For the past few decades, my spouse and I have opted to skip the small stuff when it comes to holiday gifting and go right for a big-ticket item that we know we’ll both enjoy. Unfortunately, these expensive gifts aren’t always immediately affordable, which is why we leverage buy now, pay later options.
If you’ve done any shopping online in the last few years, you’ve likely noticed buy now, pay later options like Klarna or Affirm built right into your shopping cart. These payment options usually work like zero-interest (or low-interest) short-term loans, but without the credit check. BNPL allows you to make purchases now and pay the cost back in monthly installments that are charged automatically to a credit card or withdrawn from a bank account. Deferring some of the cost and breaking larger payments into installments spread out over weeks or months at zero-interest has allowed us to focus on our holiday gift list without negatively affecting our credit or landing us with credit card debt.
Here’s how we leverage BNPL options to boost our holiday shopping budget without overspending.
- Opting for big-ticket items for holiday gifting
- Using buy now, pay later options to afford these expensive gifts
- Zero-interest payment plans help in managing payments