Investigation says

More and more Americans are using purchases, paying loans later to buy groceries, and more and more people are late for these bills.

These figures are the latest indicators that some consumers break down under uncertain economic pressure and have struggled with essentials like groceries as they relate to ongoing inflation, high interest rates and focus on tariffs.

About half of the 2,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 to 79 were reported to use purchases now and later payment services. The company said 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023.

Meanwhile, the survey found that 41% of respondents said they had made late payments on BNPL loans over the past year, up from 34% in the previous year.

Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at Borrowing Tree, said that among those interviewees who said they were late, most said it was no longer than a week or so.

“A lot of people are struggling and are looking for ways to expand their budgets,” Schultz said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still high. There is a lot of uncertainty in tariffs and other economic issues, and it all adds up to a lot of people who are looking for ways to expand their budgets.”

“For many people, this will mean relying on buying now and then lending later, for better or worse,” he said.

He no longer calls the results a recession indicator, but expects conditions to fall further before getting better.

“I do think it will get worse at least in the short term,” Schultz said. “I don't know there are many reasons to expect these numbers to get better in the short term.”

Loans allow consumers to split their purchases into several smaller payments and are a popular alternative to credit cards because they usually do not charge interest. However, if consumers pay later, consumers can see high fees and if they stack multiple loans, they may have problems. In the Lending Tree survey, 60% of BNPL users said they have multiple loans at a time, and nearly a quarter said they hold three or more loans at a time.

“For people to use these things, caution is crucial because even if they can be a very good interest tool that can help you from one salary to the next, there is also a great risk of improper management,” Schulz said. “So people should stomp easily.”

Billboard revealed that the Lending Tree survey results were found on Billboard that about 60% of Coachella participants now offer concert tickets through BAY and pay loans later, sparking debates about the economic situation and how consumers use debt to keep their lifestyle. A recent announcement from Doordash that it will begin accepting Klarna’s BNPL financing for food delivery has caused so much mockery and jokes that Americans are struggling to make money for cheeseburgers and burritos.

Consumers have been relatively good over the past few years, even in the face of sustained inflation and high interest rates, as the job market is strong, wage growth has also been in sync with inflation – at least for some workers.

However, earlier this year, major companies including Walmart and Delta began warning that this dynamic has begun to shift, seeing cracks in demand that have led to worse sales forecasts.