Is Buy Now, Pay Later A Good Idea For Consumers?

Consumers have flocked to “buy now, pay later” businesses in recent years as a way to make big purchases more manageable. In fact, these new services have become big competition for traditional store credit cards. Their rapid growth is raising questions about the benefits and risks for consumers, as well as the lack of regulation.

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Is Buy Now, Pay Later A Good Idea For Consumers?

[bedfil]

5 yrs from now:
Breaking News: BNPL companies knew that consumers could not repay later, whistler blower to testify in front of Congress.

[xAmirKDx]

Save now and buy it later - do this. Don't buy now pay later unless its an emergency and you've exhausted all other options.

[VarsVerum]

Ah yes, why 90% of Americans are in debt.

[gregzz]

BNPL is another way to buy things you cannot afford and stay in debt.

[ThatRosco]

If you're using financing to pay for your clothes, you should probably buy cheaper clothes

[FRISHR]

“If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.” —Warren Buffett

[stacheup]

can’t wait to see the consumer debt crisis that arises from the proliferation of these platforms

[labnine]

"Buy now pay later" is just re-branded credit. Hearing about this so late in the stock market cycle (the peak) reminds me of the Paycheck Advance stores that popped up all over American before the last crash. The social engineers and financiers are feasting on the working poor. Many who use these services likely have already maxed out their credit cards. Rest assured when the market does crash people will say, "where did the money go" and "what went wrong?"

[mtnx]

If you need to get in debt for 24 months to buy an iPhone 13 Pro, then maybe you shouldn't.

[ManOfSteel]

remember kids debt free life is real freedom. the moment you take a loan you roll down the rabbit hole and most of them dont come out throughout their lifetime. consume less and be satisfied with what you can afford.

[tarabooartarmy]

I use payment plans for mid-sized purchases occasionally. For example, I used Amazon's payment plan (5 months) for my laptop because I needed one right away and didn't want to pay interest by purchasing on a credit card. I wouldn't use this option often, but it's helpful for certain situations.

[emmy]

If you can't afford it outright, don't buy it. That's what I was always taught.

[roadrunner]

They change them in the way that even more people are buying things actually can‘t afford.

[waqaskhan]

These tricks.. including credit cards.. are exactly the the reason why people are in such extreme debt.
Platforms, firms thrive on such irresponsible behaviour

[themichaeldonovan]

They forgot to mention what’s really fueling the need for these services: Consumerism, materialism, greed, and superficiality, lack of delayed gratification, and lack of purpose, lack of gratitude. Of course there will be the 1/10, 000 who used this to get a computer to start a new company, but most of this is just going to be consumer debt. The bubbles will pop eventually and everyone will cry “I was taken advantage of by these companies” whilst the companies cry “we didn’t know they couldn’t afford this.” Companies will get bailouts and nobody will learn a lesson to prevent it from happening again.

[hamzamberu]

BNPL encourages customers to buy stuff they cannot afford dragging them into more debt

[kwame]

Don’t get trapped in this debt cycle. Only buy with the money you have unless it’s a large purchase like a home or a car.

[TuanTran-eugr]

Just look at credit card debt for any indication.

If you can’t pay for small purchases…you can’t afford it.

[AC-jmyf]

Dave Ramsey will be getting more calls after this…

[ttoja]

Twenty years ago, Korea issued credit cards to most people unconditionally, including teens. At that time, so many people who overspent became credit defaulters.