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Recently read that a lot of people in the United States are turning towards using the Buy Now Pay Later loan option when it comes to buying groceries.
I have been meaning to write about my experience of buying groceries via Buy Now Pay Later for anyone who wants to know especially with the cost of groceries increasing.
Today I’m going to share with you all my experiences using the following services; Zip.Co (formely Quadpay) , Klarna, and Affirm within buying groceries.
My Buy Now Pay Later Grocery Shopping Experiences | Klarna, Affirm, Zip.Co
Before I start, make sure that you guys buy ONLY WHAT YOU CAN PAY FOR!
Don’t go into debt because you can’t afford to pay these loan options back.
Alright… let’s jump into it!
So with Buy Now Pay Later, you normally pay off your purchase over the course of 8 weeks.
So if you purchase something today for $200.. you would spend $50 today. Then $50 two weeks from now… $50 two weeks from them and do the final payment of $50 two weeks from then.
My shopping process for all Buy Now Pay Later groceries
Usually what I would do is get on my laptop and fill up my cart on Instacart or Walmart.
I make sure to apply my alternative food options in case something is out of stock and go to the check out page.
I’d analyze what the delivery fees plus tax were and how much I planned on tipping (usually I tip at least 15% since we’re still in a pandemic and normally it can take an hour or two for them to buy my items and get to me).
I type into Zip.Co and Klarna how much my total fees are and they create a one time use card for me.
Both of these options will charge $4 to use their service soo if your total cost is $100, you’d pay $104.
I have also used the pick up option for both Instacart and Walmart.
Honestly… between Instacart and Walmart… Instacart costs way more for both delivery and pickup.
Walmart is the more cheaper option, especially if you get Walmart+ for the year which includes free grocery shipping.
Sign up for Walmart+ to save on shipping! It’s definitely a GREAT investment!
Instacart will also charge you almost $40 extra when you check out in the event that you add more stuff to your cart or your alternative food options cost more.
However you won’t have to pay back the amount you didn’t spend, but for example if your items totaled $120. Instacart will ask for $160.
Buuuut instead of paying $30 every 2 weeks ($120 for your actual purchase), you’d start off paying $40 every 2 weeks and then sometime by the 3rd payment they’ll do an adjustment showing how much you have left to pay or that the 3rd payment was the last payment.
My Zip. Co Experience
The first buy now pay later I used for buying food was Zip.Co.
I simply downloaded the app and applied.
I believe they gave me $700 to spend when I first started using the app.
Zip. Co has a variety of stores on there that you can buy from but I chose to shop through Instacart and Walmart for groceries.
I go through my shopping process as mentioned above.
I put in my amount for how much I want to spend and at what store… Zip.Co creates a card for me.
I put the card number into Instacart or Walmart… and boom.
Grocery order success!
Now as for a con for Zip.Co… well somewhat a con if you do fall on hard times or just want to push a payment back.
Let’s say you don’t have the money to pay for one of your weeks…
You can request to push the date back by a week.
You also have to email them about pushing a payment back I believe 24 – 48 hours before your due date.
I emailed to push a date back at least a week before.
If you think you’re going to not have the money available, I recommend requesting the payment date be changed to a different due date as soon as possible!
However I think you can only change a payment date one time within 30-60 days or so.
I tried to see if I could push a payment back within 3 weeks of pushing a payment back for another order and they wouldn’t let me.
Also you can only push an order’s payment date back.. I believe one time.
So if you requested to push your #23 order back the first week of September, you can’t request to push that order payment back again in the future.
You simply just have to pay it off.
My Klarna groceries experience
Klarna gave me $600 originally to spend and then increased it to $700.
I honestly love Klarna way more than Zip.Co because even though their checkout process is the same…
With Klarna, you don’t need to use the app. I just use it from my computer.
Klarna does offer cashback too.
I get pop up recommendations with the Klarna app is on on my browser.
ALSO WITH KLARNA YOU CAN PUSH YOUR PAYMENT BACK ONE TIME PER ORDER WITH THE CLICK OF A BUTTON!
You don’t have to email and go through a whole process like you do with Zip. Co which is why I love Klarna more.
Plus you can do it with every order so let’s say you have 2 orders open…
With Zip. Co they only let you push back one payment every 30 days (I assume), but with Klarna you can push payments back on both orders.
My Experience with using Affirm for groceries
So Affirm is much different.
Affirm is based off of how much you make completely so you apply sharing how much you can afford to spend.
You pay your cost off over the course of 12 months with Affirm to my knowledge.
I feel like Affirm is for bigger purchases to be honest so think furniture for the most part.
However I did use Affirm to make a big Sam’s Club order.
I highly recommend getting a Sam’s Club membership because it’s worth it!
Anyway I made an order through Sam’s Club where I purchased a lot of stuff.
So let’s say I bought $400 worth of food and toiletries.
Instead of me paying $400 over 4 weeks like I would have to do with Klarna or Zip.Co where I’d have to pay $100 every 2 weeks… I’d pay it off over a 12 month span even though I’d like to pay it off quicker than that because with Affirm you end up accruing a little interest.
So my payments are once a month with Affirm where I’d only have to pay like $33.40 if I spent $400… but again, it’s best to pay it off early.
Affirm is great if you only want to pay once a month.
Which Buy Now Pay Later is better for groceries or just in general?
Honestly I feel like Klarna is the better option with Affirm behind it and Zip. Co being the last option.
Klarna allows you to push back your payments and they offer cashback recommendations.
Affirm is great for Sam’s Club!
Zip. Co is cool, but you have to actually email for pushing back payments and you only get one push back payment per 30-60 days.
OVERALL MAKE SURE YOU ONLY SPEND WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD GUYS!
So those are my thoughts on Buy Now Pay Later groceries.
What are your thoughts?
Let me know in the comments below!
