Apple Pay Later is now live but there's a huge catch

Months after it was expected to launch alongsideiOS 16in September 2022,Apple Pay Lateris now live in the United States. But that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to actually use it just yet.

Apple says that Apple Pay Later is now available to a limited number of people in the United States, with those people “randomly selected.” Everyone else will have to wait.

Those people who are selected will need to have an iPhone running iOS 16.4 or an iPad running iPadOS 16.4 in order to use Apple Pay Later, but beyond that the only limitation is that they be old enough to take out the buy now, pay later loan.

Buy now, pay later

The Apple Pay Later offering is an extension of Apple Pay that allows people to spread the cost of purchases. Those purchases must cost less than $1,000 and Apple’spress releasesuggests that not all merchants will support it. Apple says that a “soft credit pull will be done” to ensure that money isn’t being lent to someone who can’t afford to pay it back, with the whole thing using the Mastercard Installments program. Goldman Sachs is also involved as the issuer of the Mastercard payment credention used for Apple Pay Later.

But little of that will matter to most people. All they want to know is how it works.

In its simplest form, Apple Pay Later is managed via the Wallet app and people will see the total amount of a purchase as well as when their payments will be due. They’ll also get a notifiucation before the money is requested, too.

Each purchase is paid for in instalments that are processed every two weeks to a maxium of six, with no interest or fees involved. Purchases of $50 to $1,000 are available via Apple Pay Later, and while Apple does say that merchants that accept Apple Pay are good to go, that caveat we mentioned earlier still stands - “some merchants may not be eligible to offer Apple Pay Later.”

Right now there’s no indication of when Apple will roll Apple Pay Later out completely, nor whether it will get an international launch. The signs aren’t good though, withApple Cardstill only available in the U.S.