Pull your credit reports, and you might reasonably assume you’re looking at a fairly complete picture of the money you owe. Buy now, pay later services complicate that assumption because many of the popular short-term loans shoppers use at checkout still aren’t routinely reported to the major credit bureaus. In a new analysis, the Federal Reserve says that creates a BNPL credit report blind spot in which consumers can have outstanding payment obligations that aren’t visible in conventional credit data.
That’s becoming more important as usage grows: 16% of U.S. adults reported using buy now, pay later in 2025, compared with 10% in 2021. Even more shocking, among the five providers studied, BNPL loan volume grew nearly 17-fold between 2019 and 2023. If you regularly split purchases into four payments, your credit report may therefore tell only part of the story about how much of your future income is already committed.
