I should be over qualified then.

US only for sure

I can’t wait for Apple to start a mortgage company. “Yes, of course I can afford this house. I own the entire line of Apple products, including the polishing cloth”

oh for suuuure

the best way to go into debt ever on an iPhone

Apple is going to become the newest credit agency.

Nope I’m all set. Klarna got enough from me before I deleted it.

Apple getting into so many deferred payment schemes is a sign that something is deeply wrong with our economy.

The top specced Mac Pro could be a down payment on a house

I’m not sure how they would view people who jailbreak like me xD

I’m pretty excited for this. I know pay in 4 systems get a bad rep and understandably so, but if used wisely is can be a massive help.

For example, my microwave died and I didn’t want to drop all that $500 at once and I didn’t want to carry a balance on my credit card so I paid for it on my pay day using Pay in 4 with another system and it worked out.

Another was with my car insurance. There’s a $430 discount for paying the premium up front vs monthly. So I just threw the whole thing on Pay in 4 and got the discounted rate.

Our consumer economy runs on credit, full stop. There's been something deeply wrong for about 60 years at this point.

Might be obvious, but these systems are only a problem if you buy things you can’t afford, just like a credit card. But it’s nefarious because it tricks people into buying things they can’t afford

Yeah. It makes me sad too because it’s like - a fun thing here and there? Fine. But I work for a bank and I’ve seen some accounts that have a LONG series of purchases from Zip/Klarna/PayPal installments etc. Like “entire paycheck is pretty much gone” amounts. It’s an easy pit to fall into.

Entire country is based on credit and debt.

Yeah this is not it. The intention of these schemes is to psychologically manipulate customers into spending more than they have.

It’s almost like something went very wrong in the 1970s when wages stopped rising with productivity and instead a class of people became extraordinarily rich.

$500 for a microwave bro??

I know, right? But it’s for a home of 5 people and it’s above range with exhaust fan and a bunch of other stuff. The one installed before came with the house and had been there since 2001 so fingers crossed this lasts as long.

The extraordinarily rich became extraordinarily richer

Nah they just see it’s profitable so why should they let someone else get all the profit

My chase card lets me turn anything into pay in 4. Pretty nifty

Yah microwaves aren’t really cheap

But do you own two polishing cloths?

this credit culture is rising in india too, ppl are buying phones worth 2 months of their salary.

though buying especially relatively cheap items like phones on credit is way more prevalent in america

When I moved in with my fiancé a couple of months ago, we didn't have a stove (or anything, really) yet moving out of our parents places. Bought the cheapest store-brand microwave from an electronics store, $140. And for $140, it's really not doing a great job of being a microwave, or an oven with the oven function, honestly. But it gets the job done and we'll buy a more proper microwave when it dies (which will probably be a couple of months after the warranty runs out).

I went through the same thing 8 years ago in an apartment. Figured microwaves were like 40 bucks. Well they aren’t. We didn’t even get one and actually liked it. But it would be hard without a stove lol

wow a fully specced mac pro is $52,348.00

Most definitely, good luck man!

Some areas it could be a small house

Thankfully, we were able to put in our brand new induction stovetop 2 weeks ago. I did not cheap out on that, and I'm glad I didn't. This thing boils water in 30 seconds - hell yeah!

We think you’re going to love it

iDebt

Can’t wait for idiots starting to camp, to be the first one to get their hands on this.

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Do you know what’s also obvious you or anybody else is not force to use it.

I don’t think I’d get a mortgage through Apple if I’m being honest. I think they’re great but I really don’t think I could live in a house without Windows.

That has a flat fee though, Apple doesn’t charge anything

Booooooo. That’s a great one lol

Right?

The whole splitting a purchase over installments thing a useful tool when properly utilized. But like any tool, it shouldn’t be overly relied upon. But if you have an unexpected purchase? Sure, now I can split it across two paychecks instead of taking a lump sum from my emergency fund.

Oh I haven’t used it yet I didn’t realize it had a fee. Kind of sounds like interest lmao

Yeah it’s a little scammy that they advertise “no interest” and then charge you a fee (based on how much you’ve spent, split evenly over your monthly payment, so exactly like an interest)

I still think it’s cool when you can do some of this stuff on the bank side so it opens up a lot of flexibility.

I just say I’ve been using my Apple Card more and more for online purchases. It’s just so easy

I’m sure this will be huge. Hell, I heard an ad today for a crowdfunded payday loan app. These services are so predatory though, it’s really not a good practice to use them unless you know what you’re getting into.

