More Americans are financing groceries with buy now, pay later loans, and more are paying those bills late

[Afro]

Yeap, I got a bunch from Costco and Amazon.
I'll be underwater forever

Least Klarna and Zip allow you to move dates around.

Affirm just says says fine miss a payment then

 

[Geek Nasty]

I dunno about that. If i was really down bad id just go to a foodbank instead of getting loan for some apple jacks

Thats the next step. Most people are prideful and in denial.

 

[phcitywarrior]

but people who are savvy about the cashback game are generally folks who are responsible about credit.

Real financing involved either paying interest or the threat of having to pay interest if payments aren't made in time on the loan. If you clear the loan in one fell swoop asap you really faced neither.

I agree with both of you that being savy with the cashback game and paying off your statement is not “financing” per se. But to the post below shows many consumers are not that savy.

That’s just the point I was making.

Around half of Americans carry credit card debt
48% of credit cardholders report having a credit card balance. Close to 3 in 4 of those debtors (71%) think they’ll pay off their balance within five years.
Source: Bankrate’s 2025 Credit Card Debt Survey

 

[beenz]

Putting groceries on a credit card you can get 1-6% of your money back on the purchases. Even more in you have a card sign up bonus you need to clear some of those can get 10-20% back. Stuff like Affirm and Afterpay is not getting you cash back or rewards. It's really not for groceries they just allow it to work over poor people.

I buy damn near everything on credit these days if I can. when I shop aldi's, I get 3.25% cash back on groceries. for walmart or sam's club, I get 5.25% cash.

 

[Wild self]

If you buy a car and you don’t have enough liquid cash to wipe out the loan if necessary yeah that’s on you. A lot of people don’t seem to get that you can’t be driving around in a car you can’t afford to pay for because cars break down and have maintenance cost associated with them.

Not many used cars left that people can pay cahs in 2025

 

[Wild self]

You take what would be your down payment and you get a trusted mechanic and get beaters inspected until you find one that's solid. Then you've paid for your car in cash you can now save what would be your monthly payment for another car down the road or just to have savings. When the beater finally dies you have some money saved up to replace it.

Instead what people do is walk into a dealership and use financing to get a car they can't really afford. Since they can't afford the car they can't afford the maintenance or repairs on it. Eventually that catches up to them as something goes wrong with the car and they're taking that car and it's negative equity and rolling it over into another car.

That can take WEEKS to find a beater that is halfway reliable

 

[lib123]

Sad. It’s gonna get worse………… before it gets better…whenever that day returns

Between Trump pushing the country towards an economic crisis and the rise of AI, there's going to have to be some sort of Universal Basic Income (UBI) over the next 8-10 years to prevent social unrest.

 

[MikelArteta]

People gotta eat

 

[Yapdatfool]

I buy damn near everything on credit these days if I can.

I do too, its WAY easier to dispute a bad charge or bad cashback bonus usage (speaking from experience cause my CC info was stolen a few times) using a credit card than a debit card.

 

[hashmander]

I buy damn near everything on credit these days if I can. when I shop aldi's, I get 3.25% cash back on groceries. for walmart or sam's club, I get 5.25% cash.

i get 6% with my amex blue cash preferred and it covers everything bought at the grocery store. so for example publix sells gift cards for other stores. if i'm going to home depot, i buy a gift card for roughly the amount i'm going to spend.

 

[hashmander]

I do too, its WAY easier to dispute a bad charge or bad cashback bonus usage (speaking from experience cause my CC info was stolen a few times) using a credit card than a debit card.

debit card is your money, credit card is their money. when shyt goes sideways you better believe they're gonna track down their money.

 

[247Alex]

I don’t get it.
Rent. Utilities. Food.

These are the basics you don’t skip or misallocate for.

Who raised these mfs

 

[BrentWoodSean38]

Aldi and Dollar Tree real nikkas know

 

[-DMP-]

Damn folks really broke af out here

 

[beenz]

i get 6% with my amex blue cash preferred and it covers everything bought at the grocery store. so for example publix sells gift cards for other stores. if i'm going to home depot, i buy a gift card for roughly the amount i'm going to spend.

I do this with playstation. I go to sam's club and buy a gift card cuz I'm getting 5.25% cash back. plus sam's club sells u $100 of playstation credit for $90. so I end up paying just over $85 for $100 of playstation.