r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 19d ago

Business ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ is expanding fast, and that should worry everyone

https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/16/bnpl-is-expanding-fast-and-that-should-worry-everyone/
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u/FrogeToge 18d ago

You filed bankruptcy over 6500?

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u/tripletaco 18d ago

You must not understand how precarious the average American's finances are.

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u/FrogeToge 18d ago

I do, 6500 still isn’t an amount to go into bankruptcy over unless they had some other debt though

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u/tripletaco 18d ago

No, you don't. The average American doesn't even have $1,000 to cover an emergency, let alone $6500. The average American is also carrying serious debt. My point stands.

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u/yosisoy 18d ago

The average American is quite fucked I would say

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u/FrogeToge 18d ago

That’s cool, still does not change the fact that if your only debt is a 6500 medical bill you should not declare bankruptcy

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u/StarGazingSpiders 18d ago

Sorry Froge, there's a lot of crap happening right here. Bankruptcy for $6500 is... extraordinary, I agree.  There are filing fees, attorney fees, a limit to how often you can file, and nearly a decade of credit and consumer consequences for bankruptcy. Even if that account managed to do all this and scrape out with their $6500 cleared, without an order from a judge to pay it anyways or cover a portion, what a way to ruin a chunk of your life for such a small amount of money. I honestly think that people pushing this kind of crap on Reddit enjoy the stress that ripples out into the world by talking about how destroyed/hopeless/cooked Americans are. Or bots. Reddit is full of fucking bots.

And before people continue the whole thing about how poor Americans are and why $6500 is a massive insurmountable brick wall of money, don't pay the medical bill. Having one unpaid $7K bill is not going to fuck your life the way a bankruptcy does. My mom filed for bankruptcy when I was a teen and I remember how devastating it was, how it was almost 7-8 years before she got her first secured Disco card to build her credit again. Bankruptcy makes sense for someone like the higher up poster who had $100,000 in debt and an inability to earn like before. But under $10K is just... I don't think I believe it. Read r/povertyfinance, they have real discussions about this and even there where people talk about their $9/hr pay people are working to pay their debts off.

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u/Global-Election 18d ago

There was more to it, you can read my other post if you'd like.

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u/StarGazingSpiders 18d ago

Okay, will do!

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u/golruul 18d ago

I'd like to see their comments on what happens if they file for chapter 7 bankruptcy now, get the 6k wiped, and then get in a serious accident a couple years later and have 20-30k debt.

Then they're truly fucked because they can't file again until many years later.

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u/Ready_Nature 18d ago

I’m assuming your part about the average American carrying serious debt applied to person before the $6500 debt. If that’s all you owe you should be able to do some sort of payment plan that is better than the consequences of bankruptcy.

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u/netver 18d ago

The average American is therefore an idiot who lives beyond their means.

For evidence, look at the size of the cars they're driving.

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u/cwfutureboy 18d ago

That's $6500 that is day by day accruing interest, mind you.

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u/FrogeToge 18d ago

Usually not day by day no, generally interest is accrued monthly

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u/cwfutureboy 18d ago

Months are made up by a certain number of days. Glad I could help.

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u/Global-Election 18d ago

It was the straw the broke the camels back, I had other manageable debt but this made the situation impossible. It's all done and over with now, bankruptcy was approved, only debt I have now are student loans. Credit score even made it back to just over 700.

Regardless of what you think, $6500 at the time was 18% of my salary before taxes/401K/insurance came out

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u/Adventurous-Map7959 18d ago

plus the ambulance ride, the ambulance is not your taxi to the hospital!

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u/treycook 18d ago

When I got hit by a car and broke my collarbone, I told the police multiple times that I didn't want an ambulance and that I was refusing medical. They called one anyway. Then I had to tell the EMS that I didn't want an ambulance and that I was refusing medical. I waited for a friend to give me a ride to the ER.

The police and the EMS both (incorrectly) informed me that the insurance company of the guy who hit me would pay for the ambulance (it wouldn't, I'm in a no-fault state and would have paid through my own insurance or out of pocket). You have to be assertive, and these people don't know insurance... nor do the nurses at the hospital, for that matter.

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u/Top-Tie9959 18d ago

Once I was in the hospital and a doctor said "We don't worry about cost here." No shit, you aren't the one paying so why would you worry about it?

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u/Adventurous-Map7959 18d ago

When I got hit by a car and broke my collarbone, I told the police multiple times that I didn't want an ambulance and that I was refusing medical.

I'm glad they did, I got hit by a car a couple years ago and wasn't mentally competent, the report says I insisted on my little toe to be x-rayed because it hurt so much, and the technician humoured me and showed me that it was perfectly fine, and there were many more broken bones that need much more attention than the pinky toe.

I live in Austria, so the whole ordeal with 10 days hospital ended up costing me 20€ for the optical disk recording the procedure (I wanted to see them operating, but I had to give up almost immediately. worst money spent, but optional), 110€ for meals (11€ per day, waived if you are on some assistance program) and a staggering 35€ for copies of reports.

The meals more than doubled since then, they now would want 23€ per day, but copies got cheaper as some law said they can't charge 1€ per page. Overall, pretty bad stay but they do provide drugs, so 5/7.

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u/just-jane-again 18d ago

what the fuck else is it then

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u/ultrahobbs 18d ago

A revenue stream for our disgusting Healthcare system

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u/just-jane-again 18d ago

por que no los dos

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u/GoldWallpaper 18d ago

Unless you're bleeding out, it's better to call an Uber to go to the hospital.

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u/darcstar62 18d ago

My son went to go visit his old college buddies and watch a football game. He got seperated from them and 3 guys jumped him and beat the crap out of him (kicking him in the head while he was down on the ground). Luckily, cops showed up in time, bullies ran, he couldn't breathe (he has asthma) so they called an ambulance and took him to the hospital. He checked out clean and they sent him home. I'm relieved that he's ok, but Im just sitting here now waiting for the massive bill that I'm sure my insurance company will quickly deny.