The news: Gen Z is the first generation to feel more financial pressure from the number of payments due in a given month than from their total debt burden, per Spinwheel. 

• 61% of Gen Zers felt more stressed by the number of payments they owe, compared with 39% who felt pressure from their total amount owed.
• By contrast, the majority of millennials (62%) felt more stressed by their total amount owed, along with Gen Xers and Boomers at 67% and 68%, respectively. 

How we got here: Gen Zers’ stress about their volume of payment due may connect back to this cohort’s relationship with financial providers and how they prefer to finance their purchases.

Gen Zers have robust engagement with buy now, pay later (BNPL) platforms. We forecast that by next year, Gen Zers will become the largest generational cohort to use BNPL, making up 34.1% of all installment users. 

With nearly three-quarters (74%) of installment users reporting having transacted with two or more BNPL providers in the past three months this May, per PYMNTS Intelligence report, Gen Zers’ payment behavior has led to a perfect storm of multiple installment payments from multiple providers hitting at regular intervals.

Implications for payment providers: Financial providers have an opening to win back Gen Zers by marketing personal loans as a means of consolidating multiple payment plans into a single monthly payment. 

These services can inject more confidence and ease into their debt management. Prioritizing simple onboarding can retain these consumers: 50% of Gen Zers abandon applications when they ask for too much information upfront, per Spinwheel.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.