US Consumer Debt growing

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CNBC

More Americans are financing groceries with buy now, pay later loans — and more are paying those bills late, survey says​


  • A Lending Tree survey found 25% of buy now, pay later users are funding grocery purchases with the loans, up from 14% in 2024.
  • The survey said 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior.
  • The figures are the latest evidence that some consumers are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries under the pressure of high prices and interest rates.
A growing number of Americans are using buy now, pay later loans to buy groceries, and more people are paying those bills late, according to new Lending Tree data released Friday.

The figures are the latest indicator that some consumers are cracking under the pressure of an uncertain economy and are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries as they contend with persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns around tariffs.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/per...S&cvid=998d73676911491da9a1e2100c014cc1&ei=24
 
They, the Dumbo cracks, knew it would come to this.

ANOTHER way to build a voting bloc and break up society. Free money for YOU, and THOSE people can PAY.

I don't know how we undo the damages. Except maybe to make repudiation of a student loan, a CAPITAL CRIME.
 
Can people go bankrupt, can corporations go bankrupt, are we go to seize Israel when they fail to pay us back for all the money and military equipment we sent them, and finally, are we going to bring back Debtors Prisons" for those who can't pay.
Fuck foreign aid, keep that money here and use it to support real colleges and trade schools. Thank you.
 

Americans reveal how they’re falling behind on groceries, student loans and more​

May 7, 2025 #economy #studentloans #groceries
Americans across the country are facing rising costs. “CBS Evening News” reports on the struggle to make ends meet.

12:45
 
And, what's their (probably, unspoken) answer? MOAR STIMMY!!

These buffoons NEVER have seen a problem where the answer wasn't MOAR GOOBERMINT.

FWIW, had "Americans across the country" lived like their grandmothers told them to - stay out of debt, live within your means - they would be making ends meet now.

And yes, it's hard. Hard to defer gratification, and hard to accept that, thanks to currency debasement and YUUGE government fraud-and-waste (which must be paid, one way or another) our standard of living is going to FALL.

This is it. Those who have no debt just tighten the belt. Those with yuuge credit-card bills...tough toenails. Sux to be you.
 
When you owe a thousand bucks to the finance company, and default, it's your problem.

When MILLIONS of people owe BILLIONS to fin-tech, and a majority of them default...it's the banksters' problem.
 

EVEN The Rich Are Shopping in Dollar Stores Now...​

Jun 6, 2025
You know things are getting rough out there when rich people are now shopping at dollar stores trying to stretch their money further. At the same time the layoffs are picking up to where we're seeing an 80% increase in job losses from just one year ago. Hang on tight.

17:47


Articles Mentioned in the Video

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- https://apple.news/AZNcSKSfcQwGC1W1iP...
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searcher said:
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I don't want to mock this guy. I feel for him; but I've seen truckers' videos online. Between all the non-American (Mexican and Canuk) and outright illegal, truckers, the road has devolved into a shark tank. Professionalism is completely gone - any driver with options is doing something else.

As well, I pushed a tractor-trailer for a short time before stumbling onto the ray-rode. Even then it wasn't the way it was supposed to have been in the 1970s (probably it was). I got out.

And right now, today, I'm reminded that every dark cloud has a silver lining. I had my reverser-handle taken away from me, almost ten years ago, December 2015. I hurt my back - a second time in two years. That was Strike Two, in a game which doesn't allow three.

Once I was again able to work, they - to make a long story short - jiggered the seniority rosters to force me to take a SWITCHMAN's job in a faraway yard. I'd never worked in that yard - wasn't part of my run or seniority district. I would have had to move; and the switchman does all the grunt work of the shift. A kid's job - not something for a guy in his late fifties with a bad back.

They wanted me out and it happened - I quit.

Railroad Retirement is not tied to any one company, so I was still vested - but had to wait until age 60 to file for Early Retirement. So there was the 30-month hustle - Uber Eats, ads on Craigslist offering handyman services; stuff like that. It helped that I had no debt - and some savings.

And I put all this newfound time to work. When I got out, I was obese, bad back, diabetic, high blood pressure.

So I walked. And rode a bicycle everywhere. And did what I could to work out.

I lost weight; up and down like a seesaw; but I'm much lower now. My back won't get better; that's arthritis, but my A1C, tested this week, has me not even in the pre-diabetes realm, not anymore. Time to celebrate!

I say that because the freeze-frame on the above vid snippet, shows a morbidly-obese guy who lives on Carl's Jr. carry-out at truck stops. He's driving - and NOT physically moving - every waking hour.

He's killing himself.

There has got to be SOMETHING he can do. If nothing else, push carts around at Walmart. Get a PHYSICAL job. At least, an active job.

But driving a truck, no longer pays the bills. Like so many other previously-good-paying jobs, it's been destroyed by Globalism, government-regulations that drive good people out; by the import of alien, low-IQ persons to work for nothing, and who are allowed to violate rules that white men cannot.

