Installment Credit

Popular commentary portrays Generation Z as financially reckless, a cohort supposedly driven by impulse purchases, social media trends and a casual approach to money. The data tells a different story. Evidence from ...

The credit industry has spent decades competing for something consumers were never actually optimizing for. Top of wallet. Issuers built elaborate rewards architectures to win it. Travel points. Cash back ladders. Category ...

Buy now, pay later has been hitting an adoption wall, and could be losing momentum with the critical Gen Z and millennial age groups. The recent holiday shopping season tells a ...

Consumer spending cooled slightly in January, although strong growth in digital retail channels suggests that the broader trajectory of household consumption remains intact. Advance estimates released Friday (March 6) by the ...

Splitit aims to make flexible payment options part of agentic commerce through its support of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). Splitit joins Google and dozens of retail giants in supporting this ...

The checkout button may soon belong to a machine. As artificial intelligence agents move into booking travel, managing subscriptions and executing purchases on behalf of consumers, the payment layer underneath ...

Pay later provider Affirm is expanding its partnership with payments company Stripe. The expanded collaboration is designed to support shared payment tokens (SPT), which allow AI agents to make purchases with ...

Consumer credit is entering a new phase—one shaped by rising demand for flexibility, personalization and real-time control. As installment plans and hybrid repayment models become more common, issuers are seeing ...

Klarna said Wednesday (Feb. 25) that the number of people using its app on a daily basis rose by 53% over the past year and now stands at 9 million. The ...

Sezzle is accelerating its super app plans in 2026 after seeing growing engagement with its existing offerings in 2025, the company said in a Wednesday (Feb. 25) press release. During the ...

About a hundred years ago, so the story goes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, chronicler of the Jazz Age, turned to Ernest Hemingway and remarked, “The rich are different from you and ...

The New York State Department of Financial Services has published and opened for comment proposed regulations for buy now, pay later (BNPL) financing options. The draft regulations for BNPL lenders were ...

Modern furniture brand Article now offers Klarna’s flexible payment options at checkout in the United States and Canada. With these options, Article customers can choose to pay in full, split purchases ...

Klarna’s fourth-quarter results offer a snapshot into the appeal of paying over time. They also provide a window into the mechanics of a rapidly scaling financial network, where checkout activity, ...

Klarna said in a fourth-quarter earnings report that it doubled its number of banking customers over the past year. During the fourth quarter, Klarna’s number of banking customers grew 101% year ...

Australian buy now, pay later firm Zip says it is seeing enthusiasm from American customers. The company reported earnings Thursday (Feb. 19) that showed revenue growth of 46.4% for Zip’s U.S. business. Growth during the company’s ...

Sezzle has opened a waitlist for a mobile phone plan it will add to its all-in-one financial app. The new Sezzle Mobile plan includes unlimited 5G data, unlimited talk and text, unlimited HD streaming, Canada and Mexico roaming, ...

Apple is promoting the ability of Apple Pay to let users pay over time in stores as well as in apps and online. This capability is available with iOS 26 and ...

Sezzle and David’s Bridal teamed up with the Times Square Alliance to highlight payment solutions during a “Love in Times Square” event held on Valentine’s Day (Saturday, Feb. 14). Love in ...

Airbnb is expanding its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” program to properties around the globe. The vacation rental platform introduced the service last year, and announced its expansion Tuesday (Feb. 17) after ...

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Affirm launched a partnership with home improvement retailer Lowe’s, according to a Tuesday (Feb. 17) press release. The collaboration will see Affirm offer biweekly or ...

Buy now, pay later is no longer just a checkout feature. It is becoming a line item in the monthly household budget. That is the central shift identified in “The Pay ...

Klarna says its pay later options are now available on Google Pay in the U.K. With this offering, Google Pay users in the U.K. have the choice of using Klarna’s interest-free ...

Computer seller MSI has formed a pay-later partnership with B2B payments company Mondu. The collaboration, announced Thursday (Feb. 12), will allow MSI to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions in its online business store. “As B2B ...

The United Kingdom’s financial watchdog announced its new protections for buy now, pay later (BNPL) users. The BNPL sector comes under the control of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) July 15, ...

What began as a checkout convenience for sneakers and sofas is now threading its way into grocery aisles, utility bills and subscription renewals, as paying over time assumes a regular ...

Virgin Media O2, a leading mobile provider in the United Kingdom, has partnered with flexible payment network Affirm to provide hardware financing.  This collaboration will allow O2 customers to access Affirm’s pay-over-time options at checkout when purchasing mobile phones, ...

QuickBooks will soon enable small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States to offer their customers flexible payment options from Affirm. The capability will result from a new multiyear partnership ...

Affirm is now the exclusive provider of buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment options for lodging and packages on the Expedia Group brands Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo in the United States. In addition, Affirm will become available to Canadian ...

After-purchase installment plans are moving more firmly into the center of everyday payments, reshaping how banks, FinTechs and retailers compete for the same transactions. What began as a merchant checkout feature ...

Synchrony Financial closed 2025 with fourth-quarter purchase volume of $49 billion, a company record and a 3% year-over-year increase, as spending patterns strengthened across most platforms and co-branded cards continued ...

Checkout and payments company Bolt is teaming with buy now pay later (BNPL) provider Affirm, according to a Tuesday (Jan. 27) press release. The collaboration makes Affirm the default BNPL provider ...

Payments and financial services company Fiserv has launched a partnership with pay-over-time provider Affirm. This collaboration is designed to bring buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities to the debit card programs at Fiserv’s bank ...

For millions of households, rent is the anchor expense that dictates everything else. PYMNTS Intelligence has estimated that housing absorbs 37% of take-home pay for consumers earning under $50,000 annually, ...

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Affirm aims to establish a bank subsidiary called Affirm Bank. Affirm submitted applications to the Nevada Financial Institutions Division and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ...

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Affirm has partnered with FinTech company Esusu to enable some people to pay their rent in two installments, CNBC reported Thursday (Jan. 22), citing ...

Household finances are increasingly shaped by credit use, as more consumers carry balances month to month rather than paying off purchases in full. According to the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Pay Later ...

OnePay and Klarna have partnered to enable the users of the OnePay Cash financial services platform to convert recent purchases into fixed-term payment plans. This ability to choose after checkout to pay over time will be available for ...

Americans are no longer just spreading payments over time. They are spreading risk, timing and lifestyle choices as rising costs reshape how discretionary spending actually happens. That shift is at the ...

Pay later is no longer a niche solution for cash-strapped consumers, as high earners increasingly use credit card installment plans to manage spending with precision and control. New PYMNTS Intelligence research ...

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” — T.S. Eliot When T.S. Eliot wrote those lines in 1942, he was pointing to a ...

The latest inflation data released Tuesday (Jan. 13) suggests a steady pace of inflation overall, but groceries and other essentials continue to rise faster than the headline number and influence ...

The CFPB’s decision to dial down enforcement of BNPL and other nonbank credit products hasn’t created a vacuum. It has invited fifty competing rulebooks to take its place.

In 2026, Buy Now, Pay Later stops being a checkout feature and becomes working capital for the modern middle class, replacing overdraft and late fees as the default way paycheck-to-paycheck ...

Merchants using Gr4vy’s cloud-based payment orchestration platform can now offer Affirm’s flexible payment options to eligible customers through online and mobile channels. The offering is enabled by a partnership between the ...