Afterpay now accepting American Express

[samh004]

Just got an email from American Express mentioning that Afterpay is now accepting AMEX for payment. Unfortunately, it would appear this is old news from a week or two ago.

Afterpay with American Express is your ticket to more bonus points

Buy now and pay later with American Express cards, which is now accepted on AfterPay. We also show you how to triple-dip on points.

www.pointhacks.com.au

However, I think the icing on the cake is that from 23rd February 2021 they will also be launching a MasterCard solution for using Afterpay in store – though it appears the store still needs to accept Afterpay for the card to function.

Afterpay Card | The way to pay for in-store purchases

Afterpay Card Afterpay Card is a contactless Mastercard stored in the customers Apple or GPAY wallet which means they can simply tap their mobile device on the payment terminal at your store to pa...

help.afterpay.com

Either way, didn’t see a dedicated thread so thought I’d start one.

 

[http_x92]

Saw this coming after ZipPay partnered up with visa with their lucrative Apple/Google Pay virtual card. I think AfterPay was put into this situation so I'm not surprised they partnered up with Mastercard. We will see if its only for those who only accept afterpay but if it means we could use that Mastercard in-store, put the balance into Amex to earn more points that would be something...

 

[Princess Fiona]

Best news ever for the shopaholics amongst us. Cheers

 

[33kft]

I am a fan of the Afterpay QFF double dip at the moment, although it is only up to $5K and only for a limited time.

 

[http_x92]

I am a fan of the Afterpay QFF double dip at the moment, although it is only up to $5K and only for a limited time.

Afterpay probably wants to lure in new customers. Trying to find shops which use afterpay... which is a bit hard...

 

[samh004]

Afterpay probably wants to lure in new customers. Trying to find shops which use afterpay... which is a bit hard...

You can stretch things a little, for example if a retailer you might visit also has an eBay storefront or the product is also available there

 

[kyle]

Amex doesn't work for Chemist Warehouse on Afterpay.

 

[SeaWolf]

This just landed in my inbox last night. You can now use AmEx as a payment method for AfterPay.
It's not much interest to me but it might be handy for merchants who don't otherwise accept AmEx or who surcharge for it.

 

[MathNerd]

I'm very wary of these BNPL schemes (Afterpay, Zippay, ****pay, etc) - don't really need another credit check on the credit file, but some people seem to make the most of them.

From the AFF brains trust - what advantage do these schemes have?

 

[serfty]

From the AFF brains trust - what advantage do these schemes have?

Unless you don't have access to a decent credit card, None really.

 

[MathNerd]

Unless you don't have access to a decent credit card, None really.

I thought just as much. Thanks for the input!

 

[http_x92]

I'm very wary of these BNPL schemes (Afterpay, Zippay, ****pay, etc) - don't really need another credit check on the credit file, but some people seem to make the most of them.

From the AFF brains trust - what advantage do these schemes have?

Zippay has a luractive offer for Tap & pay transactions on their virtual card. 10% cashback in December for every transaction made on that card, 3% on other days.

 

[33kft]

To be fair, Afterpay doesn't do active credit checks on applicants (but does reserve the right to do so, just doesn't have a track record of actually doing it) and is giving 1 ppd for QFF until early March, so there is a benefit to using Afterpay + Amex in my book which is ~2.25ppd for purchases until then. Others may see it differently but from my perspective - why not do it? I don't see a downside.

 

[samh004]

From the AFF brains trust - what advantage do these schemes have?

Well, with a credit card if you time your purchase just right, you have the whole calendar month till your statement, then perhaps another week to three weeks till you need to pay the item off. With a BNPL that splits the payments into smaller pieces, you don't have to pay the item off quite so quickly. In the case of Afterpay, there's no additional fee, and if your account is in good standing you don't even need to make the first payment for 2 weeks – with that payment of course, going on your credit card. So you can really stretch out how long it takes to pay off an item.

An example out of my life, I just bought some new shoes. My statement date is usually around the 20th of the month. My account is in good standing (both). So my first payment wont actually happen until after I get my December statement, with the second happening 2 weeks later and the third happening right on the borderline, perhaps January, perhaps February. The final payment wont show up until my February statement, with payment due in March for that last little bit. I'll get the shoes next week though. I have the cash to pay for them right this second, but isn't the whole point of credit to stretch the payment out?

I'll also get bonus points for the APT purchase and then points for the CC purchase.

 

[SeaWolf]

Seems to have been an update a couple of days ago to the page on Afterpay Card. I'm not certain on everything that has changed but the two bits that I did notice:

• Launch date has slipped and is now March 2021
• In the section on business operations it notes, "You will process and settle Afterpay transactions via your relationship with your Merchant Acquirer - the same way you process and settle other card payments." Suggesting that this will be a standard Mastercard and could well be accepted anywhere Mastercard is.

I'll be curious to see the details when they launch it, would be great if we can use it as a Mastercard 'wrapper' around AmEx, but won't be very useful if it'll only be accepted where Afterpay has an arrangement.

 

[yojohnny]

Seems to have been an update a couple of days ago to the page on Afterpay Card. I'm not certain on everything that has changed but the two bits that I did notice:

• Launch date has slipped and is now March 2021
• In the section on business operations it notes, "You will process and settle Afterpay transactions via your relationship with your Merchant Acquirer - the same way you process and settle other card payments." Suggesting that this will be a standard Mastercard and could well be accepted anywhere Mastercard is.

I'll be curious to see the details when they launch it, would be great if we can use it as a Mastercard 'wrapper' around AmEx, but won't be very useful if it'll only be accepted where Afterpay has an arrangement.

Giving this some more thought, I suspect it will only work for retailers already using Afterpay. March has come so hopefully it's released in the next weeks!

 

[SeaWolf]

Afterpay has launched their card in Australia, to replace the barcode system for in store purchases, and it's a bit disappointing.

• You need to launch the Afterpay app then have it launch Google/Apple Pay before you can use the card, each and every time.
• The card is only accepted where Afterpay is currently accepted, not everywhere that Mastercard is accepted.

This leaves Afterpay still lagging behind their competitors, ZipPay and Bundll, which let you use the card directly from Google/Apple Pay once it has been added, and allows you to make purchases anywhere Visa/Mastercard is accepted.

 

[33kft]

Makes me wonder, what's the point of a MasterCard for transactions only in retailers they already serve? Surely all they have done is added network fees into the mix?