Apple scraps its ‘buy now, pay later’ service in the US

Apple has scrapped its “buy now, pay later” service, Apple Pay Later, which it launched in the US only last year, marking a retreat in the iPhone maker’s ambitions to become a major provider of traditional financial services. 

The tech giant says it is pivoting to a new instalment loans service offered through third-party credit and debit cards.

“With the introduction of this new global instalment loan offering, we will no longer offer Apple Pay Later in the US,” Apple said in a statement on Monday. Users with open loans through Apple Pay Later will continue to have access to features, but no new loans are being offered.

Apple announced its BNPL offering in mid-2022 and launched the service last year in what represented a major incursion into traditional banking services, with the iPhone maker making short loans on its own rather than partnering with a bank.