I don't use these services, but it's hard to see this as anything but a value judgement against "buy now pay later" schemes. If we set that aside, and (for the sake of argument) recognize this service as value-adding for many users, it does seem to be in line with the rest of that feature (the option hooks into Chromium's autofill/payments integration, so you'd usually see saved credit cards here).
In fact I don't really see what the difference is between this and a credit card (where you do pay later, after all, hence "credit"). Is it that it shows even before you've signed up for Zip? So it's equivalent to asking if you want to sign up for a new credit card. I guess that's somewhat annoying. And being unable to disable it is also annoying, but equivalent to the exact same schemes I see baked into the merchant site all over the web.
Does anyone know why Zip isn't already implemented as a credit card with delayed interest rates?
The value judgement is because they target the people that can't afford it by making them think they can.
This kind of scheme works fine if you're good at managing finances. You can plan ahead and set the money for the repayments aside. Though if you are good at it, I wouldn't see why you'd bother.
Unfortunately, the kind of people that need this kind of scheme to buy stuff, are generally really bad at managing their finances. Otherwise they would have had buffer savings and could buy the thing just out of pocket. In the end it brings them only deeper into the debt hole.
The only thing I'd take a loan (mortgage) for is a house, personally. Even my cars I paid all in cash (my most expensive one was a 2200 euro Volvo and it served me well for many years :)
Personally I think ethically it's similar to the tobacco industry. They're exploiting a weakness of some people. Sure, they could resist it but some people are just not capable of doing so.
In fact I don't really see what the difference is between this and a credit card (where you do pay later, after all, hence "credit"). Is it that it shows even before you've signed up for Zip? So it's equivalent to asking if you want to sign up for a new credit card. I guess that's somewhat annoying. And being unable to disable it is also annoying, but equivalent to the exact same schemes I see baked into the merchant site all over the web.
Does anyone know why Zip isn't already implemented as a credit card with delayed interest rates?