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@article{197486,
        author = {Prithviraj Shriram pawar and Mohit Goyal and Devansh Khandelwal and Abhishek Lalpotu and Sanskriti Garg},
        title = {Effect of Rising BNPL Usage on Consumer Debt Levels},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {11},
        pages = {6539-6550},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=197486},
        abstract = {The rapid proliferation of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services has fundamentally reshaped how young Indian consumers engage with credit and everyday purchases. Embedded within digital checkout flows, food delivery applications, and utility portals, BNPL offers instalment-based credit with minimal friction and no visible interest charge-features that drive adoption while simultaneously carrying the potential for consumer financial overextension. This study investigates the relationship between BNPL usage and consumer debt levels among 66 young adults, primarily aged 18 to 30, surveyed at IIEBM Indus Business School, Pune. Drawing on primary survey data and a review of twenty scholarly and industry sources, the study tests three hypotheses concerning financial constraints, repayment-related stress, and responsible usage behaviour. The findings reveal that while the majority of respondents manage their BNPL obligations prudently-maintaining low outstanding balances and making timely repayments-a meaningful minority exhibits patterns of loan stacking, infrequent debt monitoring, and elevated repayment anxiety. The disconnect between respondents' recognition of BNPL as real debt and their actual debt-tracking behaviour emerges as a structurally significant concern with implications for product design, financial literacy programmes, and regulation.},
        keywords = {Buy Now Pay Later, BNPL, Consumer Debt, Loan Stacking, Financial Stress, FinTech},
        month = {April},
        }