Lewis HowesYour Personal 24/7 Greatness Coach

The LIE of Buy Now, Pay Later

8 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:12

In this commentary, the speaker warns about the rapid growth and hidden dangers of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services. They cite that over 25% of Americans use BNBL, with 20% employing it for essential purchases like groceries. Approximately 40% of users have missed payments, triggering fees and interest. The speaker highlights how BNPL platforms, exemplified by Klarna, boost average order values by about 40% by reducing payment friction: a $100 purchase can be split into smaller upfront amounts, encouraging shoppers to add more items to their cart. The overall message is that BNPL has shifted from a novelty financing tool to a pervasive, potentially predatory system that increases consumer debt and spending.

Chapters

Buy Now, Pay Later has skyrocketed and it's scary how many people are using it. It's over 1 in 4 Americans use Buy Now, Pay Later. 1 in 5 are using it to cover groceries. Oh no. It used to be the frivolous entertainment. I can't afford the laptop. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The furniture, the appliance that, you know, that's the old school. And now people are just using it to live and just adding it to the tab. And what's really scary is that 40% have been late on their Buy Now, Pay Later payment. Which then triggers the fees, the interest. And the craziest part to me is not even the interest and fees. It's how much more it causes you to spend. And there's data on this. Klarna will brag to retailers saying, "Hey, put Klarna under your cart and it will add up to 40% for your order size." Come on. On average, 40% more. Because think about it. Lewis Howes is buying a $100 pair of jeans. Well, I see this Buy Now Pay Later. Now it's just $25 today and I can do the other $25 2 weeks from now, another 4 weeks from now. So what happens? Well, now your cart went down to $25. We can add some more stuff to the cart. And so you don't feel it. Again, to my original point, it's become so frictionless to spend money and it's exactly how companies like it.