Buy now, pay later helped fuel record holiday spending online in 2023, but now that those bills are coming due, consumers aren't sure how they'll pay them.
It is a trap because, for a lot of people, money isn’t a number but an on/off switch. You either have enough money to buy something or you don’t instead of being able to understand the short and long term impacts of taking on debt.
Some personal debt can be beneficial, but a lot can lead to major problems.
I agree. I think it’s something that needs far more time on at an early age - whether it’s something integrated into a maths curriculum or something as part of a wider “how to survive in a modern world” courses about taxes, finances, bill payments, wills and death planning etc - all of which are likely massively outside the scope of this post.
I just don’t like the idea of death by a thousand paper cuts - or rather a thousand direct debit entries for Klarna, Very, PayPal Credit, Littlewoods, House of FraserCard, etc. I’d lose track of them too easily.
That said, the last two purchases I took out on finance was an Xbox Series S as it came with two years of Game Pass for a quid more expensive than buying them outright over the same term - and a phone from Very which offered a 20% discount if you ordered it as a new Buy Now Pay Later customer… and the balance was paid a month later.
I understand this on an intellectual level but simply can’t bring myself to finance anything.
personal debt is a trap I’ve seen too many people get caught by.
It is a trap because, for a lot of people, money isn’t a number but an on/off switch. You either have enough money to buy something or you don’t instead of being able to understand the short and long term impacts of taking on debt.
Some personal debt can be beneficial, but a lot can lead to major problems.
I agree. I think it’s something that needs far more time on at an early age - whether it’s something integrated into a maths curriculum or something as part of a wider “how to survive in a modern world” courses about taxes, finances, bill payments, wills and death planning etc - all of which are likely massively outside the scope of this post.
I just don’t like the idea of death by a thousand paper cuts - or rather a thousand direct debit entries for Klarna, Very, PayPal Credit, Littlewoods, House of FraserCard, etc. I’d lose track of them too easily.
That said, the last two purchases I took out on finance was an Xbox Series S as it came with two years of Game Pass for a quid more expensive than buying them outright over the same term - and a phone from Very which offered a 20% discount if you ordered it as a new Buy Now Pay Later customer… and the balance was paid a month later.