Forget “buy now, pay later.” It’s more like “buy now, panic later.” There’s a record-breaking $18.2 trillion of household debt. Americans aren’t just struggling with traditional loans—they’re stumbling on installments, too.
Klarna users are increasingly missing payments, with overdue loans jumping 17% this quarter alone. Most installment loans are now for basic things like groceries, not just luxury splurges. Delinquencies on student loans have skyrocketed from less than 1% to nearly 8%, hurting credit scores. It seems that splitting avocado toast into four payments wasn’t the solution anyone wanted.
