Jeans Now, Pay Later

Are the new online services that allow you to buy just about anything in installments—interest-free—too good to be true?

- By Amanda Mull

Everyone is born a mark, and you have to hope you wise up from there. Getting purposefully and repeatedly fooled is one of the fundamental experiences of childhood— by peekaboo, by Santa Claus, by the idea that you’ll grow a watermelon in your tummy if you swallow the seeds. The more kids realize they’ve been fooled, first by caregivers doing some good-natured baby trickery and then by peers at school, the wiser they theoretically get to situations in which they should be wary.

When high school spits kids out into adulthood, they’d better have learned those lessons well—the stakes of being a mark ratchet up considerably along with the legal rights of being a grown-up. Suddenly banks, lenders, student-loan underwriters, and any store hyping a 20 percent discount for opening a new credit card would like to show you your options. The pitches are pretty good, too: No one trying to shake you down at recess was dangling the carrot of shopping sprees or class mobility. If you need to pay for college, rent an apartment, or just buy some jeans, the entire field of credit and lending unfurls before you.