Cora Lewis

Thanks so much for having me.

Yeah.

So with Buy Now, Pay Later, you might be used to seeing it at checkout.

You could buy clothes, shoes, furniture, and you break your payments up into several installments.

Those are really marketed as zero interest loans.

These Rent Now, Pay Later companies say, we're going to extend you money at the beginning of the month to pay the rent.

And for that, we're going to charge you maybe a flat subscription fee and 1% of your monthly rent.

It seems like it's this internet company that's giving you flexibility.

But consumer advocates say this really is a short-term loan.

And if you look at the numbers and you calculate out an interest rate, it would be a triple-digit interest rate.

It would be mob-level, payday-level interest.

Yeah, the programs have really spread quickly in the last few years.

One of them, which is called Liveable, was acquired by a rental platform.

And so that one is really integrated into some of the rental market.

And the people who use them really are lower income people or people with lower credit scores who are really living paycheck to paycheck and who are looking for this flexibility and a little more time month to month to pay the rent.

So one person I talked to who had been a contracted delivery worker for Amazon said that he kept getting hit with charges from his landlord at the beginning of the month that were essentially late fees.

He wouldn't have all the rent at the top of the month.

So he started using Flex.

So Flex would break it up for him.

And someone else I talked to had experienced domestic violence and she had to move unexpectedly and also had difficulty coming up with the rent.