Buy Now, Pay Later Services Expanding to Necessities Amidst Consumer Debt Concerns

“Buy now, pay later. Loans now being used for utility bills, rent, etc. Basically, the article is getting into how Once upon a time, we used these sorts of types of payments for like the bigger things that, oh, it's going to be tough to stomach clicking purchase and seeing that much money leave, but now it's being used. Or at least just non-necessities, right? On a daily basis, basically, for typical things that you would not use that for.”

“And I just, I think the more we dive into this as individuals by saying, yeah, let me pay that off in four easy installments. It's a psychological nightmare. It prevents us from seeing our money the way we should and feeling some of the friction and the pain. It's actually, it's just like a more advanced version of something we've talked about, Matt, that I've said I hated, which is the budget billing. Oh yeah, you get the simple $260, $240 utility bill It's the same like clockwork every month. But then when you have higher usage months, you don't feel the pain that makes you actually change your habits. And so I don't like this at all.”

“But I do think the risk profile changes a little bit in that you're kind of regularly punting these expenses down the road. And that part I obviously don't like. I don't like the fact that you, it's like you're never really, I like what you said. You said something about not having a clear understanding of your money. And that's kind of what happens. It kind of softens it over a few months, right? As opposed to like here and now. And then before you know it, you've got every dollar coming in from your paycheck going to these purchases that you've already made, purchases like in the past.”