Gen Z is drowning in debt as buy-now-pay-later services skyrocket: 'They're continuing to bury their heads in the sand and spend'
Gen Z is drowning in debt as buy-now-pay-later services skyrocket: 'They're continuing to bury their heads in the sand and spend'
Internal data shows member credit card balances are up more than 50% for Gen Z and millennial members since March 2022, when the Fed started raising interest rates.
Summary
Gen Z is increasingly relying on “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) services for holiday shopping, with spending projected to rise 11.4% this year, totaling $18.5 billion.
These services appeal to younger consumers with limited credit histories but can lead to overextension, as they lack centralized reporting and encourage overspending.
Experts warn of accumulating fees, particularly when BNPL plans are tied to credit cards.
With inflation and rising credit card debt already burdening Gen Z, consumer advocates caution that these services may worsen financial instability despite their convenience.
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Who is teaching them financial literacy in the first place? Because they aren't being taught it in schools. Meanwhile, these predatory companies do everything they can to convince people to use them.
You cannot budget your way out of poverty. "Financial literacy" is just capitalists kicking the can down the road.
It's not, though. Financial literacy includes things like, not spending money you don't have. When you take these predatory loans to get goods, you end up more enslaved to the capitalist system and to those who have money to lend.
Financial literacy is not a cure-all, just like normal literacy doesn't make you understand Shakespeare.
And they call them predatory loans for a reason. They are coming to you and they are going to hurt you. But we don't teach kids this before they get into the adult world and this is the result.
Coming soon: Predator Loans Vs Loan Sharks
In cinemas just as soon as we pay off our bills.
Yeah, and financial literacy alone may not get you out of poverty, and it definitely won’t get everyone out of poverty, but among those with the possibility of class mobility financial literacy will play a role in where they wind up.
I think it is highly unlikely that all of the Gen Z people getting these loans came out of a life of poverty.
Cool, except I was very clearly talking about the financial literacy to not do things like get suckered by a predatory lender.
Why are you against that?
This is the level of discourse at this point. Someone makes an observation or a comment and people think responding with a meme is a "gotcha."
No wonder everything is fucked.
The label on the on the guy being explode talks about paying your staff a living wage. Basically, it's a dunk on arguments that raising the minimum wage would loose jobs.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with what I was talking about besides the term “financial literacy.”
If you don’t think it’s sensible to teach young people to avoid predatory lenders before it’s too late, just say so. Otherwise this is irrelevant.