Just how bad are things really:
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I don’t think that proves what they think it proves. I have always used a credit card to pay for my groceries and BNPL is just another form of that. I think what that proves is BNPL is becoming more popular and is taking market share from Visa and MC.
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I also use cards but they are paid off every month. I found that this was the most telling part of the article:
The survey said 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior.
Paying interest on your groceries - a sign of financial distress IMHO
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That could be or it could be a sign of leverage that some people seem to always do. A lot of people carry a balance on all their cards and always have.
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Pretty sure that this is 1 of the 7 deadly sins.
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Time for a reality check. What is the average grocery bill these days? I’ll drop $30-40, but I’m a bachelor. I see people in line with bills well over $100. But stores don’t want to take $100 or $50 bills. Having to go to the bank, to take out a stack of $20s, blow them on one trip to the store, than back to the bank for another stack of $20s, gets to be a pain in a hurry. Practical, and lazy, Steve, has used a credit card for groceries for years. I use a credit card at the gas station too. Stick the card in the pump, fill up, take the receipt from the pump, and gone, vs going into the station, prepaying $20 or $30 (for my little car) then back out to pump the gas. Then back to the ATM for more cash.
Paying cash wasn’t such an ordeal 60 years ago, because the money bought ten times as much stuff.
Steve
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It is a capital offense.
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Paying cash is actually nuts today. Most grocery stores have built the 2% to 3% “swipe fee” into their prices. If you’re using a 2% cash back credit card at register, you can get most of the “swipe fee” back.
“Minimize the skim” – at least 1/3 of the average American family’s annual expenses is price gouging, scam and fraud, starting with the average $12,000/yr “fraud tax” on health care.
intercst
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Certainly is.
The idea of paying interest on grocery bills strikes me as financial madness.
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A coworker of mine, in the late 90s, thought she was smart financially. She questioned why I was pushing so hard to pay off my mortgage, because I would “lose the tax deduction”. I said “paying a dollar to the bank, to save 25 cents on my taxes is dumb”. She said “I never thought of it that way”.
Steve
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I have never paid interest on grocery bills.
I do get 3% back on my purchases using a card.
My balances currently on my cards are zero.
While are consumer debt is rising in America, 44% of credit card holders pay their balance in full each month.
I haven’t paid any interest on a credit card since 1978.
intercst
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How is one dollar different from another dollar? Do they prints special Grocery Dollars?
The Captain
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True dat, but the 41% are respondents who made a late payment. This is a bit different from carrying a balance.
Maybe a Capital One offense…
It is loony, but some people may not have a choice. Housing, healthcare, insurance, utilities, gas…all have been going up.
There are certainly examples of people living beyond their means, who could make better financial decisions. There are others who are struggling just to get by. We’re probably going to see more and more people having to finance their food.
And…delinquency is rising!
https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/interactives/householdcredit/data/pdf/HHDC_2024Q4
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