AI and even without any intended racial bias programmed in the computer can very easily discriminate based on how that data is weighted. Now you could argue there was no intent or malice on the computers/programs part but that doesn’t change the outcome or somehow make it okay.
 
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