Costco Launches Buy Now Pay Later on Big Purchases
There are so many pros of shopping at Costco. Not only does the warehouse sell some of the most exciting name brands for less in addition to high-quality in-house offerings but delicious foods you can’t find anywhere else. However, one of the biggest cons about shopping at Costco is that it offers limited payment options. This includes all Visa cards, debit cards, checks, cash, Costco Shop Cards, and of course, The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi. This week, the company launched a new and exciting payment option: Its own version of a “Buy Now, Pay Later” program.
Costco partnered with Affirm for the Buy Now, Pay Later program, offering customers the option of making large pruchases and paying for them over a specified time period. “Split large purchases into smaller payments,” Costco explains on its website. “Choose a monthly payment option from Affirm for your online orders of $500 or more.”
The program is applicable to transactions on its website that total between $500 and $17,500, with repayment periods ranging from three to 36 months. Like most of these types of programs, you will have to pay interest. APR rates range between 10% and 36%.
Costco outlines how it works:
Add $500 or more of eligible products to your Costco.com cart. “Many items online are eligible. See details at checkout,” they write.
Select Affirm as your payment method at checkout on Costco.com. “Enter a few pieces of information for an real-time decision. This won’t affect your credit,” they say. Pick a payment plan. “Pay in 3-36 monthly payments. Rates are between 10-36% APR.” Pay over time. “Easily make payments in the Affirm app or at affirm.com. You can also set up automatic payments,” they maintain.
Here’s what a payment plan for a $815.89 purchase at 20% APR could look like: If you opted for a six month period, you would be charged 20% APR, or $140.04/mo for 6 months. Interest would total $24.35, and total total of payments would equal $840.24. If you chose a 12-month payment plan, you would be looking at $72.95/mo with $59.58 of interest for a total of payments equaling $875.40. Or, for an 18-month payment plan, $50.21/mo with $87.91 of interest for a total of $903.78.
