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From Apple devices and Tesla features to car washes and HVAC plans, businesses are turning one-time purchases into recurring monthly payments

Cheng Xin/Getty Images

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A laptop used to be something you bought once. Apple $AAPL -0.63% just made it something you can pay for every month.

Instead of buying a MacBook or an iPhone outright, customers can now lease one through Apple for a recurring monthly payment. It puts the device itself alongside services such as iCloud and Apple Music in the growing pile of bills that never quite go away.

That same logic has quietly spread almost everywhere else. Tesla $TSLA 5.14% charges $99 a month for its Full Self-Driving feature, with Elon Musk warning that the price will climb as the technology improves. HVAC contractors are pitching homeowners on “comfort plans” that bundle a furnace, a compressor, and a decade of maintenance into a single monthly bill, with no upfront cost required.

Car washes have turned an inherently one-off transaction into a membership business. Restaurants are experimenting with drink clubs and meal passes.

This isn’t a new business model. Apple and these........

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