Consumers are feeling the squeeze from economic uncertainty and are turning more to financing essential purchases like groceries. An April survey from Lending Tree shows an increase in Americans using buy-now, pay-later services for groceries—25% this year compared to 14% in 2024. Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they’ve paid back their loan late over the past year, though the vast majority have paid back the money in a week or less. Men, young people, and higher-income borrowers were more likely to make late payments. The increase in popularity of BNPL has coincided with growing fear of a recession as a result of uncertainty around tariffs and interest rates. Consumer sentiment has continued to weaken, with the index falling to 52.2 last week from 57 a month prior. “It’s pretty clear that as people struggle with inflation and other kinds of economic uncertainty, people are looking to things like BNPL loans to help them extend their budget,” Matt Schulz, Lending Tree chief consumer finance analyst, told. “When buy-now, pay-later started, it was typically about designer handbags and appliances and things like that,” Schulz said. “But now people are looking at it for things like groceries and food delivery.” The ubiquity of BNPL may indicate a growing comfort with financial risks, especially among younger spenders. The rise of BNPL opportunities signals that consumers interpret the service as less risky, despite it not helping shoppers build credit that could help them down the line financially. With the current economic backdrop, expect these loans to remain popular, Schulz predicted.