It is a shopper’s dream. A $250 coat can be bought for $50, hundreds of dollars of makeup can be sent to your door for just $20. The catch: you will eventually have to pay the full price of the purchase. But for now, only a fraction has to come out of your bank account.
So goes the enticing nature of buy now, pay later (BNPL), the payment method that allows consumers to pay for their purchases in installments, largely without interest. But the multi-billion-dollar trend has government officials – and even some consumers – worried.
