Latest news with #MattSchulz
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
3 key money moves to consider while the Fed keeps interest rates higher
In minutes released this week from the Federal Reserve May meeting, central bank policymakers indicated that an interest rate cut isn't coming anytime soon. Largely because of mixed economic signals and the United States' changing tariff agenda, officials noted that they will wait until there's more clarity about fiscal and trade policy before they will consider lowering rates again. In prepared remarks earlier this month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell also said that the federal funds rate is likely to stay higher as the economy changes and policy is in flux. The Fed's benchmark sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending, but also has a domino effect on almost all of the borrowing and savings rates Americans see every day. Since December 2024, the federal funds rate has been in a target range between 4.25%-4.5%. Futures market pricing is implying virtually no chance of an interest rate cut at next month's meeting, and less than a 25% chance of a cut in July, according to the CME Group's FedWatch gauge. It is more likely the Federal Open Market Committee won't lower its benchmark rate until the Fed's September meeting. With a rate cut on the backburner for now, consumers struggling under the weight of high prices and high borrowing costs aren't getting much relief, experts say. "You don't have to wait for the Fed to ride to the rescue," said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. "You can have a far, far greater impact on your interest rates than any Fed rate cut ever will, but only if you take action." Here are three ways to do just that: With a rate cut likely postponed until September, the average credit card annual percentage rate is hovering just over 20%, according to Bankrate — not far from last year′s all-time high. In 2024, banks raised credit card interest rates to record levels, and some issuers said they'll keep those higher rates in place. "When interest rates are high, credit card debt becomes the most expensive mistake you can make," said Howard Dvorkin, a certified public accountant and the chairman of Rather than wait for a rate cut that may be months away, borrowers could switch now to a zero-interest balance transfer credit card or consolidate and pay off high-interest credit cards with a lower-rate personal loan, said LendingTree's Schulz. "Lowering your interest rates with a 0% balance transfer credit card, a low-interest personal loan or even a call to your lender can be an absolute game-changer," he said. "It can dramatically reduce the amount of interest you pay and the time it takes to pay off the loan." Start by targeting your highest-interest credit cards first, Dvorkin advised. That tactic can create an added boost, he said: "Even small extra payments can save you hundreds in interest over time." Rates on online savings accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit will all go down once the Fed eventually lowers rates. So experts say this is an opportunity to lock in better returns before the central bank trims its benchmark, particularly with a high-yield savings account. "The best rates now are around 4.5% — while that's down about a percentage point from last year, it's still better than we've seen over most of the past 15 years," said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at "It's well above the rate of inflation and this is for your safe, sleep-at-night kind of money." Here's a look at other stories impacting the financial advisor business. A typical saver with about $10,000 in a checking or savings account could earn an additional $450 a year by moving that money into a high-yield account that earns an interest rate of 4.5% or more, according to Rossman. Meanwhile, the savings account rates at some of the largest retail banks are currently 0.42%, on average. "If you're still using a traditional savings account from a giant megabank, you're likely leaving money on the table, and that's the last thing anyone needs today," said Schulz. Those with better credit could already qualify for a lower interest rate. In general, the higher your credit score, the better off you are when it comes to access and rates for a loan. Alternatively, lower credit scores often lead to higher interest rates for new loans and overall lower credit access. However, credit scores are trending down, recent reports show. The national average credit score dropped to 715 from 717 a year earlier, according to FICO, developer of one of the scores most widely used by lenders. FICO scores range between 300 and 850. Amid high interest rates and rising debt loads, the share of consumers who fell behind on their payments jumped over the past year, FICO found. The resumption of federal student loan delinquency reporting on consumers' credit was also a significant contributing factor, the report said. VantageScore also reported a drop in average scores starting in February as early- and late-stage credit delinquencies rose sharply, driven by the resumption of student loan reporting. Some of the best ways to improve your credit score come down to paying your bills on time every month and keeping your utilization rate — or the ratio of debt to total credit — below 30% to limit the effect that high balances can have, according to Tommy Lee, senior director of scores and predictive analytics at FICO. In fact, increasing your credit score to very good (740 to 799) from fair (580 to 669) could save you more than $39,000 over the lifetime of your balances, a separate analysis by LendingTree found. The largest impact comes from lower mortgage costs, followed by preferred rates on credit cards, auto loans and personal loans.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Portland has the worst housing crisis outlook, LendingTree finds