Thank god, i totally thought apple was going to forcibly remove all other methods of payment

But that’s not why they’re implementing that and I think you know that. They don’t make any money when you take on a responsible amount of debt you can pay off. They make money from the people that take on too many payments then can’t afford to pay them on time.

Or they get a cut of the sales price, same as a normal credit card fee? Hell if I know how they work it. Not my problem.

I’ll be blunt, if it’s available and I fail to use it responsibly, that’s my problem. If it’s available and multiple people fail to use it responsibly, then that’s their problem. If it’s multiple multiple people then it’s a matter for regulators.

I’m not worried about myself. I’m worried about the people that are going to be harmed when this ends up at everyone’s fingertips.

With all the (pretty good) jokes and memes over here, Apple is honestly brilliant for doing this. There’s a true addiction for their brand on the market and I can actually see many many people using this. Broke, “bad with money” people, but many nonetheless.

If they start offering MacBook Pros as an incentive to refinance with them, I’d consider

Uhm, I think I saw that MKBHD put that fully specced Mac in Apple’s trade-in program and got only like 1000$ for it so…good luck with that lol

Apple Card in the UK would be nice. Or even Apple Cash.

When are we getting social credit scores?!

And the apple book. Don’t forget that one.

Wait, there are other countries? U sure?

The most underrated comment here

I wonder how this will turn out though with Apple also being a retailer themselves. Hundreds of retailers in the past have gotten into trouble for essentially running as a bank with lines of credit and things like that, and this is walking a fine line into that. Apple gets away with the Apple Card, because jt’s handled through Synchrony Bank, but this being through them is getting a lot closer to self-banking. Sure, it’s not exactly credit, but I’m still intrigued how Congress and everything will see it.

In some places it doesn't cover a years rent.

Oh yeah, the trade in prices are terrible. I was trying to say that the price of a Mac Pro could be equivalent to a down payment.

4 installments over 6 weeks? You’re telling me someone can’t afford to pay for something right now but will be able to in 6 weeks? What’s the purpose of short-term financing?

Apple be like: Introducing the Apple Glass, clearest glass we ever made, yet.

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Catalogue Smart houses might make an impact.

Tired of dealing with grimy, stealing contractors? Buy Apple House Pro+, only $999,999.

That’s a down payment on a really nice house.

Who needs this? Is it running the Mars rover command center? Is it managing America's entire nuclear arsenal? Is it replicating Ronald Reagan's brain in realtime? Is it composing Hamlet III?

Apple getting into the loan shark game. Those profit margins going UPPPPP

I hope this is an error. The author misspelled "installments" (as instalments) so you never know.

This is true. Without credit now days, you won’t get far anywhere

AAPL has over $500 in the cash mountain for every US resident… at average 30% APR, they can double that cash in 2.6 years

And some people think that BTC is easy money

My critique would be, in all your examples, you’re already overextended. If you are an adult and can’t afford to just pay any of those things off in full at the time, then you are already in a very bad position financially. The people that are going to use this, are those in financial hardships and as such are disproportionately more likely to make poor money decisions and not see the risks, making their situation much worse.

Will probably not make it to the UK will it 😒

If you have the money to afford it, BNPL systems are actually the smartest way of buying something. The danger is that it allows people who think they can afford it to go beyond their means, but BNPL in itself is not a bad thing.

Considering a good portion of Apple's perception is as a status symbol...

That $52,000+ laptop is the ultimate flex.

Hahaha

I guess they didn’t proofread the article lol

Mac Pro not MacBook Pro

I read idebt the way you intended and then went on to read idiots the same way. iDiots…

That’s half the down payment (20%) on the average new home purchase as of this year.

20% down isn’t really standard anymore, though.

My country doesn't even have Apple Pay yet LOL

Just $5 more to close your spending ring for today! You can do it!

Look at that, it used to be 20%. Now it’s anywhere around 3-7%.

What happened to the high interest savings account? They put it in the key notes for 16.2 but I haven’t heard anything about it since

Your critique is completely valid, and I thank you for approaching it from a very mature standpoint. The truth is, I am not doing so hot. I’m trying to save as much as I can, times are tough, and my household is disproportionately reliant on me. This is only temporary, but I am doing the best I can.

My parents were bankers, so they taught me all about predatory loans early. While it’s not perfect, the pay in 4 option for me is working because it allows me to offset the high cost these unexpected necessities without falling into the trappings of a high interest loan that would be impossible to pay back or dipping into my savings. It’s the best of a bad situation and the most affordable in terms of staying liquid. Especially with all the sudden costs that came up recently.

