Summary

Gen Z is increasingly relying on “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) services for holiday shopping, with spending projected to rise 11.4% this year, totaling $18.5 billion.

These services appeal to younger consumers with limited credit histories but can lead to overextension, as they lack centralized reporting and encourage overspending.

Experts warn of accumulating fees, particularly when BNPL plans are tied to credit cards.

With inflation and rising credit card debt already burdening Gen Z, consumer advocates caution that these services may worsen financial instability despite their convenience.

  • @Zachariah
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    9423 hours ago

    Why isn’t this framed as predatory lending?

      • @Zachariah
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        1022 hours ago

        doesn’t mean we need to blame people (victims) rather than the organizations

        • @RangerJosie
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          3420 hours ago

          Actually yes. Yes it does.

          The poor are poor cuz they don’t work hard.

          Can’t budget to help the homeless cuz some of them might trade food stamps for drugs.

          If you didn’t want that baby you should have kept your lega closed.

          Blaming the victim is as American as genociding the indigenous. Happens all day every day. Because this is the bad place.

          • @pivot_root
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            20 hours ago

            Ah, the great American Dream. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and work hard to enrich the millionaires profiting off your labor earn that $0.12 raise you’ve been asking for.

          • @reddit_sux
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            119 hours ago

            After ending genocide at home it just exports it.

    • @[email protected]
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      817 hours ago

      I’m not sure because it definitely is.

      The whole selling point of services like Klarna is they don’t show up on your credit checks, meaning you can very easily take on too much debt.