BNPL companies have very cleverly exploited the modern mindset of instant gratification, which is a human trait that has manifested itself as a result of technology over the past 20 or 30 years.

The concept of budgeting and having a plan to achieve financial goals seems to be dwindling generally, which is a natural follow on from our total reliance on credit in its various forms.

It's quite pathetic and weak that people can't be disciplined enough to save for 4 to 6 weeks until they have the money to purchase this stuff, which they arguably do or don't need.

This discipline of delayed gratification, will teach them all they need to know about money management and future investment.

It's really not that hard to do.

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This is not about delayed gratification, sure we could save for it but by the time that happens the item we needed has long gone off the shelf or the sale has finished. Im a long time user of Afterpay and its much easier to pay in instalments than all in one go as bills, rent etc often get in the way. Ive never been late and always budgeted for my upcoming payments. Its not pathetic its life. Afterpay is great.

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Stewart I agree but would add that if you leave technology out of the equation, this is a human trait that has been manifesting itself over the past 2000 or more years! In ancient Babylon people would take out loans to buy things that they could not afford now, and the penalty for not repaying on time was slavery for the rest of their life, so human nature has little interest in the negatives when desire takes over!

The real cruncher with Buy Now Pay Later is that by the time the final payment is made for that 'thing' the consumer just had to have now, the 'thing' has totally lost it's shine and I'm hearing feedback from Spending Planners who are working with clients with BNPL pain, that in many cases their clients can not even tell them what the payment(s) are for. I.e. they have totally forgotten what it was that they just had to have 6 weeks ago!

Instant gratification gives the lowest form of satisfaction.

If you took two brand new Ferrari's and gave one to someone as a gift and made another person pay full price for the other, you know that the one that was a free gift will be totally trashed in super quick time because there was no pain in getting it.

The one that required pain PRIOR to receiving it will have been valued it much higher, will have been looked after it much better and will have been appreciated it much better.

BNPL takes away so much more than the waiting time!

It's time this loophole was closed down because BNPL leads to money stress and money stress leads to domestic violence which everyone agrees has to be dealt with NOW.

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Hi Rebekah

I respect your point of view, you seem to be budgeting for it and planning ahead which is great. My fear is that one in 5 people who use the service aren't as diligent as you and get themselves into trouble.

What happens to these people when they take out Afterpay for something and then the washing machine or fridge pack it in?

You can be pretty much guaranteed that by the nature of how and why people use Afterpay, they likely don't have an emergency bank account, with say $2-$10K in it as an example.

There is also a big difference between must have items and want to have items. It would be an interesting piece of research to see exactly how, why and for what people are using Afterpay for. My assumption is that it's mainly for stuff they can easily do without, but if anyone reading this has some verified research they could share, that would be an interesting discussion.

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Well said David. When it comes down to it, it's not much different to the 55 day interest free period on most credit cards. If you pay the whole bill when it's due, it's basically no different really, as no interest is charged (although most credit cards do have an annual fee).

If people are using one or the other and pay off the full amount when due then no problem, however I would be interested to see what proportion of Afterpay users also have a credit card with either a maxed out balance, or any carry over balance each month, with interest payable every month. It's these people who are, unfortunately, on the never never downward spiral.

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