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PayPal drops late fees for missed 'buy now, pay later' payments

It's another move to bolster its payment plans in a competitive field.

PayPal logo

PayPal is dropping late fees on its "buy now, pay later" plans.

Image: PayPal/Protocol

PayPal announced Wednesday that it will no longer charge late fees for missed payments on "buy now, pay later" purchases, an aggressive move in an increasing competitive consumer financing market.

PayPal said the new policy, which takes effect in October, will cover new customer purchases in the U.S., the U.K. and France. The policy was already in place in the PayPal's "buy now, pay later" services in Germany and Australia.

PayPal began offering BNPL services in France, the U.K. and the U.S. last year. The financing product has been growing rapidly, highlighted by Affirm's successful IPO in January and Square's acquisition of Australian BNPL company, Afterpay, which was announced this month.

The move could put pressure on competitors. Affirm does not charge late fees, while Afterpay and Klarna do.

 Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

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