Usage of the flexible payment method hit an all-time high on Cyber Monday, driving $1.03 billion in online spend (up 4.2% YoY), as consumers looked for greater flexibility in managing their holiday budgets. The vast majority of BNPL transactions are happening on a mobile device as well, at 79.4% share on Cyber Monday (vs. desktop). In an Adobe survey of over 1,000 U.S. consumers (conducted Nov. 2025), respondents said they were most likely to use BNPL for electronics, apparel, toys, and furniture purchases.
Source: Adobe Analytics.
How does buy now pay later compare to credit cards. Like everyone used to have those, have they given out less, or is that staying the same/more?
It is worse as they don’t report when you are paying the loan unlike credit card. They only report that you paid it off. So it just messes with your credit score.
BNPL generally has far less consumer protection than CCs. It’s also vastly easier to access BNPL services as they’re typically inserted into the payment process online, and don’t do a very good job of informing consumers of things like repayment terms and interest charges.
There’s definitely a case to be made that they deliberately target those who are less financially aware who are most vulnerable to predatory lenders pushing them into unmanageable debt.
The only BNPL service I ever use is PayPal. The math shows no interest and it will literally take out 1\4 of the total cost over a two month period which works great for me as I’m paid no weekly. Any other BNPL service is stupid because of the extra credit cost your paying on top of your carts price.