Comment on Black Friday spending raises eyebrows over US economy
magnetosphere@fedia.io 4 days ago
…consumers shopped at encouraging levels…
I love the euphemism, but hate the system that makes it necessary.
Tracy Schuchart, a senior economist at NinjaTrader, called BNPL [Buy Now, Pay Later] the "elephant in the room" of consumer spending, noting high levels of usage among high earners for discretionary purchases and among lower-income groups for essential items.
PEOPLE SHOULDN’T NEED TO FINANCE ESSENTIAL ITEMS.
count_dongulus@lemmy.world 3 days ago
What’s the difference between the buy now pay later thing and regular credit card usage?
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 3 days ago
BNPL is generally for people who are too high a risk to put it on their normal credit card. It’s also normally configured to auto draft from the relevant bank making it hard to default on. Americans needing BNPL is an indication of the weakness of the economy.
AquaTofana@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Speaking as someone who does use the BNPL from time to time for discretionary spending: If you pay it in 4, then its 0% interest and a much smaller piece of your pay check.
Spending $25 over 4 pay checks is a lot easier to do than $100 all at once. But this only works if you A - Only have 1 BNPL plan going at a time, & B - Actually pay off your BNPL in 4.
magnetosphere@fedia.io 3 days ago
I don’t have any personal experience, and the story doesn’t go into detail.