Paying for food and drink on a night out could soon be a thing of the past, with a WA club revealing it wants to be the first hospitality business to introduce Afterpay for patrons.

Bar1 Nightclub at Hillarys plans on introducing Afterpay for punters to buy a drink as early as February next year.

Owner Malcolm Pages told The West Australian he had been tracking payment solutions like Afterpay and Zip Pay for over 12 months, determined to find out if it was “just a fad”.

“It’s hung around, so I approached them (Afterpay and Zip Pay),” he said.

“I think everyone will jump on it and it would be a pretty cool marketing tool.”

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Mr Pages said there was not a difference between paying off a concert ticket in instalments over time than paying for drinks at a hens night.

“Going forward, the generations are going to lap up this stuff more and more,” he said.

“That’s why I went to them and about three other companies. Paying off your drinks bill over instalments should be a thing.

“They should have a facility set up where you can go out and pay off your night out over time.

“And they certainly haven’t said no to me.”

But research fellow at the Public Health Advocacy Institute of WA said extending buy-now-pay-later services to buying alcohol at bars and clubs would be “a very bad idea”.

“This idea has the potential to increase alcohol harm as well as financial harm, especially for the most vulnerable people in our community,” she said.

“These services are not appropriate for hazardous products like alcohol. The potential for problems is too great, particularly for young or vulnerable people who could very easily find themselves in financial trouble from using these services to buy alcohol.”

According to Mr Pages, Afterpay could introduce the system as early as next February.

“I plan to be the first place to try it. It would be good if I was the first,” Mr Pages said.

However despite Mr Pages’ idea, Afterpay have told The West the company has no plans to implement their system in such an environment.

“There are no bars or nightclubs on the Afterpay platform, and it is not something we are considering at this time,” a spokesperson said.