{"id":1014285,"date":"2026-08-21T05:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T05:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1014285\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T05:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T05:09:21","slug":"buy-now-pay-later-spreads-from-splurges-to-rent-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1014285\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Spreads From Splurges to Rent, Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Those “buy now, pay later” loans that once greased impulse buys at checkout are increasingly being used to keep the lights on, reports the New York Times<\/a>. The paper details how fintech players like Flex, Zip, and Affirm are expanding their installment products beyond shoes and gadgets to cover rent, utilities, medical and dental care, insurance, even tax bills. Americans funneled about $160 billion through these services last year\u2014nearly double the amount two years earlier\u2014amid rising housing, medical, and fuel costs and growing reliance on debt to manage routine expenses. \n <\/p>\n


\n The Times lays out both sides: fans say the short-term, fixed-fee loans can be more predictable than credit cards and give gig workers and cash-strapped households some breathing room. Critics warn they can turn into quiet debt traps when people juggle multiple loans that automatically pull from their bank accounts, triggering overdrafts and missed bills. That’s particularly true since Biden-era credit-card-style consumer protections have been rolled back by the Trump administration, notes Straight Arrow News<\/a>. Economists are also worried about the “phantom debt,” which sits outside traditional credit reporting. For a closer look at who’s using these loans, how the products work, and why regulators are watching, read the full piece at the New York Times<\/a>. \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Those “buy now, pay later” loans that once greased impulse buys at checkout are increasingly being used…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1014286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[4503,64,234617,118713,26448,79,14231,10532,196875,8167,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1014285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bills","tag-business","tag-buy-now","tag-consumer-credit","tag-debt","tag-economy","tag-loans","tag-middle-class","tag-pay-later","tag-rent","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117131776297985322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}