A recent CNBC segment reported that 29% of buy now, pay later users have used these short-term installment loans to buy groceries, more than double the rate of two years ago. The same report found that 36% of BNPL plans now carry interest, with some rates as high as 36%, and 47% of users have been late on a payment in the past year, with late fees that can equate to an annual percentage rate of 100% or more. The Urban Institute released a companion finding that 63% of working-age Americans used a credit card for groceries last year, and 8.7% could not make the minimum payment, up from 7.1% two years earlier. Total U.S. household debt reached $18.8 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, up roughly $740 billion from a year earlier, while grocery prices have risen 32% over five years and SNAP enrollment has dropped by nearly 5 million people.