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.
For what reason? Am I missing out on something?
Seems like it’s better to just pay now if you have the cash.
Assuming you need to buy the product, taking on zero interest debt gives you greater liquidity that you can theoretically activate elsewhere to improve your cash flow. For the amounts and time scales of BNPL, though, I don’t entirely see the point.
I don’t do this for many things but i do use it sometimes
I’ve used care credit because a single emergency vet bill can be pricey and while I could empty my savings that’s not the best idea. So I just pay it off within the promotional period. Worse case scenario I am in a position to secure a traditional personal loan to completely pay off that balance at a more favorable interest rate.
I used a 0% intro rate travel card for a European vacation once and it was great paying that off over a year.
That being said I wouldn’t finance groceries or Christmas shopping. That’s going a bit far
FTFY
Most BNPL services don’t make classically hard inquiries, though - as I understand it that’s actually a big part of the problem, because they are able to skirt a great deal of the credit regulations put in place to prevent predatory lending (yeah those exist - fucking terrifying, isn’t it?) by not engaging directly with the credit agencies, instead relying on 3rd party consumer information data brokers of dubious reliability.
And there’s your answer.
What happened to look through the fingers
How is that an answer? They said they only do it if they have the money, so why?
I got a car loan once even though I had the cash to buy outright. I didn’t want to drain my savings and end up high and dry if there was an emergency. It was worth it to me to pay a little interest so I still had a cash buffer.
If I were living paycheck to paycheck like many folks are, I imagine the logic would be similar for smaller purchases.
Eh, mostly just because less money coming out of my account at once feels better and there isn’t a downside really. It’s mostly like Amazon’s pay in 4 etc, especially if I think there is a chance I might return it. I would not ever not pay it off and incur fees. Its nothing special, I don’t touch afirm though generally just Amazon and paypals short duration things.