Brittany needs a couch. Should she buy now, pay later?

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

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Summary

Brittany keeps looking at a new couch online, and every time she goes to buy it she sees an option to "Buy Now, Pay Later," which made her wonder...should she? Here's what she found:

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) loans have become one of the go-to ways to get access to credit fast. Companies like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay make buying big purchases relatively easy by allowing people to pay in installments over time. But some Americans have taken to using this method for everyday items like groceries, and when BNPL service providers like Klarna partners with DoorDash so customers can "eat now, pay later"... it feels like a debt trap waiting to happen. And that's just scratching the surface.

This... is Money Troubles.

And for the past few weeks we've been looking into the ways everyday people are trying to make ends meet... and what it says about how our culture views labor, basic needs, or even our favorite pastimes.

In this final episode, NPR Life Kit's Andee Tagle and author Malcolm Harris join Brittany to get into why Buy Now, Pay Later has become so popular and how 'cheap credit' may be another lifestyle subsidy for a new generation.

You can hear more of Andee's and Life Kit's reporting on Buy Now, Pay Later here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Johnny O'Hanson, Jr. join me each week on In Black America as we profile current and historically significant figures whose stories help illuminate life in Black America. You don't want to miss the conversation. KUT Radio in Black America are members of the NPR Network. Thanks for listening to In Black America.
0:22.4	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Loose and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about
0:28.4	what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. I'm going to give you a little behind-the-scenes moment here and level with you all.
0:44.7	I am in dire need of a new couch.
0:52.5	It's done me well for years, but now it's just a miserable experience to sit on.
0:58.3	And I've been slacking on getting a new one because every time I get to that checkout
1:03.4	page online, typing in my credit card number for a $4,000 couch just doesn't feel right.
1:10.1	But on every checkout page,
1:12.8	I kept coming across an alternative payment option.
1:16.9	Right under credit card, Apple Pay, PayPal,
1:20.1	was the option to get my couch now
1:22.3	and break my payment down into installments using Klarna, a firm, or afterpay.
1:30.2	This was new to me, but I would come to find out that these companies were offering buy now pay later loans. Buy now pay later loans are
1:36.0	exactly what they sound like. They're a form of credit that allows you to buy something now and
1:40.4	pay for it later. That is NPR Life Kits, Andy Tagle.
1:48.6	And I called her up to walk me through this payment plan because I was very familiar with Layaway, where a store holds a large purchase for you as you pay it off in installments.
1:53.0	But getting the product up front and paying for it over time, that was new to me.
1:58.5	But according to Andy, it's pretty popular and for good reason.
2:02.7	I split the user base into two main categories of heavy buy now pay later users. So there are young people,
2:08.6	and then there are people with poor or limited credit history. And the reason for that is because
2:13.6	the barrier to entry is a lot lower for Buy Now Pay Later loans than your typical credit
2:18.7	card or bank loan. A lot of them have completely interest-free options. Other ones, it might
	...

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