It’s safe to say that Walmart Layaway is now a thing of the past, as it’s been gone from the Walmart website ever since late 2021. Now, your only option for a layaway-like payment plan at Walmart is Affirm, but it works a lot differently from other layaway programs that are still around (including Amazon Layaway).
The good thing about Walmart’s partnership with Affirm is that you can take home your Walmart purchases right away and pay them off in regular installments. The bad news? You’re on the hook for a credit check and interest charges.
But Affirm isn't the only option you have for a layaway-like payment plan at Walmart these days, as I'll explain.
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The Walmart layaway program quietly disappeared from their website in 2021.
There wasn’t an official announcement from Walmart about their move away from layaway, but for the last few years, Walmart's Layaway landing page has focused on their partnership with Affirm.
They refer to Affirm, a buy now, pay later program, as “an alternative to layaway.”
Lots of retailers have been replacing their layaway programs with “buy now, pay later” options, so we weren’t totally surprised to see Walmart Layaway disappear.
Affirm is your only option for a layaway-like program at Walmart now.
I say that Affirm is "layaway-like" because it works a little differently.
Instead of holding your purchases until you can pay for them in full (like the Walmart Layaway program offered), the Affirm payment option lets you make the purchase right away (online or in stores) and pay off the balance over time.
But unlike layaway, Affirm performs a credit check and charges interest. You can use Affirm on eligible items priced $100 - $4,000, but unfortunately, the list of eligible product categories doesn't include things like groceries.
Here's the full list of what's eligible for Walmart Affirm, according to Affirm.com:
Apparel Automotive Baby durable goods Durable medical devices Entertainment Hearing aids | Home Jewelry Lawn and garden Sporting goods Toys Vision Center |
Layaway used to be free, but Affirm will cost you. Dearly.
This one’s a bummer. While Affirm does advertise a special 0% APR on certain Walmart items (including a specific list of TVs and toys), they do charge interest on most other items.
Interest charges are generally in the range of 10% – 36% APR, and you’ll have the option of repayment plans of anywhere from 3 months up to 24 months, depending on the total.
To see how this interest could add up, let’s say we want to finance a Samsung The Frame TV for $1,496. When we choose Affirm at Walmart checkout online, it quotes us a 20% interest rate. That means that if we opted for the 12-month payment plan, we’d end up paying a total of $1,827.25 — $331.25 more than the sticker price.
That’s an extra $331.25 in interest that we could have spent on something else.
Only use Affirm if you need a long time to pay off your Walmart purchases.
Because of the potentially high interest fees, you’re not going to want to use Affirm unless you need the long payback period.
If you don’t need 3 - 24 months, there are actually a few other ways to buy now and pay later at Walmart by using services from PayPal, Afterpay, and Klarna.
Most of these competitor services split balances into four payments, with 25% upfront and then another 25% every two weeks. Best of all, they don’t charge you any fees to use their services.
Your best bet: Use a "ghost card" from Klarna to avoid Affirm's interest charges.
The simplest alternative to Affirm that I've found is using a "ghost card" from Klarna to pay for your Walmart purchases. How it works is that you pay 25% of the total due at checkout using a one-time digital card within the Klarna app (iOS / Android). Then, you make a payment of 25% of the purchase price every two weeks after.
The good news is that Klarna's Pay in 4 program won't hurt your credit score and doesn't charge interest fees. You can even use it to make in-store purchases, as long as you add the ghost card to your digital Wallet in the Walmart app ahead of time (Account > Settings > Wallet > Add new payment method).
To use Klarna, first download the mobile app or Chrome browser extension and create an account, which includes adding a debit or credit card that will be used for your four payments. The app will automatically give you an estimated spending amount, based on a soft credit check (which doesn’t affect your credit). Each ghost card you create will take away from your available spending amount.
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