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Portland has the worst housing crisis outlook among the largest metro areas in the United States, according to a LendingTree study released Tuesday. The study analyzed housing markets in 100 of the largest metro areas in the U.S., analyzing vacancy rates, housing unit approvals and home value-to-income ratios. 'In doing so, we found that three of the five metros with the worst outlook are in the Pacific Northwest,' LendingTree study ranks Portland, Ore., Boise, Idaho, Bridgeport, Conn., Spokane, Wash. and Salt Lake City, Utah as metros with the worst housing crisis outlook. According to LendingTree, Portland ranks the worst mostly because of a lack of housing and unaffordability. 'Most notably, Portland has the fourth-lowest vacancy rate in the nation at just 4.76%. (While low vacancy rates can indicate strong demand, they can lead to a tighter housing market with higher home prices.) It also has the 13th-highest home value-to-income ratio, at 5.57. (This means median home values are 5.57 times more than the median income; the higher the ratio, the higher the unaffordability.),' LendingTree explained. Portlanders hold opposing protests over funding parks vs. police According to LendingTree, the median home value in Portland is $526,500. However, the median household income is $94,573. In addition to housing unaffordability, vacancy rates are also an issue in the Pacific Northwest, the study found. 'The vacancy rates in Portland and Boise are less than half of those in many other big metros,' said LendingTree Chief Consumer Finance Analyst Matt Schulz. 'When that happens, prices rise, making things even more expensive. Unfortunately, this isn't likely to change in many of the most troubled metros because the data shows that insufficient building is being done. That's not the case in Boise, where new permits are among the highest in the nation, but it's the case in Portland, Bridgeport and other metros with similar rankings. That doesn't bode well for the near future,' Schulz added. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now According to the study, metro areas in the Pacific Northwest have the worst housing outlook while cities in the southern United States have the best outlook. The study ranked McAllen, Texas, as the metro with the best housing outlook, where the median home value is $124,000 and the median household income is $52,281. Wilmington, N.C., Winston-Salem, N.C., Baton Rouge, La. and Augusta, Ga. round out the top five metros with the best housing crisis outlook, according to LendingTree. Beloved Portland restaurant to hold steak sale amid temporary closure 'Many of these are relatively low-income areas,' Schulz explained. 'Plus, Southern metros don't tend to be as densely packed, especially compared to their Northeastern counterparts, meaning there's more room to build and grow. More available property tends to mean lower costs.' The lending marketplace noted, some metros – including in southern states – are seeing growing housing unaffordability. These metros include Durham, N.C., Charlotte, N.C., Spokane, Washington, Boise, Idaho and Atlanta, Georgia. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Business Insider
26-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
The rise and fall of plastic perks
For a certain subset of Americans, credit card rewards make the world go around. The cottage industry around credit cards and their requisite rewards is centered on a tantalizing prospect: You spend money to make money. And, if you play the game right, you can secure perks you'd never otherwise afford. I've spoken to younger credit card holders who have found themselves in luxury layback seats on planes or in fancy airport lounges. Some lucky Capital One cardholders were able to get presale tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras tour. Other payouts are more quotidian: A friend was recently delighted to learn that her credit card was offering 10% back at Olive Garden, where we enjoyed a celebratory meal. I'm guilty of gamifying my spending. I've strategized when and where to buy groceries or which card to use at the laundromat to get more points. The payoff has been pretty great: I don't know if I've paid for a flight in years, and I've skipped lines at music festivals with my Chase card. Credit card rewards have become their own consumer product, and a driver of spending that may not have occurred organically. In the years since the credit card reward complex became ubiquitous, it has also managed to evade the ultimate stress test: