More Americans are buying groceries using buy now, pay later: Survey

(NewsNation) — Americans are increasingly using buy now, pay later (BNPL) for everyday expenses like groceries, and many rely on the loans to make ends meet, a new survey finds.

Nearly a third of BNPL users (29 percent) said they’ve used it for groceries, up from 14 percent two years ago, according to LendingTree. Among Gen Z users, the share rises to 38 percent.

Buy now, pay later is a short-term financing option that allows consumers to make purchases upfront and pay them off in smaller, typically interest-free installments over time.

The payment method has surged in popularity and now spans everything from takeout to rent, and the survey suggests many Americans have come to depend on it to get by.

More than half of BNPL users (54 percent) said they wouldn’t be able to make ends meet without the loans, rising to 62 percent among parents with children under 18. Another 47 percent also said they’ve made a late payment on one of their BNPL loans in the past year — up from 34 percent in 2024, according to the data.

“BNPL can be a helpful tool, but these numbers raise real concerns,” said Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree. “When nearly half of users say they’ve paid late, it shows how thin many households’ margins are right now.”

Some users are even turning to BNPL for essential bills: 13% said they’ve used it to pay rent, while 15 percent have used it for medical, dental or veterinary bills.

The LendingTree survey was conducted online by QuestionPro and polled over 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 80 in March.

Is buy now, pay later a growing risk?

LendingTree’s findings come as federal lawmakers weigh how to regulate buy now, pay later, which has faced fewer rules than traditional credit products.

Research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shows BNPL users tend to have riskier credit profiles and often take on multiple loans at a time, raising concerns about growing exposure to the financing.

BNPL loan originations from major lenders have surged from around $3 billion in 2019 to more than $45 billion in 2023, according to the CFPB, though BNPL still represented just 1 percent of total spending volume in the credit card market.

Despite its growth, BNPL’s broader impact on financial stability remains relatively small, according to a February economic brief from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

“Given its current scale, debt outstanding and observed default rates, the impact of BNPL on financial stability appears limited at present,” wrote Zhu Wang, vice president for research in financial and payments systems at the Richmond Fed.

“While spillovers to other consumer credit markets are possible, there is no clear evidence of elevated stress to date,” Wang added.