Apple is working with Goldman Sachs to launch its own 'buy now, pay later' installment service, according to a new report. People said to be insiders on the matter have shed light on the alleged upcoming feature, claiming that consumers won't need an Apple Card to utilize the upcoming offering, one similar to installment options from major companies like PayPal and Affirm.
![Apple Card outage confirmed: “All users are affected” [Update: Fixed]](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/apple-card-iphone-1280x720.jpeg)
If you're struggling to use your Apple Card, you're not alone, with Apple confirming this morning that it's seeing a widespread outage for its iPhone payment system. The Apple Card outage began at 9:17am ET, the Cupertino company confirmed, and "all users are affected."
BitPay announced this week that they've begun functioning with Apple Wallet. The self-professed "world's largest provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services" announced that users of the BitPay Prepaid Mastercard can now add their card to their iPhone's Apple Wallet. With the BitPay Prepaid Mastercard in an Apple Wallet, the user can spend with Apple Pay.
Apple's mobile payment has been around for more than half a decade now but its primary interaction with the physical world has been through NFC. While more convenient and more secure than the likes of Bluetooth or RFID, that convenience requires both the phone and the terminal to have the hardware necessary to enable it. Now it seems that Apple is working on adding support for scanning QR codes and barcodes that could open the system to more users and potentially make it safer given today's health situation.
It wasn't that too long ago, in fact just April last year, that the New York City's transport system started supporting Apple Pay. This was done particularly to push New York's One Metro New York (ONMY) contactless payment system which works perfectly with Apple's own mobile payment system. Perhaps too perfectly, even, as there are now a handful of reports claiming they get charged by simply being near one such OMNY reader.
One of the more surprising reveals from Apple in recent memory came back in March, when the company got up on stage at one of its press conferences and announced that it's getting into the personal finance game. Apple revealed that it had partnered with Goldman Sachs to offer the Apple Card - a credit card designed to work with Apple Pay and Wallet. Today, some users are getting the opportunity to apply for the card, but a full roll out is still further out.
Apple Card will start to roll out in August, Tim Cook has confirmed, as the Cupertino company prepares its assault on the credit card industry. News of the public launch came as part of Apple's Q3 2019 financial results call, where the company announced a steep rise in its Wearables category - including Apple Watch and AirPods - and a milestone for iPhone, too.
Back in March, Apple surprised us all when it announced that it would be getting into the personal finance game. The company has teamed up with Goldman Sachs to create the Apple Card, a credit card that features deep integration with iPhone and Apple Wallet as one of its big selling points. At the time, Apple only said that the card would be available at some point this summer, but today, a new report is claiming that launch might be just around the corner.
Yes, it does sound a bit ironic. Although Apple has had its own mobile payment system for quite a while now, you couldn't use Apple Pay to buy stuff from Apple's digital stores. That has silently change now and it seems that Apple has flipped the switch for some markets. Users in those select countries will now, if not soon, be able to use their Wallets associated with their Apple Pay account to buy apps, ebooks, and music from Apple's iTunes and App stores.
Contactless technology like NFC conjure up images of simply and lightly tapping on surfaces to initiate an action, be it authentication or even payment. What those scenarios don't often include is the initial setup that has to be done beforehand, like downloading an app and signing into a service. Apple, however, seems to be leading the way towards that the true realization of that fantasy with NFC tags that trigger Apple Pay, all without setting up anything other than Apple Pay first.
Apple’s event on Monday signaled a new strategy: in addition to tech and products, its new baby would be services. Movie streaming, publications, and perhaps most curiously, banking. It’s called Apple Card, a new credit card linked to Apple Pay that's built into the Wallet app.
Even though you'll mostly be using Apple's new credit card digitally through Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, there will still be times when you'll need to use a physical card. Though it probably pains Apple to say it, worldwide support for Apple Pay isn't quite to 100% yet. In addition to adding your Apple Card to your Wallet as soon as you're approved for one, Apple will also send you a physical card to use in those instances where Apple Pay isn't supported, and it looks quite a bit different from most other credit cards out there.