a "normal" recession. The pandemic-triggered crash was paradoxically a boon for credit card rewards. Some of that was credit card companies upping the ante to try to keep their customers hooked, despite the inability for them to go out and spend. Some places offered more points per purchase, new bonuses for COVID-friendly activities like at-home food delivery, or giving people statement credits that they could use to pay off their debt. However, if our next downturn follows more historic patterns, credit card reward users may find themselves in a more tenuous spot. In the face of increased economic uncertainty, some airline rewards are already jacking up annual fees and limiting where perks can be used. In the event things really go south, the benefits will likely become less generous — the consumers who signed up to get blockbuster points deals might find card companies changing their perks. For the subset of consumers who use these rewards to bolster a lifestyle they might not otherwise be able to swing, that could be a real shock. "Rewards can be an amazing thing and can be really lucrative if you manage it, and that's certainly easier to do in good times," Matt Schulz, the chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, says. "But if you have a half dozen credit cards because you're chasing miles and points and all of a sudden you find yourself without a job or there's a medical emergency or your income is reduced, it can become a real challenge." Credit cards have existed for decades, but have become increasingly popular with the advent of technology that allows you to swipe and go. A 2023 Federal Reserve consumer survey found that 82% of Americans had a least one credit card — up from 76% in 2014, and close to the high of 84% seen in 2021. Outstanding credit card debt hit a record high of around $1.2 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2024. One handy use of those credit cards is, of course, accruing points and rewards. For some, the throughline is simple: You put down plastic for groceries, daily essentials, and a meal or two, and bam — you've got some points to use (and hopefully no debt). On the other end of the spectrum are the superusers, folks who are all in on practices like "churning" — opening up new cards, spending enough to get bonuses, and then just letting them sit dormant — or gamifying their spending across a portfolio of cards to squeeze every last drop from the system. Regardless of how invested they are in accruing benefits, people really like their rewards. An Ipsos poll of 1,081 US adults from May 2024 found that 71% of Americans have a rewards credit card, and 80% of them value the rewards they receive. Over a third of those credit card holders said that if rewards weren't offered, they would buy fewer things on their credit cards. A similar share said that they felt their spending increased when they used their credit card instead of cash or a debit card. We've imbued rewards with a kind of emotional weight, says So Yeon Chun, an associate professor of technology and operations management at INSEAD. They represent a viable path toward extracting extra value from daily life — but only if you gamify it right. They reward those who understand the rules, Chun says, rather than whoever is spending the most or making the most money. "The reward point functions as an alternative currency with real economic value, yet it continues to carry aspirational and emotional significance," Chun tells me. "In other words, rewards have become a dual-purpose behavioral currency: a tool for economic relief and a channel for emotional and symbolic value. Companies have rushed to feed this desire. According to a 2023 Consumer Finance Protection Bureau report, the value of credit card reward sign-up bonuses hit $326 in 2022, an almost 20% increase from $276 in 2019. Around 91% of credit card spending has been on rewards cards since 2020, per the report, and more cardholders with lower credit scores are making purchases on their rewards cards. This attachment is starting to cause some credit card users trouble. The Ipsos poll found that a fifth of 18- to 34-year-olds said that they use their rewards to pay for things or experiences they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise — the highest share among age cohorts. At the same time, that group was the least likely to pay off their credit card balance in full every month. More than 90% of Gen Zers and younger millennials have not paid off credit card debt for at least 90 days. Indeed, among all age groups, Americans ages 18 to 29 are the most likely to have credit card debt transitioning into default. This spending — and reward chasing — is leaving many young people in a precarious financial position. "Most consumers, including middle-income earners, now use rewards not just to manage spending, inflation, or debt, but also to preserve lifestyle," Chun says. Why are younger folks so all in on credit cards and their rewards? Some of it may be inflationary concerns, or just a way to manage the cost of living. Younger credit card holders were the most likely to say that they use their credit cards to better manage their monthly budgets, per the Ipsos poll. A separate January Bankrate poll of 2,144 adults