jimh2

larryjw said:

rob53 said:

The biggest online Pay Later company has to be Pay Pal, not Apple Pay, so why aren't you including them in this article? Of course, every credit card company used on-line has always done this as their normal business.

You are incorrect as to credit card companies. Loans by credit card companies are reported to the credit agencies. And, whether you agree with them or not, credit card companies have dispute resolution standards, consumers have protections.

BNPL may not have late fee policies, return policies, dispute policies.

CFPB points out that BNPL has similar markings to the old lay-away plans, but the difference are while layaway plans were typically used for the infrequent large purchases, BNPL encourages small quick purchases, ill-considered, encouraging accumulated debts. 

Apple's offering is likely to be better than other systems as 1) their customer base is on the high end consumer, 2) they know a reasonable amount about their customers Apple debt level, 3) with the Apple Card, they dynamically keep their customers aware in the Wallet how much accumulating debt they have.

I have no idea about the other BNPL companies: Affirm, AfterPay, Klarna, PayPal, Zip, but I doubt their users have the ability track their debt load.