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Thank for sharing this. You are so correct. There’s also social pressure to belong to these subscription services and paying added fees to “fit in”. I mean, if you’re struggling financially AND you’re paying for a Prime membership, you should reconsider your spending habits.

While it's probably true that people spend more than they otherwise would (otherwise this wouldn't be such a huge thing), that doesn't follow from Klarna's marketing figure of 45% higher spend per order. It is totally possible that people order more at once but less often. Especially for groceries, buying in bulk is often much better value, but it can be impossible if you just don't have the cash around.

Just uh, stop being a poor!

Problem solved.

Cost of rent is such a con. It continues to rise and been proven to be manipulated by software (RealPage). Then shrinkflation.. and inflation.. cost of energy. Cost of insurance. Literally everything. EXCEPT the one thing which SHOULD go up: wages.

But hey, corporations can just bake bread and be exempt from minimum wage increases; California and Panera, though they got in so much hot water it was backtracked… but holy fuck that’s the shitty weasel way of corps.

Yes, I definitely volunteered to get an interest free loan on my groceries. It absolutely had nothing to do with my inability to pay in full immediately

But listen to our fun jingle!

Isn't is nifty to get into debt before your brain has fully developed!

In September 2024 student loan payments start back up. They're semi on pause if you have financial hardship, interest still accrues. 45,000,000 people with student loan debt.

predictable lower payments on as much as possible just to have more cash around

It doesn't give you "more cash". You are borrowing money and interest is definitely baked into it. Credit cards already let you borrow money for a month for free. Plus they have cash back / points and great fraud protection. Plus they help you build your credit score.

You can get a basic credit card for $0 per year with a low limit, even if you have no credit. Don't ever use "pay later" shit. Why do you think they invented it? It's better for them, not you.

I sincerely hope this is sarcasm

Every system must be tried and taken to the extreme where it eventually crashes and gets replaced. It's the nature of things.

BNPL generally has a fixed payment schedule, while CC does not. It's entirely feasible to use a CC and never pay interest by paying debts immediately (because you have cash liquidity). At that point, a CC becomes more of a low-friction "accounts payable" system for consumers than a financing scheme.

BNPL's primary value is in making large purchases because of low cash liquidity. When consumers don't have enough cash liquidity for FOOD, that's a sign of bad times.

Or it means people are leveraging low interest loans to gamble their lunch money. Still not a good look.

Not much difference, but it’s usually fairly predatory.

It’s not that it’s a fairly new thing- it’s that people are having to do it for necessities. Which just makes everything more expensive as your (probably) now on a credit treadmill.

Rack up credit card debt, flee to a different country when they start coming after you, repeat until you're dead or in prison.

Or just starve.

He’s not wrong, but this comes off as “it’s only a banana Michael”. If he’s talking about a house, then yes. If he’s talking about groceries, that adds up quickly. Don’t just pay interests on everything.

Usually interest free for 3 or so months. Pay 1/3 a month.

I've used PayPal in 4 a couple of times.

Budgeting pretty hard, sometimes it's easier to spread the load out over 4 weeks for something that would eat my whole weekly personal spendings in one swoop.