In the last year Afterpay and zipPay have taken off in popularity. These fantastic services allow for people get their products earlier than they normally could by offering easy repayment options over a short period of time. Sounds a lot like a credit card right? Well yes and no.

Once you have an account with Afterpay or zipPay you can just browse their directories which have hundreds of fantastic online stores knowing you are ready to go with your line of credit. Once you find an item, you can simply checkout without filling in lengthy credit card forms, and before you know it your goodies are showing up at your doorstep!

They also offer a more structured repayment system which allows you to keep your finances under control. (As opposed to a credit card where its really easy to spend more than you should!)

Now lets take a close look at these two giants of E-Commerce in a head to head battle and see who comes out on top!

1. Ease of Approvals 

Both Afterpay and zipPay have limited credit checks and both a quite easy to sign up with but there are some key differences.

Afterpay

Afterpay makes it very easy, in fact you don't even need to register with them prior to your purchase, you simply find a shop that offers Afterpay and then just choose that at checkout. All you need to provide is a credit card for payment and away you go, it's that easy. Your account is automatically setup for you upon your first purchase.

The only downside here is you might not always get approved, Afterpay use a bunch of different metrics to decide if you are able to be approved or not including your location and even what model of phone you use. If you get rejected you wont get a reason you will just be asked to try again later. Its important to note each time you make a purchase you are either approved or rejected, there is no set limit like a credit card.(There is a max limit of $1000 for new customers however but this could be anywhere from 250 - 1000 you will never actually know.)

zipPay

zipPay works a little more like a credit card in terms of how credit applications are handled. That being said its just as easy to apply for zipPay and you can also do it at checkout the same as Afterpay. With zipPay you will get approved for a credit limit, directly from the zipPay website, "zipPay offers 3 different credit limits: $250, 500 and 1000. Our algorithm will automatically decide which maximum limit you will be eligible for based on our minimum criteria evaluated during the application process." The advantage here is that once you have been approved you know exactly how much money you have to spend and wont have to face the disappointment of being rejected at checkout.

Winner: Tie

Both Afterpay and zipPay make it super easy to sign up and get your item as quickly as possible. Although there is a chance you might not get approved at every sale for Afterpay its always there as an option to try. With zipPay, you can go in knowing what you can spend which is more suitable for some people.

2. Repayment Flexibility 

How your repayments are handled is very important when managing a budget so we will go over the differences between the two here.

Afterpay 

Afterpay has a very rigid repayment schedule, basically its 4 equal instalments paid over 8 weeks. Payments are to be made every 2 weeks. The only variable here is you may need to pay your first payment upfront at the time of purchase if you are a new customer or your order is over $500.

zipPay

This is where zipPay has an advantage over Afterpay, with zipPay you get to choose your repayments and you have much more control on how payments are handled. The only rule is you must pay at least $40 back per month, as long as that is followed you can take as long as you like to pay it back. There is a small fee of $5 each month where a balance is outstanding (after the initial 60 day fee free period).

Winner: zipPay

We have to hand this round to zipPay, with its much more flexible payment options you are in total control of how you pay back your loan.

3. Fees

Both Afterpay and zipPay are 100% interest free but there are a couple of fees that can be payable depending on the situation.

Afterpay

Payments are automatically deducted from your chosen account, if for some reason this payment fails you will be charged a $10 dollar late fee and then another $7 if the payment is not made within 7 days.

zipPay

zipPay have a hilarious answer to late fees so ill just quote them directly "Well, first of all we’d say that’s not really nice as we put a lot of faith in you when we gave you all that money to buy all these products. On top of breaking our heart, we may apply a late fee (of $5) and it may have an effect on your credit score. Now we said it."

So as well as the emotional guilt trip you might get charged $5, which is lower than Afterpay. Although since we are talking about fees in general its also worth noting that you can get up to 60 days with no fees with zippay which is actually a tad longer than Afterpay, However if you take longer to pay for your items it will cost you a little more in the long run.

Winner: Tie

You can use both these payment options and not pay a cent in fees, just don't be late with your payments ok? So if you are not paying any fees how do these companies make money? The merchant pays a fee and in return they get increased sales so its win win!

4. Availability

In the last 6 months Afterpay have made some serious progress with bringing on new retailers. Big names such as Big W, Best and Less, Booktopia, and Myer mean the great products sold by these companies are available to buy now and pay later. While zipPay is also available on a great range of online stores Afterpay appear to have surged ahead for now. 

Winner: Afterpay

Overall Winner : Tie

There is no way to decisively say which of these two payment options is better than the other overall. Both offer great ways to get the products you want now and pay it back later. Each should be considered based on your personal circumstances and then a decision made. Or you know.... just get both?

Of course Floorsome offers both these great payment solutions and we find them to be more popular than traditional payment methods!

For more information on zipPay or Afterpay please see our information pages below

https://www.floorsome.com.au/pages/zippay (you can actually sign up for zipPay here on the page!)

https://www.floorsome.com.au/pages/afterpay

I hope my article has been informative and as I have tried to make it as accurate as possible but if I have missed something or you disagree with me please leave a comment below!

Thanks so much for reading!

- Brett

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