This is a storm, likely to last four years or so. Hunker down, best you can.
 

How retail credit cards could bankrupt consumers with record high interest rates​

More and more people who are filing for bankruptcy have retail credit card debt, and those bills are getting harder to pay off with record-high interest rates.

Store credit cards, which most major retailers offer, typically carry higher interest rates than traditional credit cards because the people who have them tend to have lower credit scores and banks consider them more risky.

But those rates reached an all-time high of an average of 30.45% in September, according to Bankrate. The record rates came after banks raised them in anticipation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau capping credit card late fees, which never ended up going into effect.

More:

 
Amazing. No, this is nothing new; but it just continually boggles me.

Now, what's a credit account? It's a structure of LENDING.

For this to happen, there has to be two parties: LENDER and BORROWER.

The borrower is generally making a less-beneficial choice. In a society of sound money, it's FAR better to save and purchase as you can. But of course we don't have such a world.

Second-best choice is to find something that withstands currency-debasement. That's what we're about, here.

The worst choice is, this.

NOW...back when I was the age of most Influencers, credit-card issuance was CONTROLLED. I didn't qualify for one until I was 28; and I had been turned down several times, earlier. In spite of a good job.

My credit line, circa 1989, was $600. SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. I remember that well, because that was the fall we went to the Grand Canyon. I budgeted $2500 for the trip - we had the money, but we weren't going together. I had a month off work; my ex had two weeks. So I would drive, she would fly to Vegas alone (the age of cheap Vegas flights) and we'd drive (in my Yugo!) to the Grand Canyon.

Point of this being, the most the bank would let me get over my head, was $600.

I hated it then, but I was a fool. As all kids are...and yes, by my white-haired standards now, age 28 is a kid.

Forward to today's age. Banks are TRIPPING OVER themselves giving ungodly credit lines to kids who, while making $25 an hour, are paying $2000 a month for rent and about half that for their autos. It doesn't add up.

And the banks just see the potential for usury rates on those cards. Never THINKING what happens WHEN, not IF, the kids default.

If I owe the bank $1000, or $10,000, and I default, it's a big problem. For me.

If I owe the bank $10,000,000, and I default...it's a big problem. For the bank.

And it's a big problem for other banks - as the RINOs and Dumbos once again circle together to start **REGULATING**. Swinging the lobbyists into action with bags of cash and pre-printed regulation bills, intended to make the big boys bigger and wipe out moar smaller banks and credit-unions.

What kind of asshat stupidity LED us to this? People who RUN...BANKS...are SUPPOSED to have a MODICUM of common-sense.
 
CC debt is unsecured. Easy to walk away from. Yes it will lower your credit score for a while. Keep at least one card current. Seen it done many times. I even have a friend who has filed bankruptcy twice. They are back to lending to him in no time. Crazy as that sounds, but banks live to loan (create fiat).
 
I've also got a friend who plays the Bankruptcy Game, twice but since this was 26 years ago, he has probably did it a few more time since then. Amazing how easy to stiff the banker on CC's.
 
There is a strategy I use to keep my credit accounts current.

I rent a storage unit. You have to, if you've ever owned a home, with the accumulated detritus; and then moved to an apartment. It works well - I keep my second car there, too, and the apartment and unit are cheaper than an apartment-with-garage.

The rent is set.

The manager likes it when it's on Autopay with a credit card.

So I have one card doing that. I ALSO have my credit-union autopay to the credit-card issuer (a major bank). So, $xx charged each month, and $xx paid each month, three weeks later.

The BastardCard algos think that's nifty.

I do the same with the other credit-card, with my StoopPhone account. I get a reduced rate for auto-pay. I also buy gas on that card - easier than waiting in line, and there's another reason, long story. So the card is active. End of each month, zero-balance.

Living way below the Poverty Line, my credit score is about 800. No brag. I don't know why it matters; I don't have enough income to buy a car or house, now, but I sure have the credit for it.
 
Fatrat said:
I've also got a friend who plays the Bankruptcy Game, twice but since this was 26 years ago, he has probably did it a few more time since then. Amazing how easy to stiff the banker on CC's.
Click to expand...
I thought plastic-debt carried through personal bankruptcies.
 
Casey Jones said:
I thought plastic-debt carried through personal bankruptcies.
Click to expand...
Understanding Bankruptcy and Credit Card Debt
  • Bankruptcy can provide debt relief: Bankruptcy, specifically Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, is a legal process designed to help individuals get out from under major debt.
  • Credit card debt is typically dischargeable: In most cases, credit card debt is considered unsecured debt and can be discharged (erased) through bankruptcy. This means you are no longer legally obligated to repay it.
  • Automatic Stay: Filing for bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay, which temporarily stops most debt collection actions against you, including lawsuits, wage garnishments, and harassing calls from creditors. ""Lots of variables and I don't know them all...""
That's why students are putting student loans on the cards and going bankrupt.
 
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