Significant Outage Disrupts Afterpay Services Across Australia

As stated on its official site, the outage affected all aspects of the platform, including the consumer portal, mobile application, and in-store API.

The outage began around 2pm on Monday and affected services across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.

According to its website, every part of the platform was impacted — including the consumer portal, mobile app, and in-store API.

A spokesperson for the payment service told Daily Mail that the issue was resolved shortly after 4pm, though investigations are ongoing.

Shoppers have taken to social media to express their frustration, with several Australian users reporting they were unable to make important payments.

‘Does anyone know when Afterpay will be back up? Having issues logging in and I have payments due,’ one woman posted on Facebook.

Australia has recorded around 3,000 incident reports related to the outage, with nearly 1,500 reported in the United States, according to the tracking service StatusGator.

Afterpay is a popular buy now, pay later provider that allows customers to purchase items immediately and pay them off over four interest-free instalments.

Last month, Amazon Australia announced it would allow shoppers to use the service, joining other major brands including eBay, Kogan, Big W and Kmart. 

About 3.5million Australians use the service, among its 24million global users. 

It was purchased by Jack Dorsey-led point-of-sale giant Block in 2021 and processes about USD$27billion in annual payments. 

Shoppers and consumer experts have raised concerns with the service, claiming it allows people to overextend their budgets on unnecessary purchases. 

While the service does not charge interest on purchases, users can incur hefty fees for late repayments. 

Since June, buy now, pay later products have been subject to similar rules to credit cards, requiring providers like Afterpay to hold a credit license. 

It also means customers who pay late will see that appear on their credit reports, affecting their ability to take out a loan or mortgage.