To be clear, I don’t want my initial comment to serve as an endorsement for these type of products, I’m only relaying that it’s working for me in my very specific situation. I would never particularly recommend them to anyone, but if hard-pressed, I would absolutely recommend it as an alternative to a predatory high interest loan depending on their own circumstances.

Yeah. Up for discussion whether that’s a good thing or not, but I was just as surprised.

ah yes, this is a great idea during a recession!

“Automatic pre-approval is now included in Apple One when you sign up for an annual subscription. You’ll also receive a free HomePod mini with any property purchase over a million dollars.”

I’m still waiting for the savings account thing promised last fall…

ehhhh depends on where you live

God, I need to move away from nyc

Huh?

The average home price is like 350K, so it's 100% of a 20% down payment.

But I would do a smaller down payment personally. I can make a way higher return on the cash than the mortgage rates even at current rates.

Thanks dad.

$350k is average on home purchases, not new home purchases.

In other words, newly built homes, not new-to-you homes.

And it seems my Google ignored my query of “Average cost of new home purchases in the US” and instead just gave me Idaho homes.

My b everyone.

You are welcome, my child.

I mean, sure. The price of most things does.

What are you talking about? Extraordinarily rich people were around long before the 70s. Just look at people like Rockefeller and Carnegie. In today's money, they would've been the richest people in the world, even more so than the likes of Musk and Bezos.

Clear windows with the weather overlayed because it’s be awesome as fuck and completely redundant.

Exactly what everyone thinks Apple products are at launch before they blow people out of the water later.

I’m an underwriter and see the same thing. It’s really sad. And I even use Afterpay and Klarna, but keep it limited to one or two lines at a time.

I had one applicant have over 27 payments to different buy now pay later companies in one week.

Oh whoops 😅

Sub-prime Goldman Sachs credit approvals beg to differ.

Loan criteria: minimum two polishing cloths and a set of Mac Pro wheels

I'm puzzled for the same reason. If could see doing payments for a freaking $1200 phone over 12 months but this just seems useless.

Still, at the heart of it, needing to offer deferred payments and credit to make a purchase achievable speaks to how broken the system is. Wages are not at the same levels of inflated costs of goods. Costs of good just keeps increasing due to the lessened blow of payment options. This isn’t a nice solution, it’s economic manipulation and preying upon buyers with poor self control.

Where I’m staying, we have somewhat have these type of payment for 4 years already. I know some of my friends bought iPhones from buy now, pay later kinda thing

In nyc it is

NYC isn’t really the standard.

I thought the Apple Card was handled by Goldman Sachs?

Ah my mistake. Still though, point stands that the reason it’s fair game for Apple is it’s handled by an outside bank. This comes a lot closer to self-banking.

I was just curious. And I agree this comes dangerously close to self banking.

Yeah, other countries have regulations for hidden consumer credits

And then there is will of folks like me who take the 0% interest and make 3.8% on the rest for abtrottet month or three.

But what if I buy stuff in store instead of online? Was my $2k laptop all for nothing?

“You can expect that if a customer defaults on an Apple Pay Later product, they will not be offered the chance to use it again, and other features of their Apple ID may be disabled until their account is back in good standing.”

So basically ya’ll better pay your loan or apple’s going to lock your Apple ID and brick your shit

I really want to downvote this so bad

Some top of the line microwave lol.

Do they really think that only past spending with Apple will be enough? What if you’ve bought all your iPhones through third parties, and don’t make Apple Store purchases?

got the mac pro wheels?

I disapprove, but don’t disagree

HA!

If you spend $52k on a computer you probably have a huuuuge lap to put it on

Available in 4 amazing frosted finishes - Space Black, Classic Silver, Stunning Gold and all new Deep Purple

Exactly. There is nothing wrong to me for using any of apples 0% payment plans. Why would I pay upfront for a laptop I need. Some people out there would tell me to pay off my car early and not understand im not paying off a 0% loan.

Most underrated comment of the day

I read the article but have a question.

Is there APR of some sort involved? Or you literally just…pay later? Can you pay in chunks?

You mean getting people who can’t afford things and put them in debt?

Some people are choosing to forgo credit cards and use these services instead. Or people have bad credit and so they do these instead.

I’ve considered doing it for budgeting purposes before (in terms of record keeping monthly instead of it being a lump sum), but I’ve never actually done it before. I could pay for these things upfront but sometimes you want the budget to line up better month over month.

It’ll be like paypals pay in 3/4 where you basically just split the original payment up into even monthly chunks (I’ve used it a couple of times for my more expensive sim racing gear), they normally only allow 1 cut up payment at a time. Zero apr / interest, just the amount due. Obviously if you don’t pay then it might go wrong with items being claimed back etc or something like mega fees.

