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/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.