Afterpay Touch (APT) - An Absolute Screamer

[kyanar]

The most likely outcome of any potential RBA regulation would be to allow Merchants to pass on some of the Afterpay Merchant charge (surcharge) to the customer. However I don't see many Merchants actually taking this up, as it would piss off the customers, likely reducing demand. Don't forget that people using Afterpay are spending MORE on average, and Merchants are earning more, even after Afterpay takes it's commission of 4-6%. There is a reason all these businesses have added Afterpay in the first place!

Credit card customers spend more on average than cash customers, and yet the instant merchants were allowed to pass on that surcharge, they did. Larger merchants will likely continue to absorb it, yet those merchants probably have preferential pricing anyway. You absolutely underestimate the short sightedness of Australian and NZ merchants.

I could see some smaller Merchants passing on the charge, if they could. But Afterpay could also effectively blackout any businesses that try this by removing them from the free Afterpay Directory (currently sends 14M+ leads a month, for example.)

It is unlikely that they would be permitted to do this if they were regulated. They'd be forced to treat everyone equally, but there'd almost certainly be a "surcharge free" filter

They make a big mention of active customers, but those could be people who have only used it once. I don’t understand the whole premise. You need a credit card to use Afterpay and get 42 days to make 3 payments after the 25% deposit. The credit card offers 55 days if items are bought in the correct cycle. Sounds to me like they are attracting people who have their credit cards maxed out. PB Tech offers Oxipay and Lay-bys .com So there is competition out there. The 2 founders are dumping shares today and have promised not to sell more until after the AGM.
All it would take is the credit card companies offering a similar service.

Afterpay actually have said in their response to the RBA that the majority of their customers have a debit card attached - not a credit card. This mans the interest free period on credit cards isn't relevant, and also that Afterpay isn't paying as much to process the card.