Finance

Gas prices crept up this week, but not by much as oil prices fell

Published

1 year ago

April 19, 2024

Business Finance News

The average price for a gallon of gas was $3.67 this week. (iStock)

The average price Americans pay at the pump increased this past week, but by just four cents, AAA reported. Drivers paid an average of $3.67 a gallon, 21 cents more than this time last year.

Prices increased slightly due to a small jump in demand. Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that gas demand rose from 8.61 to 8.66 million barrels per day last week.

Oil prices decreased, helping to ensure prices didn’t spike too high. Within the last few weeks, tensions in the Middle East have driven oil prices up, but this week, the cost of a barrel decreased into the low $80s.

“The situation overseas with war in both the Middle East and Ukraine has the oil market on edge,” Andrew Gross, AAA spokesperson said.

“But this is also the time of year we may see a bit of a lull in gasoline demand between the end of spring breaks and ahead of Memorial Day. So, the national average for gas may waffle a bit with small increases, some flat days, and even some price dips,” Gross said.

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A TOP GOAL OF AMERICANS IS TO BUY A NEW CAR, BUILD EMERGENCY SAVINGS: STUDY

The ten least and most expensive markets

Gas prices fluctuate throughout the country. These 10 states have the least expensive prices:

Mississippi ($3.11)
Colorado ($3.16)
Louisiana ($3.18)
Oklahoma ($3.22)
Arkansas ($3.23)
New Mexico ($3.26)
Tennessee ($3.26)
Kansas ($3.26)
Alabama ($3.27)
South Carolina ($3.27)

At the other end of the spectrum, these are the states with the highest gas prices:

California ($5.45)
Hawaii ($4.78)
Washington ($4.67)
Nevada ($4.63)
Oregon ($4.44)
Alaska ($4.37)
Arizona ($3.13)
Utah ($3.96)
Illinois ($3.96)
Idaho ($3.93)

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Used and new vehicle prices are down

Car prices are still high, but both new and used vehicle prices have dropped in the last few months. Wholesale prices for used vehicles decreased by 1.9% during the first half of April, Cox Automotive reported.

The Manheim Used Vehicle Value index, which tracks the price of used cars, fell by 13.7% to 199.2. This index hasn’t fallen below 200 since March 2021, so it appears the effects of the pandemic had on the auto industry are starting to wear off.

Buyers looking to buy brand-new vehicles will find slightly lower prices at the dealerships. The average cost of a new car is $47,244, which is higher than in February 2021, but lower than January of this year, Kelley Blue Book reported.

“While everyone may applaud that prices are coming down, even marginally for the moment, affordability is still challenging the market,” Erin Keating, an executive analyst for Cox Automotive said.

“Most shoppers have not seen their incomes increase as quickly as vehicle prices, so the new-vehicle market remains a challenge,” Keating stated.

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NEW CAR PURCHASES ARE ON THE RISE, BUT THERE ARE INSURANCE IMPLICATIONS

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Finance

More Americans buy groceries with buy now, pay later loans

Published

3 hours ago

April 26, 2025

Business Finance News

People shop for produce at a Walmart in Rosemead, California, on April 11, 2025.

Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

A growing number of Americans are using buy now, pay later loans to buy groceries, and more people are paying those bills late, according to new Lending Tree data released Friday.

The figures are the latest indicator that some consumers are cracking under the pressure of an uncertain economy and are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries as they contend with persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns around tariffs.

In a survey conducted April 2-3 of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79, around half reported having used buy now, pay later services. Of those consumers, 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, the firm said.

Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior, the survey found.

Lending Tree’s chief consumer finance analyst, Matt Schulz, said that of those respondents who said they paid a BNPL bill late, most said it was by no more than a week or so.

“A lot of people are struggling and looking for ways to extend their budget,” Schulz said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still really high. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and other economic issues, and it’s all going to add up to a lot of people looking for ways to extend their budget however they can.”

“For an awful lot of people, that’s going to mean leaning on buy now, pay later loans, for better or for worse,” he said.

He stopped short of calling the results a recession indicator but said conditions are expected to decline further before they get better.

“I do think it’s going to get worse, at least in the short term,” said Schulz. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of reason to expect these numbers to get better in the near term.”

The loans, which allow consumers to split up purchases into several smaller payments, are a popular alternative to credit cards because they often don’t charge interest. But consumers can see high fees if they pay late, and they can run into problems if they stack up multiple loans. In Lending Tree’s survey, 60% of BNPL users said they’ve had multiple loans at once, with nearly a fourth saying they have held three or more at once.

“It’s just really important for people to be cautious when they use these things, because even though they can be a really good interest-free tool to help you kind of make it from one paycheck to the next, there’s also a lot of risk in mismanaging it,” said Schulz. “So people should tread lightly.”

Lending Tree’s findings come after Billboard revealed that about 60% of general admission Coachella attendees funded their concert tickets with buy now, pay later loans, sparking a debate on the state of the economy and how consumers are using debt to keep up their lifestyles. A recent announcement from DoorDash that it would begin accepting BNPL financing from Klarna for food deliveries led to widespread mockery and jokes that Americans were struggling so much that they were now being forced to finance cheeseburgers and burritos.

Over the last few years, consumers have held up relatively well, even in the face of persistent inflation and high interest rates, because the job market was strong and wage growth had kept up with inflation — at least for some workers.

Earlier this year, however, large companies including Walmart and Delta Airlines began warning that the dynamic had begun to shift and they were seeing cracks in demand, which was leading to worse-than-expected sales forecasts.