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Comment by tedunangst | Hacker News Reader

But you have to click the payments option (and pay the billed amounts). If you put the full balance on your card, you can't ignore it for 12 months and then pay.

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So it's only no interest as long as you make payments on time. I guess this is technically misleading advertising?

It might also be that it only applied during specific circumstances (buying directly from Apple) instead of as a blanket offer. I've bought a few devices through this deal and personally am a happy customer, so I hope this doesn't kill it.

Isn't that every credit card? You pay your full balance on time it's essentially a delayed debit card because no interest is paid.

There's actually a term for this: charge card. Some American Express cards still work this way (i.e., you must always pay in full on time).

No. The financing Apple is offering is typically 12 months split into 12 separate payments. That is 0% financing and not a 'charge card' style. You're still getting 11 months of delayed payments, unlike a charge card where everything is due once a month from the previous month of the card.

Fair enough, I was just noting that "delayed debit card" has a proper name.

You don't have to pay the Apple card balance in full to pay no interest. You just have to make the payments on the agreed-upon schedule. You're effectively doing something like splitting a $1200 purchase into 12 $100 payments or whatever, rather than that plus interest. No credit card I'm aware of will do that for purchases in general, but presumably it's worth it for a card issued by the actual product vendor if it increases sales. They have enough cash on hand that it hurts them none to receive most of the payment in the future.

PayPal has an interest-free credit option, usually spread out over six months, as well. You don't always have to make a specific payment on the due date, but if you don't pay it off in six months then the whole amount of accrued interest is due.

No, it was a separate payment method called “Apple Card Monthly Installments.” If you just charged a purchase to your Apple Card, it was not an installment payment. That’s probably the confusion the regulators were complaining about.

I think this is it as well. I have a card, and do 0% payments. It’s not that bad, but I see how it could be confusing.

Right, which is why the program is called "Monthly Installments" not "no interest for 12 months"

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