found that 89% of Gen Z respondents said they make every or some effort to earn credit card rewards. Another aspect of it could be that younger workers haven't experienced a traditional recession, which constrains cash flow and makes paying off credit more onerous. The pandemic-induced recession led to a whole lot of money pumping through the economy and into consumers' wallets — and pushed credit card issuers to up the ante on rewards in a desperate attempt to court new customers. That same CFPB report said that as credit card debt went down during the pandemic, reward earnings rates went up, as card issuers wanted to do all that they could to get more Americans to apply. That might change next time around. The next recession probably won't see the type of extraordinary and generous government support seen in the COVID-19 pandemic. And so, instead of signing up for new rewards cards or chasing lifestyle perks, consumers may spend the next crash focused on simple debt management. "In the more typical downturn, we are likely to see a different kind of shift. Issuers will preserve the appearance of program stability while quietly reducing average value," Chun says. "Redemption thresholds may rise, expiration timelines may tighten, bonus categories may rotate more frequently, and access to high-value redemptions will become more conditional." This is exactly what happened in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Opportunities for credit cards that offered zero interest on debts dried up, and consumption spending followed. We're already seeing some signs of credit slowdowns, if not hesitancy. The credit card rejection rate has ticked up from 16.6% in early 2024 to a plateau of around 22.1%, per the New York Fed's SCE Credit Access Survey, and the application rate in February was 24.8%, down from 28.6% in October 2024. And, after dips in the wake of the great funneling of pandemic-era stimulus, an increasing share of Americans say that they expect their credit card applications will be rejected. Credit card rewards won't fade entirely in the next downturn, Schulz says. Banks will always look to them as a way to bring in business and establish a relationship with younger customers. Frank Pernice, who co-runs a group for points collectors, says that his cohort is already seeing a potential silver lining. "Some people actually saw a little bit of an opportunity because people who do book hotels on cash might be a little more reluctant because they don't have the tangible cash to do so," he says. "So, us points people would have more award availability to do so because hotels, they don't release as much award availability as they would for people actually paying cash." Credit card companies will probably examine what will win them the most loyalty without being a cost burden, or where they can cut corners. Jintao Zhang, a visiting professor of marketing at the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business, pointed to the example of bundling — credit card companies might start offering what looks like more perks by offering credits for things like delivery services or hotels. But those bundles rely on a few things: Consumers don't have the time to redeem all of them, and, as Zhang notes, you often have to manually activate them, rather than points you just passively accumulate; it can also be an effective cover for devaluing points themselves. For younger creditors holding onto debt but leveraging it for perks, that might be a hit. Simple cashback, where spending slowly accumulates (often at a 1% rate) into a statement credit, might take center stage to offer consumers some budget relief. "I would certainly think that that might be something that's being talked about at some dinner tables around the country right now, people thinking, well, maybe instead of worrying about that dream vacation and getting that big points bonus, maybe we ought to consider simple cash back and building the emergency fund," Schulz tells me. And if the "fun" is sucked out of credit cards — with high-interest debt growing, and more flashy perks not as prominent — America's young debtors might turn elsewhere. Buy now, pay later loans have caught on with younger consumers; 17% of Americans ages 18 to 29 have used BNPL, per Federal Reserve data, and they were also the most likely to pay late among BNPL users. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, a professor at Newcastle Business School who studies fintech and credit cards, says that if rewards do get pulled back, or at least transformed, there could be even more BNPL. At the very least, Americans might have to rethink being points-focused, especially if the economy remains uncertain and somewhat treacherous. Schulz says there's a possibility that folks might end up shifting toward balance transfer cards, which can help consumers consolidate their debt by moving it from cards with higher interest rates to ones with lower rates. "They can be an absolute lifesaver if you have a bunch of credit card debt. And they are certainly not as sexy as a travel rewards card, but they're a really big deal," Schulz says. "There are certainly a lot of people who would be well served by using one of those cards instead of the rewards card that they have."
