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In recent years, buy-now pay-later options have made it easier to purchase things that you might want or need right now
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even if you don't have the cash on hand without facing the penalties and interest rates on credit cards
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But it's now April, a new month, new rules. As of April 1st, a firm
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One of the nation's biggest buy-now pay-later lenders is reporting all of its short-term interest-free installment loans to the Credit Bureau Experian
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That means these loans will now show up on your credit. credit report, much like mortgages and car loans do. Before now, a firm only reported its long-term
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interest-bearing loans. Experian says adding these short-term accounts to reports won't immediately
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have an impact on credit scores. Since traditional scoring models have not yet been updated to include
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this type of debt, but they soon might. A recent joint study from FICO found 85% of by now-pay-later
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users saw score changes of fewer than 10 points by adding the accounts to the credit report
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under a simulated model. According to BankRates' 2024 Buy Now Pay Later survey, nearly two and five
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people use these services, and it's particularly popular among young people. So far, Experian
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is the only credit reporting company to add this type of loan to credit ratings, but others
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could soon follow suit. TransUnion, for example, is already collecting data from two Buy Now
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pay later providers, though it has not specified which two or when that started. To stay up to date
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on the latest headlines, download the straight arrow news app or go to sAN.com
