‘Buy now, pay later’ is becoming a major part of how Black America affords the everyday

As “Buy now, pay later” options continue to rise in popularity, more and more people question what this says about the economy.
You see it when buying a pair of new shoes. Or in the checkout of a makeup haul. For concert tickets. Your groceries. That purchase you’re about to make using PayPal. Even that DoorDash you ordered because you didn’t feel like cooking those groceries, the option to buy now and pay later appears to be everywhere. 
You’re not imagining things: “Buy now, pay later,” (BNPL) apps and options are on the rise, and new data show usage has grown, particularly among Black consumers. 
According to data released in May by the Federal Reserve Board from its annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, 16% of American adults used BNPL in 2025, and of that, 29% were Black adults compared to 12% of white adults. As the payment method expands from occasional splurges into groceries, restaurant bills, travel accommodations, rent, and other everyday expenses, it’s raising serious questions and concerns about usage, those who already have tight budgets, and what this says about the economy when people need to pay later for everyday essentials. 
Unlike the layaway plans of yesteryear that older generations may recall, when you would pay towards a big purchase in installments before taking it home, BNPL lets consumers take home the good or service in full immediately while paying it off in installments, often through four payments across weeks or months, through providers like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay. 
While the option feels like it appeared everywhere overnight, Terri Bradford, an advanced payments specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, has been studying BNPL for years and said that what has changed is just how many places providers are popping up. 
“When we were first looking at it, it was mostly in the retail space, and then we began to see it creeping into services, and now it is absolutely everywhere. Your doctor’s appointment, car repairs, groceries, restaurants, it’s just pervasive,” she explained to theGrio.
That pervasiveness is only part of what makes BNPL so popular. Bradford said that while the payment method initially emerged as an alternative for people who either didn’t have access to credit cards or simply didn’t want to use them, today it’s about both the gratification of getting something now and, increasingly, making budgets already stretched way too thin work a little harder. 
“People are experiencing stress in their finances with the increasing cost of things,” Bradford continued. “And buy now pay later may be presenting an opportunity to try to stretch a budget that’s already stretched to the max to be able to do some things that you need to do.”
When it comes to who is doing all of this stretching, Federal Reserve data show that younger adults, women, Black and Hispanic adults, and those with fewer financial resources are among the most likely to use BNPL. Previous Fed research has also found higher usage among people with lower incomes and lower credit scores, as well as those already struggling to repay debt.
For Black consumers, it’s not like these numbers are emerging in a vacuum either. Black women in particular have weathered staggering job losses since 2025, while the cost of groceries, housing, and just about everything else has continued to climb. At the same time, many of the traditional markers of wealth, from buying a home to paying for college without taking on enormous debt, have only become more out of reach. 
Kara Stevens, founder of The Frugal Feminista, said somewhere in the middle of all that is a rather human impulse to live your life and enjoy it. 
“Well, if I can’t acquire wealth, let me at least feel wealthy, right? And I think this contributes to let me enjoy my life now because there’s no chance that I can buy a home that I wanted or have the exact lifestyle in terms of those indicators of wealth,” she told theGrio. 
However, BNPL isn’t just being used for enjoyment and frivolous purchases. It is, as previously noted, being used to pay rent and cover household expenses. 
“It’s an indicator that wages have not caught up with the cost of living,” Stevens said. 
Online, there’s been a growing conversation around just how convenient BNPL has become at a moment when so many people are financially stretched, with social media content ranging from people touting the services as a clever financial hack to others warning about how easily they can lead people further into debt. Add in a lifestyle culture where nearly everything we could want is constantly a click away, and the line between what we want, what we need, and what we can actually afford can get blurry fast.
Bradford said one of the biggest risks is just how easy it can be to have multiple plans going at once. With numerous BNPL providers available, a consumer could potentially be juggling payments across several of them, often with those payments automatically coming out of the same bank account at different points throughout the month.
“So you would have those incremental payments hitting your bank account at points in time where you may not have the inflow of cash to meet it, so there’s the risk of really overextending yourself, and then having the problem with bank accounts being overdrawn, and it just becomes like a vicious cycle,” she explained.
There’s a psychological component to all of this, too. Stevens, who works as a financial coach and is also the author of “Heal Your Relationship With Money,” explained that breaking a purchase into smaller pieces can make something we may otherwise recognize as beyond our budget suddenly feel affordable, while removing some of the immediate sting that might ordinarily make us reconsider the purchase altogether.
“When it comes to buy now pay later pay later psychology, those types of structures make unaffordable purchases feel affordable because you don’t have delayed gratification and you don’t have the pain of paying in full immediately,” Stevens said.
Now, that isn’t to say BNPL can’t be a useful financial strategy. Stevens noted that someone who already has the money for a larger purchase may simply be looking to keep more cash available at a particular point in the month, and in that case, spreading out the cost can make perfect sense.
“That’s thoughtful, and that’s strategic,” she said.
“But if you’re using this in a pinch as part of your financial strategy,” she continued, “then that’s when you begin to see if it is a helpful tool or it’s harmful.”
For anyone who has started leaning a little too heavily on that latter end, Stevens suggests, while avoiding shame, figuring out what’s actually going on when you hit that purchase button.
“How are you feeling, friend?” Stevens said she’d ask a client. 
“Like, what was the trigger?” she continued. “What did you want from this purchase? Like, what feeling did you want from it?”
That could mean putting a little more space between wanting something and buying it, returning purchases when possible, or simply getting more honest about what you actually want your money to make room for. Stevens also recommends building the fun stuff into your budget in the first place, whether that’s travel, beauty, entertainment, or the occasional luxury item, rather than creating a financial plan so restrictive that eventually you’re left with no choice but to blow it up. For larger things you know you want down the road, a “sinking fund” can also help turn the purchase into something you’ve planned for rather than something future paychecks have already been promised to. The financial expert also suggested that people be more open to giving and receiving mutual aid. Rather than run your account overdraft for an Uber ride to the airport, have a friend give you a ride instead.
Bradford’s advice is even simpler. Before clicking through yet another set of terms and conditions, actually take the time to know what you’re agreeing to, when the money is coming out, and what adding that payment will mean for everything else you’re already responsible for.
“But as you’re using some of these services, if there’s any kind of question or discomfort or whatever, pause and read about what you’re actually entering into, and consider what the implications on your overall financial health and well-being are,” Bradford added.
Ultimately, though, Stevens thinks the conversation has to go beyond whether any one person should have clicked “pay in four!” If we’re living in an economy that can simultaneously make us feel like we should have everything while making it increasingly difficult for many people to afford even the most basic of necessities, there’s far more than individual spending habits worth interrogating.
“We need to critique and interrogate these systems that manufacture desire, right?” Stevens said. “We also need to critique systems that make it difficult for us to have a living wage and have to finance basic amenities.”
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