Vol. 2 No. issue11 Jan-2026,PAGE 1935-1950 (2026): The Impact of Buy-Now-Pay-Later Services on Financial Budgeting Behaviour among Young Adult Consumers Using Digital Payment Platforms

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) concept provokes purchasers to buy items instantly without triggering their logical thought process and utilise their money in scheduled instalments or small chunks. This research study aims to thoroughly understand the impact of the BNPL service mechanism towards financial budgeting behavioural patterns among adult youths by utilising the digital payment platforms from the perspective of India. The study utilised the secondary qualitative research method through the wider accessibility of articles, journals, PDFs, FinTech reports, magazines, and newspaper content. The findings of this study are aligned with the Mental Accounting Theory to highlight that BNPL purchases are operational expenditure over formal debt liability formation. The summarisation of this study demonstrated the elevated adoption rate of BNPL among younger demographics. However, youths' frequent association with the debt stacking procedure in various independent digital payment gateways creates an unexpected financial strain and auto-debits after using the BNPL services. The recommendation of this study is to utilise the empirical analysis, statistical interpretation, survey strategy, and primary quantitative data collection method in addition to the qualitative thematic analysis to further develop in-depth and more accurate numerical information on the relevant topic.        

Keywords: Buy-Now-Pay-Later, Psychological Mechanisms, Cognitive Decoupling, Pain of Paying, Behavioural Mechanisms, Financial Posture, Vulnerability, Empowerment