After racking up thousands of dollars in debt, some borrowers are deleting the apps from their phones to avoid getting prodded to spend more.
Many consumers find buying now and paying later a godsend when cash is tight. Others are wishing they’d paid upfront to avoid pain later.
Tia Whiteside, 27, knew she was spending more than she would have without buy now, pay later services — the popular loans that let borrowers split purchases into installments with little or no interest. Planning a day trip to the beach with her 2-year-old son last year, she spent $800 on Amazon purchases including a tent, new outfits and a high-end sandcastle kit with the BNPL provider Affirm.
Whiteside, a Greenville, South Carolina-based behavioral analyst who treats childhood autism, makes good money; she and her husband bring in about $110,000 per year combined. But the $6,000 in BNPL loans she’d racked up over roughly two years felt frivolous, she said, especially because they’re planning to buy their first home.
“I was just seeing my paycheck continually eaten up,” said Whiteside, “and I was like, ‘Where’s my money going?’”
Our country is big, and has wild variances in both cost and standard of living.
I make a bit less, and $55k would change very little other than the fact that I’d be able to get medical care. I’d still have to live 40 miles from work in an ancient apartment, I’d still be unable to go out to eat or spend money on recreation, and I’d still have to ration my grocery money pretty carefully.
Where my best friend lives, this would be cocaine and hookers every weekend kind of money. Their rent is $400, and again, they live alone.
But on the coast, you couldn’t live even with several roommates. You’d be homeless.