Nearly a third of Americans are now using buy now, pay later loans to pay for groceries, as rising food prices continue to put pressure on household budgets, according to a new survey.
The poll found that 29 percent of BNPL users have used the loans to purchase groceries, roughly double the share from two years ago, LendingTree reports. The trend is even more pronounced among younger consumers, with 38 percent of Gen Z users reporting they’ve used BNPL for food purchases.
QuestionPro conducted the survey online for LendingTree, polling over 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 80 in March. BNPL services allow shoppers to split purchases into smaller payments over time, often with little or no interest if paid on schedule. While the services have traditionally been used for items like clothing or electronics, their growing use for necessities such as food reflects broader economic pressures facing households.
More than half of BNPL users, 54 percent, said they would not be able to make ends meet without the services, a figure that rises to 62 percent among parents with children under 18, the survey found.
At the same time, nearly half of users, 47 percent, reported making at least one late payment in the past year, a notable increase from 34 percent in 2024, suggesting that many borrowers are struggling to keep up with repayments.
Beyond groceries, some Americans are turning to BNPL to cover major essential costs, with 13 percent of users having used the loans to help pay rent. Meanwhile, 15 percent have relied on them for medical, dental or veterinary expenses, according to the survey,
Experts say the growing reliance on BNPL services is largely driven by persistently high grocery prices and broader cost-of-living increases, which are forcing many Americans to stretch already tight budgets.
Affordability in the U.S. has become an increasingly serious issue heading into early 2026. According to an NPR report, prices are up roughly 29 percent since 2020, with the biggest increases hitting essentials like groceries, housing and utilities. Even though inflation has eased from its peak, prices remain elevated, meaning households are still paying significantly more for basic needs than they were just a few years ago. That’s left nearly half of households, about 49 percent, struggling to cover basic needs, according to the Urban Institute.
Housing, in particular, has become one of the toughest challenges, with the income needed to buy a home having roughly doubled since 2019, putting homeownership out of reach for many Americans, Realtor.com reports.
Despite the rapid expansion of BNPL, from about $3 billion in loan originations in 2019 to more than $45 billion in 2023, it still accounts for a small share of overall consumer spending, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Even with that growth, BNPL still represents a relatively small portion of overall consumer spending, accounting for just 1 percent of total credit card market volume.
Analysts warn that using BNPL for necessities carries risks, since missed payments can lead to fees and growing debt. However, according to a February brief from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the broader impact on financial stability appears limited so far, with no clear evidence of widespread stress in other credit markets.
“Given its current scale, debt outstanding and observed default rates, the impact of BNPL on financial stability appears limited at present,” Zhu Wang, vice president for research in financial and payments systems at the Richmond Fed, wrote in the brief.
“While spillovers to other consumer credit markets are possible, there is no clear evidence of elevated stress to date,” Wang added.
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