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fast-food workers must work nearly an hour to afford meals they serve
Fast-food employees are struggling to afford necessities and a recent report shows they must work more than twice as many hours as the average worker just to afford the meals they serve. It underscores a broader economic issue: "The affordability crisis has reached every corner of the food economy, including those working within it," Sylvain Charlebois, professor and senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, told FOX Business. In a recent study, LendingTree analysts discovered that employees earning the average U.S. wage would need to work 21.2 minutes to cover the cost of a flagship fast-food meal, which is $11.56 on average across the 50 largest metros. Meanwhile, fast-food workers would need to work 46 minutes to pay for the same meal. The analysts utilized the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2024 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey to gather average hourly and annual wages for fast-food and counter workers. They compared that against the average wages for all occupations, both nationally and in the 50 largest metros. Fast-food Chain Closing Up To 200 'Underperforming' Locations "No one has ever expected to get rich off of fast-food wages, but the fact that these workers can't even expect a livable wage is troubling," LendingTree Chief Consumer Finance Analyst Matt Schulz said. "Unfortunately, the situation isn't likely to get better anytime soon." Read On The Fox Business App In the 10 U.S. cities where the gap between pay and livable wage is the largest, fast-food workers are falling more than 42% short of the money they need to cover living expenses. They would need to work more than 70 hours per week to afford the basic living expenses. In Fresno, California, where workers face the smallest livable wage gap at 23%, they would still have to work more than 50 hours a week just to earn enough to cover expenses. Fast-food workers in Fresno also need to work 66.7% longer than people earning the average area wage to afford the same food, according to the report. "The fact that a fast-food worker must now work nearly an hour just to afford the very meal they are preparing underscores a growing structural disconnect between wages and the cost of living," Charlebois said. "This isn't just about inflation, it's about wage stagnation, shrinking margins in the food-service sector and a labor model that's becoming unsustainable." California Food Chains Laying Off Workers Ahead Of New Minimum Wage Law Kelly Beaton, the chief content officer at the Food Institute, said there are complexities to fixing this issue, noting that operators are also facing immense pressure on their already thin margins. "We've almost reached the point where there's no ideal answer for worker pay in the fast-food industry. For operators, the cost of food and labor keep rising, and restaurant chains are increasingly opting to invest in technology like kiosks rather than pay $15 or more per hour, a pay rate most restaurant operators feel simply isn't sustainable from a financial perspective," Beaton said. In order to pay workers better, Beaton said that restaurant chains would need to reduce the number of employees they have and invest more in technology like kitchen automation. This would allocate more money to better pay the workers they have. "But I have yet to meet a fast-food restaurant operator who feels comfortable paying an hourly rate approaching $20 an hour," Beaton added. As of May 2024, the median hourly wage for food and beverage serving and related workers was $14.92, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In California, a law was passed last year boosting the minimum wage for fast-food workers in the state to $20 an hour, affecting restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide, except those that make and sell their own bread. That boost, though, forced a slew of restaurants to increase prices, cut employee hours and even close some locations. This comes as the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years in the first quarter of 2025, increasing the chances of the nation falling into a recession, which is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. Recessions are often characterized by high unemployment, low or negative GDP growth, falling income and slowing retail article source: Fast-food workers must work nearly an hour to afford meals they serve
San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
This type of loan is exploding in popularity — but experts say your credit card is still better
Buy Now, Pay Later lenders tout predictable payments and zero interest on purchases for those who don't want to — or can't — use a credit card. But data on both the companies that fund them and the people who use them show a troubling trend. In Klarna's most recent quarterly earnings report, the financial technology company said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 was $99 million, significantly worse than its $47 million loss for the quarter last year. The fintech reported $136 million just in consumer credit losses, which is business-speak for 'people not repaying their loans.' Those losses track with what surveys of Americans who use Buy Now, Pay Later loans have reported: People are having trouble paying them back. Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst for loan comparison site LendingTree, has been overseeing its Buy Now, Pay Later tracker since 2021. It's an annual survey of a representative sample of 2,000 Americans asking about their experience with Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) loans. The most recent survey, published on May 5, found that 41% of people who'd taken out a BNPL loan had been late on a payment in the past year. In 2024, that number was 34%. 