'Buy Now, Pay Later' is Expanding Fast, and That Should Worry Everyone
An anonymous reader shares a report: When Nigel Morris tells you he's worried about the economy, you listen. As industry observers know, Morris co-founded Capital One and pioneered lending to subprime borrowers, building an empire on understanding exactly how much financial stress the average American can handle. Now, as an early investor in Klarna and other buy-now-pay-later companies like Aplazo in Mexico, he's watching something that makes him deeply uncomfortable.
"To see that people are using [BNPL services] to buy something as basic and fundamental as groceries," Morris told me on stage at Web Summit in Lisbon this week, "I think is a pretty clear indication that a lot of people are struggling." The statistics back up his unease. Buy-now-pay-later services have exploded to 91.5 million users in the United States, according to the financial services firm Empower, with 25% using the services to finance their groceries as of earlier this year, according to survey data released in late October by lending marketplace Lending Tree.
These aren't discretionary purchases -- the designer bags and latest Apple headphones that BNPL was marketed for originally. Borrowers aren't paying it all back, either. According to Lending Tree, default rates are accelerating: 42% of BNPL users made at least one late payment in 2025, up from 39% in 2024 and 34% in 2023.
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Pictured: Nine-month-old baby killed in XL Bully attack while staying at his father's home after dog 'was spooked by fireworks'
Jonte William Bluck, aged nine months, suffered massive head injuries when he was killed by an XL Bully dog while staying with his father for the weekend, an inquest heard today.
Lil Nas X beams in court as lawyers tease 'positive' outcome in case over naked public breakdown that stunned Hollywood
Lil Nas X was all smiles as he made a brief appearance in a Los Angeles courthouse months after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting cops while only wearing his underware.
Max George, 36, reveals he was rushed to A&E twice due to heart arrhythmias just two days before The Wanted 2.0 America tour
Just two days before The Wanted singer, 36, was due to go on tour with Siva Kaneswaran, Max had to have a MRI scan on his heart.
Elizabeth Olsen commands attention in a statement spotted dress as she poses at the UK premiere of her new film Eternity
Elizabeth Olsen commanded attention in a statement spotted dress as she posed at the UK premiere of her new film Eternity on Monday night.
Harvard Has Almost Half a Billion Dollars in Crypto
An anonymous reader shares a report: Harvard is ramping up its holdings in cryptocurrency. The nation's oldest university reported a $443 million investment in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust in the third quarter. The school now holds 6.8 million shares of the exchange-traded fund, up from 1.9 million in the second quarter.
The digital currency amounts to a little less than 1% of the school's $57 billion endowment. Other schools are bullish on crypto as well. Brown University reported holding $13 million of the BlackRock bitcoin ETF in the second quarter and Emory University reported holding $20 million of Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF as of March.
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Selena Quintanilla autopsy details revealed 30 years after Tejano singer was murdered
The singer, dubbed the Queen of Tejano music, was gunned down aged just 23 by the deranged president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar on March 31, 1995 - in a crime that shocked the world.
George W Bush 'prepared nuclear missiles after 9/11 - sparking panic in Moscow as Putin thought Russia would be attacked'
George W Bush made preparations to launch nuclear weapons after the deadly 9/11 terror attacks, a former British defence chief has revealed.
It was an inside job, 'robber who helped steal £1.1m of watches from salesman' who later killed himself tells court
Kyle Mehmet (pictured), 40, has claimed he took part in the robbery at 247 Kettles in Kew Road, Richmond, on May 25 last year because he owed gangsters £190,000.
This Morning star Josie Gibson showcases her slender frame during winter break in Antigua after losing 5st WITHOUT resorting to 'skinny jabs'
The TV presenter, 40, showed off her slender physique during a winter break in Antigua as she explored the island in a black, figure-hugging, one-piece.
Piers Morgan explains spat that started Kelly Brook's decades-long feud with I'm A Celeb hosts Ant and Dec
Piers Morgan has broken his silence on Kelly Brook's feud with Ant and Dec amid her appearance on their show, I'm A Celebrity on Sunday night.
Kelsey Grammer's daughter Greer, 33, hits back at nepo baby label as she details their 11-year estrangement
Kelsey Grammer's daughter Greer is firing back at claims she's a nepo baby, revealing she spent most of her childhood estranged from him.
Is Video Watching Bad for Kids? The Effect of Video Watching on Children's Skills
Abstract of a paper on NBER: This paper documents video consumption among school-aged children in the U.S. and explores its impact on human capital development. Video watching is common across all segments of society, yet surprisingly little is known about its developmental consequences. With a bunching identification strategy, we find that an additional hour of daily video consumption has a negative impact on children's noncognitive skills, with harmful effects on both internalizing behaviors (e.g., depression) and externalizing behaviors (e.g., social difficulties). We find a positive effect on math skills, though the effect on an aggregate measure of cognitive skills is smaller and not statistically significant. These findings are robust and largely stable across most demographics and different ways of measuring skills and video watching. We find evidence that for Hispanic children, video watching has positive effects on both cognitive and noncognitive skills -- potentially reflecting its role in supporting cultural assimilation. Interestingly, the marginal effects of video watching remain relatively stable regardless of how much time children spend on the activity, with similar incremental impacts observed among those who watch very little and those who watch for many hours.
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Unravelling the mystery of the earliest life on Earth: Scientists uncover fresh chemical evidence of microbes in rocks more than 3.3 BILLION years old
Scientists have uncovered the earliest chemical evidence of life on Earth in a discovery that could revolutionise our understanding of how ancient molecules evolved.
Gary Numan announces younger brother John has died suddenly aged 60 after collapsing within seconds of their final goodbye - and admits 'the last two days have been the hardest of my life' following onstage breakdown
The electro-pop pioneer struggled to continue after telling fans at the city's O2 Academy he had received 'the worst news' earlier in the day.
Security researcher calls BS on Coinbase breach disclosure timeline
Claims he reported the attack in January after fraudsters tried to scam him
A security researcher says Coinbase knew about a December 2024 security breach during which miscreants bribed its support staff into handing over almost 70,000 customers' details at least four months before it disclosed the data theft.…
Trump shooter Thomas Crooks's disturbing trans 'furry' fantasies revealed
Thomas Crooks, who shot Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the height of the presidential campaign in 2024, went by the alias 'epicmicrowave'.
Fury from all sides as Labour unveils 'tough' migrant crackdown that would hand failed asylum seekers thousands to leave
Proposals set out by Shabana Mahmood this afternoon stress that the government wants to limit the scope for failed applicants to appeal.
Meghan's ex-husband's reaction to finding out she was dating Prince Harry is revealed by his pal Bethenny Frankel
The Skinnygirl Margarita founder and original Real Housewife of New York, 54, got to know Meghan's film producer former partner at around the time her relationship with Harry became public in 2016.
Mysterious 1,500-year-old Christian mosaic reveals lost biblical secrets
Archaeologists have uncovered a stunning 1,500-year-old Christian floor mosaic that features long-lost imagery of the Bible.