When the Federal Reserve announced earlier this summer the launch of FedNow, a new service to enable instant payments for American households and businesses, some critics argued that the fanfare was overblown. After all, The Clearing House had launched the nation’s first instant payment system in 2017, and even that was decades behind other developed economies.

The economy has been through the wringer for the past few years. Skyrocketing inflation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a series of rapid rate rises that still may not have reached an end.

Consumers spent $347 billion on interest and fees in 2022, up from $304 billion the previous year, according to a report from Financial Health Network, a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving Americans' financial outcomes.

The report from the Financial Health Network, a Chicago-based nonprofit focused on consumer financial health, offers some insight into how much consumers rely on buy now, pay later services. The report said a third of users had turned to BNPL two or more times in the month before participating in the survey, signaling that consumers are “loan stacking.”

Americans paid $40 billion more on interest and fees than in 2021, with financially vulnerable families paying 28% of that total — despite making up only 15% of the total population.