Financially worry-free consumers — or those with good credit or access to credit — are interested in alternatives to traditional credit card options. They may not face the challenges in securing credit that many consumers who live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to pay bills do, but they are concerned about living within their means. 
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans serve as a viable payment alternative because they help shoppers pay over time for larger purchases with low or no interest. PYMNTS research found that among financially worry-free consumers who have not had a credit card in the last 12 months, 40% of respondents said they do not use credit cards because they encourage them to spend money.
This is just one of the key findings uncovered in The New Credit Model: Why Financially Worry-Free Consumers Still Want Alternatives To Traditional Credit, a PYMNTS and Sezzle collaboration. We surveyed 7,024 American consumers to learn what is driving the growing interest in flexible payment options such as BNPL among financially worry-free consumers, how they want to make use of BNPL payments and what they hope to gain by using such programs.
More key findings from the study include:
Financially worry-free consumers are interested in BNPL as a payment option when a potential purchase reaches a cost threshold. Consumers familiar with BNPL programs are most likely to be interested in using them to pay for higher priced, one-time retail purchases (47%) and medical expenses (29%). Among financially worry-free consumers, 43% are interested in using BNPL to pay for expensive, one-time retail purchases, and 24% want to use it to pay for medical expenses.
Financially stable consumers find value in BNPL as a way to manage their finances and live within their budgets. PYMNTS data found that 62% of financially worry-free consumers who have used or would use BNPL see it as a way to buy things that they want without overspending. Another 43% of financially secure consumers said they believe it will help them improve their credit scores.
Consumers aware of BNPL are also interested in using it to pay for necessities such as groceries and utilities. PYMNTS research found that 21% of all consumers aware of BNPL would use it to pay for groceries and 18% would use it to pay for monthly utility bills. Fourteen percent of worry-free consumers would use BNPL to pay for groceries and 11% would use it to pay monthly utility bills.
To learn more about why financially worry-free consumers are turning to installment payment plans, download the playbook.
Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, is clear-eyed about the chipmaker’s many problems and the tough road ahead as he engineers a turnaround to revive this legendary Silicon Valley company.
“This is an iconic and essential company that is important for the industry and also to the United States,” Tan said in a keynote address at Intel’s conference in Las Vegas this week.
The nuclear physicist, who dropped out of the Ph.D. program at MIT, is best known for transforming Cadence Design Systems into a robust chip design and software company. He was also a board member at Intel.
“We fell behind on innovation. We have been too slow to adapt to meet your needs. You deserve better, and we need to improve, and we will,” Tan told his audience of customers and vendors. “Please be brutally honest with us.”
Tan called this juncture a “defining moment” for the legendary chipmaker.
Intel was once the world’s most valuable chipmaker — a crown that would go to Nvidia. With its “Intel Inside” branding, it was the first chipmaker to become a household name. In the 1990s, Intel and Windows became so dominant in PCs that the pair were called “Wintel.” Intel founder Gordon Moore’s “Moore’s Law” still stands 60 years after it was created.
Intel’s troubles began in the mid-2010s, when it started missing key product deadlines and struggled to advance to 10nm manufacturing, allowing rivals like TSMC and AMD to overtake it in performance and efficiency. Once the industry leader, Intel became hampered by internal bureaucracy, a rigid culture, and a hardware-first mindset that lagged behind a software- and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven future, while competitors like ARM and Nvidia thrived.
Intel also famously turned down Apple’s request to make chips for the iPhone, paving the way for Qualcomm. In the third quarter of 2024, Intel posted its largest quarterly loss of $16.6 billion, including a $15.9 billion charge to reflect lower valuations and costs to lay off 15,000 employees.
Now there are even reports of Intel as a takeover target — humiliating for a tech icon. “Intel Corp.’s fall from market dominance to takeover target is a tale marked by missed opportunities and rising expenses,” wrote Iuri Struta, senior research associate at S&P Global Market Intelligence, in a blog post. In 2020, Intel was the second most valuable chipmaker. As of last September, it had fallen to 14th place, he said.
Tan understands the enormity of his task to turn around Intel. “We have a lot of hard work ahead. We have fallen short of your expectations. I will pull together strong teams to correct the past mistakes and start to earn your trust,” he said. “I will not be satisfied until we delight all of you.”
Read more: Intel Faces Potential Breakup as Broadcom and TSMC Explore Deals
Tan faces a big challenge in reviving a company with decades of inertia to lead in a market that now moves at hyperspeed. His four areas of focus are: changing the culture, strengthening the core business, incubating and growing new business, and building customer trust.
Tan said he will bring Intel back to its roots: an engineering-focused company. He promised to meet with engineers even six to seven levels down from the C-suite to hear their ideas and unleash their creativity. Tan also promised to retain and attract key talent, which had been leaving Intel.
Tan said Intel needs to adopt a startup culture to innovate, where every day is Day One. His weekends are filled with meetings with engineers and software architects who have “brilliant” ideas and who “want to change the world. That’s when I get excited to work closely with them,” Tan said.
Tan also plans to simplify the way Intel works because “bureaucracy kills innovation.” The startup mindset will enable them to act with speed.
“We are operating in a very dynamic, fast-moving industry. Technology adoptions and disruption are accelerating faster than ever. This is being driven by the one transformational force called AI,” Tan said.
Intel will target three AI areas: cloud AI, generative and agentic AI, and physical AI such as robotics. To that end, Tan said Intel will spin off non-core business divisions but did not name which ones.
To right its operations, Tan said Intel must change the way it makes products. The company used to start by making hardware — chips — and then developing the software to make it work. “The world has changed. You have to flip that around,” Tan said. “You start with the problem, what you’re trying to solve. … Then we work backwards from there.”
Tan also addressed Intel’s product and foundry priorities. In client computing, he reaffirmed a commitment to innovation, noting the competitive landscape has shifted and Intel must not “stand still.” Pushing forward with AI-enhanced PCs, the company aims to ship its next-generation Panther Lake processors on its 18A process node later this year.
Perhaps most critically, Tan confirmed Intel’s ambitions to manufacture chips for customers around the world. “Foundry is a service business that is built on the foundational principle of trust,” he said.
At this stage in his career, Tan said he has been asked why he would take on one of the most difficult jobs in tech.
“The answer is very simple. I love this company,” Tan said, with tears in his eyes. “It was very hard for me to watch it struggle. I simply cannot stay on the sidelines knowing that I could help turn things around.”
Photo: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Credit: Intel livestream
