Americans rely on BNPL now more than ever – and many can’t pay it back on time

Americans are leaning harder than ever on buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans just to survive, and a lot of them can’t even make the payments on time anymore. LendingTree dropped new numbers on Friday, showing that more people are using BNPL for groceries and that a growing chunk of people are falling behind on their bills.

Inflation won’t let up, interest rates are choking budgets, and talk about new tariffs is scaring the heck out of everyone. People are doing what they can, but in 2025, it’s looking ugly out there, and America is feeling it.

In a survey run by LendingTree on April 2-3, 2,000 Americans between 18 and 79 were asked about their money habits. Half said they had used BNPL services. Out of those users, 25% said they had used BNPL loans to pay for groceries.

That number was just 21% in 2023 and only 14% in 2024. The cracks are showing everywhere. Around 41% of BNPL users said they missed at least one payment in the last year, a nasty jump from 34% a year before.

Americans load up on BNPL debt as late payments surge

Matt Schulz, who is LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst, said late payers usually miss by just a week or so. But still, the number of people falling behind keeps getting worse.

“A lot of people are struggling and looking for ways to extend their budget,” Matt said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still really high. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and other economic issues, and it’s all going to add up to a lot of people looking for ways to extend their budget however they can.”

Matt said that for many people across America, leaning on BNPL loans isn’t about convenience anymore; it’s survival. “For an awful lot of people, that’s going to mean leaning on buy now, pay later loans, for better or for worse,” he said.

Matt made it clear he didn’t want to label the data as a recession warning, but he didn’t sound hopeful either. “I do think it’s going to get worse, at least in the short term,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of reason to expect these numbers to get better in the near term.”

BNPL loans let people split a payment into smaller pieces without interest, but only if they pay on time. Late fees can tear through wallets fast, and juggling too many loans can turn into a nightmare. The LendingTree survey found that 60% of BNPL users had multiple loans at once.

Nearly 25% said they had three or more going at the same time. Matt said that while BNPL can help when used carefully, it’s easy to lose control.

Debt piles up even on concerts, deliveries, and cheeseburgers

LendingTree’s report follows a bomb from Billboard, which showed that 60% of Coachella’s general admission crowd this year used BNPL to buy their concert tickets. The news triggered a fresh debate about Americans going into debt just to keep up appearances.

Then came DoorDash, announcing it would let people use BNPL through Klarna to pay for food deliveries. The internet wasted no time dragging it, throwing out jokes about Americans needing loans for cheeseburgers and burritos.

For a while, America looked like it could handle inflation and crazy high interest rates because the job market was strong, and wages were rising. But the story is flipping fast. Big companies like Walmart and Delta Airlines warned earlier this year that they were already seeing weaker demand and dropping sales.

Meanwhile, Google searches are pointing at a rising fear of recession. Searches for “Global Financial Crisis” are about to hit their highest point since 2010. People are also googling “Great Recession” more than they have since the early Covid days. The fear is thick.

Even the music charts are catching the vibe. “Recession pop,” the name for the flashy pop music that blew up during the 2008 crash, is back again. Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry — the faces of pop from back then — are dropping new music in 2025.

Miley and Gaga already put out new tracks this year, and Katy actually kicked off a world tour earlier this week, right when more Americans are stressing about another crash.

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