This Sept. 6, 2012, file photo shows the Amazon logo in Santa Monica, Calif. Amazon is teaming with payments company Affirm to offer online shoppers a buy-now-pay-later option that does not involve credit cards. San Francisco-based Affirm Holdings Inc. announced Friday, Aug. 27, 2021 that its flexible payment service will soon be available on Amazon.com. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
Amazon is teaming with payments company Affirm to offer online shoppers a buy-now-pay-later option that does not involve credit cards.
San Francisco-based Affirm Holdings Inc. announced Friday that its flexible payment service will soon be available on Amazon.com.
The news sent Affirm's stock up more than 35% in after-hours trading.
With the service, Amazon customers can split the total cost of purchases of $50 or more into monthly payments, and are told the total cost of the transaction up front. Affirm said there are no late fees.
Affirm said the two companies are testing the service with a group of customers and that it will be more broadly available in coming months.
Installment plans are popular with retailers because they encourage customers to spend more money. And they enable customers with insufficient funds or credit at the time of purchase to walk out of a store — or check out online — with the item they want.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its business. Apple’s earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street’s expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter’s results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don’t change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs.
