Angelina Love: Bidenflation causing Hard-Up Americans to take out Loans to pay for GROCERIES using Loan Shark ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Apps that charge Hefty Fees for late payments

Bidenflation hits home: Hard-up Americans are taking out loans to pay for GROCERIES using ‘buy now, pay later’ apps that charge hefty fees for late payments

Use of ‘buy now, pay later’ services for basic goods is rising quickly in the US
Apps like Klarna and Afterpay offer installment payments with no interest
But they can charge hefty late fees and critics say they lure consumers into debt
More people are using BNPL services to buy groceries and dine at restaurants
Americans can even pay for a Chipotle burrito with an installment plan now
Pay-later firms say they offer a better alternative to high-interest credit cards

A growing number of Americans are using ‘buy now, pay later’ services to purchase basic goods such as groceries, raising concerns about consumers taking on more debt.

Installment-pay services such as Klarna and Afterpay offer interest-free short-term loans to cover purchases, but the fines for late payments can be steep, and critics fear their ease of use could lure shoppers into dangerous debt.

In 2021, $45.9 billion in pay-later transactions were made online, a sharp increase from $15.3 billion the year before, according to a GlobalData analysis reported by the New York Times.

Food accounted for about 6 percent of the purchases last year, but seems to be an important part of the sector’s explosive growth, as the soaring cost of groceries in the US raises the appeal of deferred payments… More