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iOS 18 Now Offers Financing via Affirm After 'Apple Pay Later' Discontinued

onenorth said:
Whenever someone offers me zero percent I take it. Why use my money now when I can use someone else's for free, at least temporarily? And maybe boost my credit score too.
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I tend to agree, but only for long-term zero percent interest (i.e. 6 months or more). For example I used Affirm for a $1,000+ purchase not long ago, paid out over 18 months interest free. Why not?

I get more benefit from credit card points than I do a short-term zero-interest loan like Apple Pay Later - and if I time my purchase to take place right after the credit card bills, I essentially don't have to pay for the purchase for almost 2 months, interest-free.
 
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I'll take free money whenever it's on offer and I've got really good credit and 0% financing was not on offer. Too bad Apple decided to do away with 24 month financing on unlocked phones. Now you need to deal with a carrier and their bloated and expensive contracts for 36 months. I guess the carriers must be lining Apple's pockets for these sweetheart carrier deals.
 
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Velroy said:
Sure, but why would they ever offer 0%? That sounds like the worst business decision you could make
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Because they make more than enough on the people they charge up to 36% on. And though I haven't read these specific terms, it's likely that even on that 0% if you fail to make a payment on time there are likely severe penalties. And for the 0% they still make money from Apple for the financing itself.
 
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NetMage said:
Until it breaks down and leaves you stranded and you lose your job.

Living only for survival is stupid unless you can't afford a better life. And if you can't, why do you have an IPhone? Just buy a $100 Android.
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It's all about priorities. Even with a car, cheaper doesn't necessarily mean unreliable. Perhaps especially with cars, they're only allowed to be designed so bad due to safety regulations. Not so with computers and a lot of other things.

You can get a cheap basic car and don't skip basic maintenance and it will be fine. It will still get up to 80mph and work properly for at least 100k miles if it's not a lemon. Sadly, stores sell tons of computers that are basically designed to be garbage. Total waste of money.
 
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ThomasJL said:
Does "for as low as 0% APR" mean it could possibly be higher than 0% APR? Although I don't know the answer to that question, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple started charging interest because Tim Cook is so unethical that it wouldn't be surprising if he decided to act like a bankster.
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Probably depends on your credit rating. It could also be 0% for a limited time. Like pay off within 3 months and its 0% and after that the interest kicks in. I recently inquired about auto repairs and the shop mentioned a payment plan that worked that way.
 
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Velroy said:
Sure, but why would they ever offer 0%? That sounds like the worst business decision you could make
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It's been 0% for years until recently when the interest rates went higher.

The company doens't decide if 0% is a good or bad decision, it's the central bank. If rates are high then the company that is offering you the financial is paying interests and they need to charge you as well (so it can't be 0%). If the interest rates are low they can offer 0% because advancing the money to you costs almost nothing and they make more with the sale.

Until a couple of years ago the interest rates were incredibly low and everyone was offering 0%. Then last year. because of the inflation, the central bank raised the interet rate by a lot so all these financial services stopped offering 0% apr.

Now the economy is bad, the inflation is under control and the central banks of a lot of countries started to lower the interest rates again. It's happening now so i don't think it will affect the current situation but at this rate next year the interest rates could be low enough again to offer that kind of service.
 
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