AirPower, the sequel

My bank says Apple Pay isn’t secure and yet they accept every other solution under the sun… literally EVERY bank here uses it, just not mine.

I was going to get one through Microsoft but it had like 80 back doors!

A 0% credit card is literally a better bet here though, you get longer than 6 weeks depending on your promotions (most offer 6 mo before they start charging interest, 6 weeks is nothing)

I just went directly to Goldman Sach’s website and opened a high yield CD and a high interest savings account. The CD was 4.75% for 18 months and the savings was just increased to 3.75%

Pics of your family sleeping mysteriously appearing in your icloud photo library

Then you're SOL?

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Then they don’t think it’s insecure, it’s not profitable enough for them.

Just switch your bank

None that matter

Most intelligent medical debt enjoyer.

This reminds me of the early 2000s when companies like GM and GE went all in on their financing divisions. That went poorly.

A sad state of our economic situation unfortunately. People will be paying high cost, no benefit (for them) mortgage insurance in lieu of that full down payment for at least 10 years. Considering the average lower premium these days (given prices) is around $1,500/yr that shit really adds up once one realizes they still need property insurance and taxes paid.

I’ve seen many people in my life get excited for an FHA loan since they can afford the tiny down payment, only to realize they can’t actually afford the true full cost because of PMI + escrow.

But if it helps escape being locked in renting then it almost always makes sense.

Wow man this man is going places lol 😎 good one

Credit is poor but I own a lot of apple stuff. Hopefully this qualifies me lol

Marcus? I’ve had a high interest savings through them for years. They boost the rates pretty regularly.

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24 tabs in Chrome duh

>For example, my microwave died and I didn’t want to drop all that $500 at once and I didn’t want to carry a balance on my credit card so I paid for it on my pay day using Pay in 4 with another system and it worked out.
>
>Another was with my car insurance. There’s a $430 discount for paying the premium up front vs monthly. So I just threw the whole thing on Pay in 4 and got the discounted rate.

Budgeting and saving take care of both of these.

I have a "home" category in my savings account. I throw a few dollars in there every month. There's enough to cover new appliances if they break.

I already know the annual premium for my car insurance is $1400. 1400/12 = $116, so that's how much I save into my car insurance category every month.

Interesting. Mind elaborating on being “the smartest way of buying something”

Zero medical debt. Excellent health insurance. Getting paid triple what I would in the UK. Sorry fam.

Ah yeah according to your comment history you only got student debt. Much better. Weird how such a rich boy earner doesn't even get approved for a 2nd credit card lmao

? You must have trouble reading. Don’t know where you got that idea from

My first thought was like, dude microwaves are 49 bucks at Wally World. But then I remembered how much I paid for my over range with all the upgrades.

As a really basic example, say you have $1200 and you want to buy something that costs $1200. You can either pay $1200 upfront, or you can pay it in $100 no interest installments over a year. If you choose to pay in installments, you can leave the rest of the money in a high-yield savings account and collect interest on it over that year, rather than handing it over right away. This means you can buy the thing you want without sacrificing the full opportunity cost of the money over the period.

Apple loses the opportunity value of getting that money upfront, but they guarantee you are committed to the purchase regardless. Further, it also allows them to secure future earnings from people who couldn't immediately afford a large purchase, like someone who doesn't have $1200 upfront, but has $100 disposable income a month. That person may have decided to forego a purchase altogether or buy something cheaper if not for the option.

If there is 0% interest on the purchase, installments is always better than upfront. Because you can invest and play around with the money in the installment time frame and potentially make some money off of your “principal.”

yup. Got it. Yea, it’s great for some for sure. Credit cards have been using 0% introductory rates to sucker the less financially savvy for years

/r/tihi

This is an excellent way for poor people to buy things as if they’re rich.

“Buy now pay later” is awful because it convinces people they can afford things they have no business buying.

I can’t imagine financing a phone, an appliance, or clothes.

I find it nuts how little Apple pays attention to Canada 🇨🇦 even though we’ve held up their market’s consistency for years.

you have the best dad ever!

From a fellow dad-joke connoisseur:

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

no wait the car insurance BNPL is wicked smart tho, I just paid for my car insurance up front for the first time and saved bank, but it hurt a little to watch 1k walk out of my account. throwing that bill on a pay in 4 is super smart, lmk if you’ve got any other savvy tips like that

Dude reply to my message

What?

Check ur chats

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I did. Nothing there

I don’t see anything in my chats