The general thinking is something like ‘people who can’t pony up the cash right away are more likely to be in a more precarious situation and repeated use of BN

The general thinking is something like ‘people who can’t pony up the cash right away are more likely to be in a more precarious situation and repeated use of BNPL services can lead to unmeetable obligations either because that person experiences a drop in income or because of many separate loans adding up.’ To some extent the argument feels like saying that poor people are stupid with managing money, which I think isn’t particularly true (though I also suspect there is some correlation in richer societies) but another way to phrase that is that it is much easier to live within your means if you have a lot of means. Certainly people do end up with debt they struggle to afford from schemes like this but it is hard to tell how big an effect it is from reading sob stories in newspapers.