Pay Later data shift: Credit card installments take the lead

Buy now, pay later, the supposed credit card killer, has done something more consequential than steal market share in the Pay Later industry. It has forced card issuers to wake up. The payment alternative may have arrived with a fresh consumer proposition and a disruptive narrative, but one year of PYMNTS Intelligence data suggests the real story isn’t that BNPL is replacing cards. Instead, it’s that credit card installment plans are absorbing the Pay Later surge faster, at scale and from inside the issuer and merchant relationships consumers already have.