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Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) plans have become all the rage for companies in the last few years as a way to entice customers to pay for goods, services and travel that they can’t afford to pay for out of pocket right now.
For the most part, these plans aren’t a great option for those who are financially strapped due to the high interest rates that can be payable on them. Chase appears to be concerned about incurring debt on top of debt as they’re now advising customers that from October 10, 2024 they’ll no longer be allowed to pay for Buy Now Pay Later plans using Chase credit cards.
Travel With Grant gave us a heads up about the following message being included in the latest statements for Chase credit cardholders:
Effective October 10, 2024, you will not be able to use Chase credit cards to pay for third-party Buy Now Pay Later (“BNPL”) installment plans. Payments to these installment plans (e.g., Klarna, AfterPay, etc.) using your Chase credit card will be declined.
If your Chase credit card is used for any of these recurring BNPL plans, please update the payment method with your BNPL provider to avoid any missed payments or late fees (if applicable).
I can see why Chase is doing this. Someone using a Buy Now Pay Later plan will already be incurring debt through the initial purchase, then additional debt in the form of interest charges through that service. Someone who then pays for the installments on a Buy Now Pay Later plan with a credit card will then likely be incurring additional interest as it’s doubtful that customer will be paying off their credit card(s) in full each month either.
Chase will happily let customers rack up interest charges on their credit cards each month when they don’t pay their bills in their entirety, so I doubt they’re making this change out of the goodness of their heart. Instead, Chase presumably doesn’t want to be the one left holding the bag once customers overextend themselves to the point where they can’t even make the minimum payment on their credit card(s) each month, so there’s presumably data suggesting that Buy Now Pay Later customers who pay for those installments on a credit card are a significant credit risk. That’s somewhat common sense, but there must be an increasing number of defaults for people in that scenario that’s ringing alarm bells with Chase.
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Chase has its own version of BNPL called Chase Pay Over Time. They simply don’t want the competition.
And their fees are higher. Klarna charges $3 only once and with chase depends on your purchase amount, and they charge that fee each split/installment
These BNPL plans are meant to keep moderate-and-low-income people in a constant cycle of debt using the strategy of low payments. Five or six “low payments” is just a lot of debt, which is what they’re banking on. Once they can’t pay, the late fees kick in or the collection fees. Either way, it’s a poverty-for-profit cycle.
I don’t think they are making this change out of concern for consumers. They are doing it because they now offer their own BNPL plans directly through their credit cards. They want you to use the chase BNPL instead of a third party like Affirm. It’s all about cutting out the competition.
I think you’re right. I keep getting notice that my purchase may be eligible for paying over time. I don’t need their help especially when they keep sending me new card offers.
Chase is always a mess. They are notorious for finding a custom who is under slightly increasing usage or maybe an unrelated drop in FICO score and then pulling their card limit(s) down to what they owe which has a domino effect on their FICO as well. For example, say you have 3 Chase cards with $5,000 limits each and you owe $1,000 on each. They drop your limit to all three cards to $1,200 because their system decides you have too much debt or whatever. This sounds great except the next cycle you now have 90% credit usage as reported to credit bureaus.
Chase has the best handle on customers.
While Citi was letting us open accounts and fund with credit cards, Chase was shutting us down.
This is the Chase system telling them the US customer is under increasing financial stress and to take evasive action early.
Chase: That’s my lunch.