Kayla Lopez
speaker
593 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 19 Aug
Kayla Lopez’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 4.
Appearances
Buy Now Pay Later companies, which give users short-term financing to break up purchases into smaller amounts over time, are not just for laptops and designer clothing anymore.
These fintechs are letting renters pay their landlord in smaller chunks instead of just one hefty check on the first of the month.
For example, lending app Flex gives you loans to pay for basics on top of rent, like bills, Wi-Fi, and health insurance for a small monthly fee.
This company has already financed forty billion dollars in rent payments for three million tenants since it was founded in twenty nineteen.
And about one third of its customers use its services every single month, while the rest only use it occasionally.
But why is this happening right now?
The trend is growing as Americans struggle with high housing costs and incomes that aren't keeping up with inflation.
However, some proponents of Buy Now PayLaders say that rent has always been a challenge to pay, especially for those people with once-monthly paychecks, off salary.
Especially for those people with once monthly paychecks, off-cycle salaries, or unpredictable income streams.
And this is making it easier for those people to pay their rents reliably without as much stress about the timing of their payments.
And for some, these BNPL loans mean they can avoid more expensive lending products like payday loans or high interest rate credit cards.
Neil, regardless of the individual circumstances behind renting and installments, on the whole, it does seem like a concerning trend for the health of the American consumer.
Yeah, and maybe this is a hot take here, but it does feel like one of those things that's like, I I don't know if you saw that trend that's like, what's chic if you're rich but tacky if you're poor?
Um, I I mean, the the super rich has always been using leverage.
They're uh, you know, taking advantage of debt opportunities because they're, you know, using a uh their their yacht as collateral for a massive loan.
So why can't this be the same for less wealthy individuals?
Well
Obviously on one hand, these super rich have actual assets that they're using um that are kind of backed up when you can't pay back your, you know, a hundred million dollar loan, there's the yacht that you can take.
Whereas here it's a little bit riskier if you're unable to pay all these loans.
Uh, there's a little bit more implication here.
Showing 81–100 of 593 · page 5 of 30
← Previous
Next →