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The Almighty Buck Businesses

Amazon UK Launches 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Product With Barclays (standard.co.uk) 29

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Amazon has struck a deal with Barclays to push into the booming "buy now, pay later" market in Britain. From a report: Amazon UK said on Friday it was launching a new product in partnership with the bank called Instalments. The payment method will allow Amazon customers to spread the cost of certain purchases over several instalments between 3 and 48 months after purchase. Amazon and Barclays first launched the product in Germany last year but today's deal represents Amazon's first foray in Britain into the "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) market, which was pioneered by Swedish giant Klarna. BNPL lets customers defer payments until a future date or spread them over instalments. BNPL has become a popular alternative to credit cards for young shoppers online. Over 5 million people have used the payment method in the UK since the start of the pandemic, according to official estimates.
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Amazon UK Launches 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Product With Barclays More

Amazon UK Launches 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Product With Barclays

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  • This is not a product. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is a service. Worse, it's not even a service that's good for you: It exists to tempt you to incur debt, thereby making the creditor money. And the middle man, in this case amazon.

    • Re:This is not a product. (Score:4, Informative)

      by fermion ( 181285 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @01:07PM (#62091031) Homepage Journal
      Credit cards have long had programs that allowed consumers to pay over time with no interest. Barclays used to be apples program for this. The downside is that all accrued interest is charged if the debt is not resolved, and complicated conditions exists. The current Apple Card is better as the purchase is charged evenly over time, with interest charged normally.

      The scam with some of these programs is that a large fee is charged up front, and the interest is charged on top of that. If the buyer does not pay off the installments each month, the net effect will be at least a 50% increase in effective interest rate. I donâ(TM)t think there is any real advantage. I am not even sure if a person does pay off the installments each month if there would be a savings on interest.

      There are actually some good deals. Amazon might have negotiated a no fee program. For me it is hit and miss. Most of my Apple products are paid over time, and I mostly avoid internet.

    • FFS how is this different from a credit card?

      Is there no filter at /.? Must every press release be turned into a story here?

  • General Electric 2.0 (Score:3)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @11:49AM (#62090731)
    Amazon learned nothing from General Electric Financing crisis. Yes, this will lead to short-term sales boost as consumers gorge on debt, but it will result in uncollateralized debt that would crash at the same time as purchasing takes dive, making any recession much worse for the whole company.

  • Bondage for all ! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    BBC investigative program Panorama did a dive into this unregulated market, targetting youngsters with their traps, 80 years ago certain sectors figured this out, once you have them in your clutches they are yours, bonded, last time it cost the spivs their lives, maybe they think it will be different, we have gone from 100s of years of "rent seeking is bad" to "rent seeking is admirable, you should do it", i would be worried about what exactly they are teaching kids in university for a new age of middlemen

  • How is this something new? (Score:3)

    by etash ( 1907284 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @12:01PM (#62090791)
    Paying with instalments has been a practice since the 90s where I live (Greece) both in brick and mortar shops and online with the advent of the internet.
    • I can't decide if it's an endorsement or a criticism to point out that this same debt-related service was introduced years ago in Greece. [investopedia.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Frankly, this can probably date back for about as long as we've bartered for stuff. As long as we have had to exchange anything for anything, there's certainly been the concept of living up to your end of thte bargain later, in exchange for you having to give more. With more and more formalized higher risk for people depending on their perceived ability to pay back (secured loans with low penalty, unsecured long standing credit lines like credit cards at higher, and at the extreme end these loans for peopl

  • Buy crap you don't need (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sir_smashalot_3rd ( 8248420 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @12:03PM (#62090797)
    with money you don't have.
  • How is this different than Currency Exchange and Check Cashing places that rip customers off?

    • Currency exchanges don't offer products, they turn foreign currency into domestic currency (or Vice-versa) for a fee.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lsllll ( 830002 )
        You must not live in the U.S., or this could be just an "Illinois" thing, but a Currency Exchange in Illinois will not only exchange (some) currency, but it'll also cash your check, send money to others, give you loan advances based on your paycheck stub, give you a loan in exchange for the title to your company, yada yada yada. All of this comes to the detriment of the customer, because the deals are very heavily one-sided in favor of the company behind the Currency Exchange.

  • ...face consequences later. Typical human nature. This will be a huge success like many before it.

  • Would probably be a more honest name for this scheme.

    Credit Cards, deferred payment, payment in installments, all of it seems to be designed to fuck over as many people as possible while charging them interest.

  • Hi, An online payment gateway Crassula [crassula.io] is an application that provides the ability to take payments for goods and services online. There are many of these available, and the type you choose depends on what you need, the country you are based in, and the functionality required.
  • ...Amazon debt fulfillment & repossession centres to a neighbourhood near you. They'll recruit your neighbours' Amazon Ring doorbell cameras with facial recognition algorithms as informants. Soon "Dr Evil" spaceman Bezos will be full-blown Sauron. No one will be able to escape his gaze!

  • Amazon buys Barclays with the loose change that Baldy found behind the sofa on his super-mega yacht.

    Seriously, this is bad news for everyone. Buying stuff on the 'never-never' is a bad idea.

    • 10.9% interest rate - seriously, that's a problem."?

      Barclays will charge interest on lending under the instalments product. The bank will charge an annual rate of 10.9%.

  • And this is what it said about interest rates:

    Barclays will charge interest on lending under the instalments product. The bank will charge an annual rate of 10.9%.

    That's cheaper than many credit card interest rates, and if it helps a college student afford the laptop they need for their studies, is that really so bad?

    Most store cards are higher - the only store car d I have is for a store that offers 5% discount on purchases paid off each month. I'll happily take that discount - but if I don't pay off the balance at the end of the month, it's a 21% interest rate (from memory). For me it's a discount card with deferred pay

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