Block is making its Afterpay BNPL service broadly available to eligible Cash App debit cardholders after piloting it with select users in 20 states last year. The move lets customers pay over time for any purchase rather than only at merchants that have opted into Afterpay, with Block underwriting the short-term loans using customers' cash-flow data and financial behavior. Block, the Cash App parent that bought Afterpay for $29B in 2021, is targeting lower-wage and gig workers expected to use it for everyday costs like groceries, gas, and utilities. On a $240 purchase, Block's example showed a flat 7.5% finance fee and a 65.15% APR repaid over six weeks, and it found in the pilot that more than three in five Afterpay users transacted at least five times.
