People are spending more on Holiday shopping this year than last year, and one particular payment option may be boosting sales.
Early Holiday shopping in November improved 5.4% from 2022 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Online retailers were some of the biggest benefactors, with a 10% increase from one year ago.
But Adobe Analytics says that the Buy now, Pay later usage increased by more than 40%.
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With credit card debt at an all-time high, Ted Rossman, A Senior Industry Analyst with Bankrate, says the convenience of deferring payments could come back to cost you.
“Its especially those longer-term plans that are acting more credit card-like. A lot of those charge rates 10, 20 even 30 percent so for an industry that has portrayed itself as sort of the anti-credit card or the kinder gentler financing method, you may be opting into something with an even higher interest rate than a credit card,” Rossman said.
Rossman suggests that approaching the buy now, pay later option like credit card debt, set it up based on what you can pay off in full.
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