When you use Afterpay, you pay for your items in 4 equal instalments over 6 weeks, without incurring any interest.

We pay the retailer in full and upfront on your behalf. You pay for the first instalment of 25% at the time of purchase, and the remaining three instalments will be automatically deducted from your nominated debit or credit card over the following six weeks.

Setting up an Afterpay account is simple. To get the best experience, download the Afterpay app to sign up. Alternatively, you can sign up on our website, or during the checkout process at participating online retailers. You must be over the age of 18 and provide some personal information, and link a valid debit or credit card.

To make it quick and easy for you, we verify your identity electronically (rather than you having to do time-consuming paperwork). Then, when you want to make a purchase with any of our partner retailers, just choose Afterpay as your payment method at the checkout. 

It’s important to know that we do apply an approval process for individual purchases. Our approval process takes a number of factors into account, including whether there are sufficient funds in your account (particularly for new customers), and how much you will have to repay on the purchase.

We carry out this process on every order you make with Afterpay, not just the first one.

Your credit score can be impacted when a company does a credit check on you.

In Australia, it is fast and free to join Afterpay without a credit check. We start new customers off at a low spend limit and increase it gradually over time with on-time payments.

Depending on a variety of factors, including payment history and how long you've been with Afterpay, customers may be eligible to apply for a limit increase. In this circumstance, we may conduct a credit check to make sure an increased limit is right for you.

We don’t believe that missing a payment with Afterpay should result in a bad credit history. Our main aim is always to help you spend responsibly, and we take a number of steps to help ensure this, including pausing your account when you miss a payment.

Afterpay is free when you pay on time.

Unlike most credit cards, there are no hidden or annual fees, and we don’t charge interest.

If you miss a payment we do charge late fees. These fees never exceed 25% of the purchase price or $68; whichever is less.

We do everything we can for you to avoid late fees, including sending reminders leading up to the payment due date and an alert after a payment has failed.

Monthly fees apply to Afterpay Plus subscribers. You can upgrade to Afterpay Plus for $9.99 a month to use Afterpay almost anywhere. Eligibility criteria, fees and T&Cs apply. Please see afterpay.com for full terms.

If you can't make a payment, you should contact us as soon as possible to discuss your options. You may be able to reschedule the payment or make a partial payment. 

We will charge a late fee if you miss a payment. But first, we will do everything we can to help you avoid this, including sending reminders leading up to the payment due date and an alert after a payment has failed. 

If you do miss a payment, we will pause your account and you won’t be able to buy anything else with us until your payments are up to date. You may notice your spending limit decreases too; this is because our system takes into account a range of different factors, including late payments, in deciding spending limits. Missing payments also affects your eligibility for our Pulse Rewards loyalty program. Ultimately, all steps we take are to help you spend responsibly with Afterpay.

Total late fees are capped at 25% of the order price, and will never exceed $68 per order, regardless of the order amount.

• For orders $40 and over: each time a payment is late, an initial fee of $10 will be charged. A further fee of up to $7 will be charged if the payment remains unpaid seven days after the due date. For example: A $60 order with four $15 instalments will incur an initial $10 late fee, and a further $5 if the payment remains unpaid seven days after the due date. In this case, the further fee of $7 is reduced because total late fees are capped at 25% of the order price, $15.
• For orders under $40: the maximum possible late fee is $10 and will only be charged once. For example: A $20 order with four $5 instalments will only ever incur a one-off $5 late fee.

We also pause your account until the balance is paid and you're back on track. We’re committed to doing everything we can to help you not miss a payment. We’ve designed Afterpay to be completely different to traditional credit products that charge interest, so that our customers are never in a situation of high compounding interest and revolving debt.

The simple answer is that Afterpay charges a fee to merchants for each transaction; this is the main way we make money. Monthly fees apply to Afterpay Plus subscribers.

It’s interest-free when you pay it in 4 instalments. If you do miss a payment, you will incur a late fee and you won’t be able to buy or book anything else with Afterpay until you settle your account. 

Afterpay should not affect your ability to be approved for a home loan. When applying for a home loan, banks and lenders may ask you about your regular expenses. This may include spending on Afterpay, to make sure you can afford your future home loan repayments. Spending on discretionary items – which is what Afterpay is used for – should not affect how much you can borrow for your home loan, but this is always subject to the lenders credit criteria. 

Our spending limits start low, at around $600, and increase gradually over time with consistent on-time payments. If you’re a new Afterpay customer, the amount you can spend will be lower than if you’ve been responsibly using Afterpay for a long time. We take the time to get to know you, and before each transaction, we assess your ability to make repayments on your instalment plan. Just as there are circumstances which may lower the amount you can spend (such as missing a payment), consistent on-time repayment history can increase what you can spend with Afterpay. Typically, the longer you’ve been using your account and making repayments on time, the more likely the amount you can spend will increase.

Afterpay can be used both online and in physical stores, depending on the retailer or service. To shop in-store with participating retailers, you’ll need to set up the Afterpay Card. You can do this through the Afterpay app; just go to the In-store tab and follow the prompts to add the Afterpay Card to your digital wallet. Then when you’re shopping in-store, just tap to pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay.

Your security is our priority. Afterpay has been built with a range of security features and services to help keep your accounts secure, including monitoring transactions to identify fraudulent trends and behaviours, multi-factor authentication, and encryption to protect your information. We also protect our network of customers and merchants with a thorough screening process before they gain access to our services. You can find out more on oursafety and security page.