People buy products in a Walmart in Rosemead, California, April 11, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty images
An increasing number of Americans use the purchase now, pay for subsequent loans to buy grocery products, and more people pay these invoices late, according to new data on loan trees on Friday.
Figures are the latest indicator that some consumers crack under pressure from an uncertain economy and have trouble offering essential elements such as the grocery store facing persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns about prices.
In a survey conducted from April 2 to 3 in 2,000 American consumers aged 18 to 79, about half said they used the purchase now, pay for subsequent services. Among these consumers, 25% of respondents said they used BNPL loans to buy grocery products, compared to 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, said the firm.
Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they had a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, compared to 34% of the previous year, the survey revealed.
Lending Tree’s consumer finance analyst Matt Schulz said that among the respondents who said they had paid a late BNPL bill, most of them said it was no more than a week.
“Many people are struggling and are looking for ways to extend their budget,” said Schulz. “Inflation is always a problem.
“For many people, it will mean relying on the purchase now, paying for subsequent loans, for better or for the worst,” he said.
He ceased to call the results a recession indicator, but said that conditions should decrease more before they improve.
“I think it will get worse, at least in the short term,” said Schulz. “I don’t know there are many reasons to expect these figures to improve in the short term.”
Loans, which allow consumers to divide purchases into several smaller payments, are a popular alternative to credit cards because they often do not charge any interest. But consumers can see high costs if they pay late, and they may encounter problems if they stack several loans. In the Lending Tree survey, 60% of BNPL users said they had several loans at a time, with almost one fourth saying that they had three or more at the same time.
“It is really important that people are cautious when they use these things, because even if they can be a very good uninteresting tool to help you make a pay check for the next one, there is also a lot of risks to manage it,” said Schulz. “So people should walk slightly.”
Lending Tree’s conclusions occur after Billboard revealed that around 60% of Coachella’s general admission to the concert tickets with Buy Now, pay for subsequent loans, triggering a debate on the state of the economy and how consumers use debt to maintain their lifestyle. A recent announcement of Doordash that he would begin to accept the financing of the Klarna BNPL for food deliveries led to mockery and widespread jokes that the Americans had so many difficulties that they were now forced to finance cheeseburgers and burritos.
In recent years, consumers have resisted relatively well, even in the face of persistent inflation and high interest rates, because the labor market was strong and wage growth had followed inflation – at least for some workers.
Earlier this year, however, large companies, especially Walmart And Delta Airlines started to warn that the dynamics had started to move and that they saw cracks in demand, which led to higher than expected sales forecasts.