Consumer experts worried as millions of Americans buy their groceries in installments

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SALT LAKE CITY — When you think of "buy now, pay later," chances are you'll think of splurging – say a fancy vacation package, a new big-screen TV, maybe a new camera, or even presents under the tree during the holidays. But more and more, people are putting their basic human needs in installments.

"That was really the most surprising thing about our latest survey," said Matt Schulz, LendingTree's chief credit analyst.

LendingTree recently found that 27% of "buy now, pay later" users say they use these loans as a bridge to their next paycheck. And 21% of "buy now, pay later" users say they have used one of the loans to buy groceries.

"It's a whole other thing because groceries are such a fundamental thing," Schulz said. "They're not a luxury."

Schulz said "buy now, pay later" can be a useful tool to make purchases, but with 1 in 5 Americans using it, he urges caution.

"The biggest pitfall for 'buy now, pay later' is how easy they are to get," he said. "It makes it seem easy to overspend. It makes it easy to potentially mismanage."