Given the Apple Card mostly appeals to those who wear their love for Apple products on their sleeves, one of the best perks is interest-free financing on iPhone purchases with a bit of cashback for good measure. Now, according to Bloomberg, Apple is planning on extending this offer to be good on pretty much anything with a company logo embossed on it.
It won’t be the same 24-month period offered for last year’s iPhones, but it’s still an improvement on having to pay the whole thing in one go. Bloomberg says that 12-month interest-free payments will apply for iPads, Macs, Apple Pencils, iPad keyboards and the Mac XDR Display monitor, while six-month offerings will be available for AirPods, Apple TV and HomePod.
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That means that instead of paying $1,649 upfront for a 1TB cellular 12.9in iPad Pro, you could make 12 payments of $137.41 instead. A second-generation Apple Pencil, meanwhile, will set you back just $10.75 per month — considerably over the odds for an actual pencil, but pretty good value for Apple’s fancy pressure-sensitive magnetic take.
Actually, it’s a bit odd that Apple Pencil is in the 12-month category, when most of the cheaper items come in the six-month section. At current prices, the HomePod would set you back $49.83 for six months, while a set of AirPods would come to $26.50 a month.
Although the report has no mention of the upcoming iPhone 12, it would be surprising if this didn’t stick to the same 24-month payment plan as before, given that’s the schedule people are used to with existing third-party smartphone contracts.
Interest-free payments will be dealt with via the Apple Card section of your iPhones wallet app, with charges added to your monthly Apple Card bill. That means you have to be pretty into the Apple ecosystem to benefit, but then if you have an Apple Card in your wallet already, then this very likely already applies to you.
Although Apple, as per usual, refused to comment on Bloomberg’s report, the details come from “people familiar with the plan” and there’s no reason to doubt that the company was moving in this direction anyway. Indeed, Tim Cook revealed as much on a recent earnings call saying “we’re working on that [Apple Card payment plan] for other products, and you’ll see something on that shortly.”
