Do we like them?

Do we like Afterpay?

Buy now, pay later instalment service used at online and in-store retailers; founded in Sydney and now part of Block.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. Pay-in-4 with no interest suits people who repay on time, but late fees, the push into APR-based loans and Block's job cuts hold the score at 5.

Afterpay started in Australia and became the best-known 'buy now, pay later' name. Customers split a purchase into instalments, and merchants pay a cut. Block, the Jack Dorsey company behind Square and Cash App, bought it in 2022. It's still based in Sydney.

It has had run-ins with regulators. In 2020 California's financial regulator said Afterpay was making unlicensed loans. Afterpay settled, refunded $905,000 to Californians and rejected the view that it acted illegally. In Australia, AUSTRAC dropped the matter over 'technical' anti-money-laundering breaches after Afterpay completed its remediation.

The big debate is whether BNPL pushes people into debt. Afterpay says 96% of US customers repaid their Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 purchases early or on time. The CFPB has found many BNPL users carry several loans at once. Financial Counselling Australia has criticised Australia's proposed late-fee caps as favouring Afterpay's model.

In 2026 Block is folding Afterpay into Cash App. Payments Dive reported an example of Afterpay on the Cash App Card with a 7.5% flat fee and a 65.15% APR. Block also cut about 4,000 jobs, nearly half its workforce, as it moved towards AI. We'd call that mixed, so it scores a 5.