'The fact that 41% of Buy Now, Pay Later users say that they've paid late in the past year is really eye-opening,' Schulz said. 'It's confirmed for us that an awful lot of people pay late on these.' How BNPL loans work As data came in about borrowers using BNPL loans for everyday purchases like groceries, Schulz said he wanted to see how they functioned in practice. In April, he went on his phone and was able to secure five short-term loans in an hour from various BNPL lenders, including ones he could use at in-person stores. One app generated a virtual credit he used to buy shaving cream and a Mother's Day card at Target, and he used another app's virtual card to purchase a single bottle of Dr. Pepper and a jar of salsa at a grocery store — 'not what you would normally finance,' he said. BNPL loans were originally sold as an alternative to credit cards or taking out loans for big-ticket purchases. Things like furniture, appliances, gaming consoles and designer clothes could be broken up into four interest-free payments, typically due every two weeks, so you could spread out the payments across your upcoming paychecks — in theory, without going into debt. Over the last five years, use of these types of loans has exploded. Forty-nine percent of respondents to the LendingTree survey said they'd used them before. And the loans are being used to finance all kinds of things: A quarter of BNPL borrowers said they'd used them for groceries, according to LendingTree's tracker. Sixteen percent reported they'd used it to get takeout or delivery, a widely publicized option with Klarna and DoorDash. Around 60% of Coachella attendees this year said they'd used BNPL to pay for their tickets. Klarna reported a delinquency rate of 0.54%, up from 0.51% at this time last year. That delinquency rate is quite a bit lower than the national average for consumer loans, currently at a 10-year high of 2.77%. A report published in January by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau said the decreased default rate is likely due to a structural difference on how you pay the loans back: Most BNPL borrowers are forced to set up automatic repayments from their bank accounts or credit cards. Though most BNPL loans are associated with short-term zero-interest installment loans, many lenders are branching out into longer terms with interest tacked on. Klarna's earnings report indicated 'strong uptake' of its more long-term financing products, including 6- and 12-month fixed-payment loans in the U.S. with a 19.99% APR. (For comparison, the average credit card APR this month is 24.28%, according to LendingTree.) Though they sell themselves as the anti-credit card, some BNPL lenders 'are becoming increasingly credit-card-like' with these types of offerings, said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at financial comparison site Bankrate. Bankrate also recently published survey results about BNPL borrowers. Their results indicated 30% of Americans had used BNPL loans, and 16% of them had missed at least one payment. Delinquency rates are typically calculated by taking the number of loans that are delinquent (often defined as being 30 or 60 days past due, or two payments behind; Klarna does not publicly explain how it defines delinquency) divided by the total number of loans the lender has on the books. So while 41% of BNPL borrowers told LendingTree they'd been late on a payment, those loans might not be considered delinquent by the lender. And Rossman said the Bankrate survey asked borrowers whether they had ever missed a payment, while earnings reports typically calculate delinquencies within the past quarter or past year. Klarna's earnings report says delinquency trends are improving despite the overall rate being up. Many BNPL borrowers avoid falling too far behind because it means they won't have access to those loans any more, Rossman said. Klarna says it 'pauses' delinquent accounts. When does taking out a BNPL loan make sense? A short-term, zero-interest loan can make sense if, for instance, your car needs new tires, your refrigerator breaks down, or you need to buy groceries but your first paycheck from your new job won't land in your bank account for another week. But LendingTree found 23% of borrowers had three or more BNPL loans at once. And, financial experts say, that method of stacking them up or using them for nonessentials like takeout or concert tickets — isn't a smart financial move. Falling into the habit of using BNPL loans for everyday purchases means you might find yourself in a position where you have to keep taking them out because too much of your future paychecks are going toward last month's groceries. Amanda Henry, a Bay Area-based financial educator and career coach and author of 'The Financial Abundance Blueprint,' said that before someone takes out a BNPL loan, they should check in with themselves about whether it's a want or a need. If it is an emergency, explore getting a loan from a friend or family member. A credit card is typically a better option than a BNPL loan, said Schulz of LendingTree. A BNPL loan might sell itself as zero-interest, but if you rack up late fees, you might wind up paying even more in total than you would have carrying a balance for a couple months on a card. Credit cards also offer rewards, purchase protection and benefits to your credit score for on-time payments — upsides that BNPL loans lack. A secured credit card can be a good alternative for people who don't have access to traditional credit cards.
