Nearly half of U.S. Buy Now Pay Later users paid late on at least one loan in the past year, up 13 points in two years

A LendingTree survey of 2,049 U.S. consumers found that 47% of Buy Now Pay Later borrowers paid late on at least one installment loan in the past year, up six percentage points from 2025 and 13 points from two years ago, while 54% said they wouldn't be able to make ends meet without the loans. Use of BNPL for essentials is also rising, with 29% of borrowers saying they've used the loans for groceries, up from 14% two years ago, and 24% now carrying multiple BNPL loans simultaneously. The findings arrive as federal oversight has weakened, with the CFPB under the Trump administration revoking a measure that had classified many BNPL services under the same guidelines as credit cards, pushing several state attorneys general to pursue their own investigations into Klarna, Affirm, and other major providers.