What you need to know
- New details about Apple Card iPhone financing have emerged.
- The Wallet app on iOS has new language explaining 'Apple Card Monthly Installments'.
- Your monthly iPhone payment will be included in your minimum monthly payment for Apple Card.
Apple Card is supposed to begin offering 0% financing on the iPhone by the end of the year, and new details have emerged about how the service will work. Reported by 9to5Mac, Apple has updated the Wallet app on iOS with new language about 'Apple Card Monthly Installments'.
According to the section, which is found under 'About Apple Card Payments', your monthly iPhone payment will be added to the minimum monthly payment for other charges made on your Apple Card. Installments are interest-free and paying more towards the installment balance will reduce the number of payments left on your plan - it will not, however, reduce the monthly payment or count towards your next month's payment.
How you will be able to break out and specify extra payment towards your installment plan is unclear, but paying the total balance of your card will include charges you have made as well as the remaining balance of your installment plan.
The full explanation of the service is below:
Apple Card Monthly InstallmentsIf you are paying for your iPhone with Apple Card Monthly Installments, each month your installment is included in the minimum payment amount.Installments aren't subject to interest like other purchases made with Apple Card. If you pay more toward your installment balance, you may reduce the overall number of payments, but are still scheduled to pay your installment payment the following month. Paying the total balance will include the total amount you've spent with Apple Card, including your remaining iPhone balance.
Tim Cook announced the upcoming service at Apple's 2019 Q4 earnings call in October, saying that Apple Card owners would soon be able to finance their iPhone for 24 months with 0% interest. He also said that customers who used this service would also earn 3% Daily Cash for the purchase.
Cook said that the service would be rolling out "later this year" so we should expect to see it within the next three weeks. It is unclear if Apple plans to expand Apple Card Monthly Installments to other products other than the iPhone, but the fact that it is not called 'Apple Card iPhone Installments' hints at just that.
Currently, the only way to get financing on a Mac, iPad, or other Apple products when buying directly through Apple is to use the Barclaycard, but having all of your financed Apple products under Apple Card sounds just like something Apple would do.
Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.
