Microsoft Edge always InPrivate

Microsoft Edge is getting worse with Buy Now, Pay Later tool

Microsoft Edge adds "Buy Now, Pay Later" feature to make it easier to spend money you don't have. (Bad idea.)

  • Microsoft Edge gets Buy Now, Pay Later integration.
  • The feature allows you to make purchases and pay later.
  • Users aren’t happy with it because it’s unnecessary and enables people to spend money they don’t have.

Microsoft begins the slow rollout of the “Buy Now, Pay Later” service into its Edge browser, and it’s not settling well among users. The Buy Now, Pay Later is a service provided by ZIP that offers short-term financial assistance to allow shoppers to make purchases immediately and then pay them in installments over time.

The service is now available with Microsoft Edge 86 and higher for users in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico. The feature will automatically appear when making purchases between $35 and $1000, with the option to pay back the item in four payments within six weeks.

According to the company, the new integration streamlines the shopping process, but only when you already use ZIP since you have to go through the sign-in process every time that adds extra. However, if you don’t have a ZIP account, applying for “Buy Now, Pay Later” could take time.

Although it might be a convenient feature in some situations, it’s not something that everyone wants in the browser since getting into borrowing money services is risky and could eventually be problematic whether you pay on time or not. In addition to this problem, it’s an unnecessary feature that only adds more bloat to Microsoft Edge.

The original announcement received more than 100 comments about the “Buy Now, Pay Later” integration, and almost everyone is negative. For example, many complained that this feature only makes Edge more bloated since the company keeps adding unnecessary features (such as shopping tools, Office documents options, ads promoting services, and more). Some others said it should be an extension, not an integration. Other people were not happy that the company didn’t mention the extra processing feed using the feature. And some others expressed their disappointment, explaining that Microsoft shouldn’t support the ability to easily enable people with problems to spend money they don’t have.

It’s worth noting that this service is also available in other browsers, but only as an optional extension that you need to find, download, and install manually, and it’s not integrated into the browser.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.