![\"Syarlina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/341705.jpg\" "\\"Syarlina")
<\/p>\nKUALA LUMPUR, May 20 \u2014 It starts with a small, forgettable purchase.<\/p>\n
The first time Syarlina Zakaria used a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service, she barely remembered what she bought. It was just a minor transaction around 2019, notable only for how seamless and harmless it felt.<\/p>\n
For a generation of young Malaysians, that moment has become a digital rite of passage. BNPL has since embedded itself into daily life, not through a single major decision, but through the slow, quiet accumulation of seemingly insignificant payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just seemed incredibly convenient,\u201d Syarlina, a 29-year-old housewife, told Malay Mail. \u201cNothing major, just small purchases. Honestly, it seemed completely harmless at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, she juggles three BNPL platforms. The appeal, she admits, is the powerful illusion of affordability. BNPL doesn\u2019t reduce the cost of a purchase; it merely rearranges it. But for the human brain, the difference is profound.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Syarlina Zakaria said BNPL does not make anything cheaper but simply spreads the cost, and that small shift is enough to make spending feel far more manageable than it actually is. \u2014 Picture by Yusof Isa<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall RM10 or RM30 purchases don\u2019t feel like much, but if you\u2019re not careful, they can quietly add up to hundreds by the end of the month,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be an impulsive spender, so I didn\u2019t realise how much I was actually spending until I noticed my BNPL commitments were almost the same as my credit card bills. That made me nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Syarlina’s experience is part of a national trend. In January, Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong revealed that over 70 per cent of active BNPL users in Malaysia are from the lower-income B40 group.<\/p>\n
Around 40 per cent are aged 30 and below, using the service for daily necessities like food, groceries, and transport.<\/p>\n
For Harinder Singh, a 38-year-old growth consultant, that frictionless convenience proved far more costly. His introduction to BNPL came during the pandemic, and when one BNPL provider upgraded his limit to RM3,000, the spending felt natural.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like free money,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI\u2019d spend RM300 on food and drinks without thinking. But that adds up to an extra RM1,200 a month, and you don\u2019t realise it until you\u2019re paying out of savings, living pay cheque to pay cheque.\u201d<\/p>\n
The damage deepened with each payment cycle. Collection calls started at 8am and continued past 7pm daily. His emergency fund vanished, hollowed out by a service that began as a simple convenience.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach cycle, I\u2019d be working harder just to pay off food I\u2019d already eaten,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realised, I\u2019m literally borrowing to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a banking issue left him stranded without funds while travelling abroad, he turned to a BNPL firm, which deposited RM3,000 into his account within hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a solution, but it wasn\u2019t; it was just debt with a different label,\u201d said Harinder, who described the industry to the instalment schemes of yesteryear but amplified by magnitudes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe notifications push you, the wallet is always there, the limit keeps getting reinstated. It\u2019s the old predatory model on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"For](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/341704.jpg\" "\\"For")
<\/p>\n
For many Malaysians, BNPL has quietly worked its way into daily life, one small and seemingly harmless transaction at a time. \u2014 Picture by Yusof Isa<\/p>\n
Even disciplined users find themselves nudged towards overspending. Aisyah Safiyyah, a 25-year-old dietitian from Kota Bharu, Kelantan, uses BNPL to manage her budget for skincare and medication, capping her monthly commitments at RM400.<\/p>\n
Yet, she admits the structure encourages impulse buys.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, especially when I kept adding more products than I intended, knowing I could split the payments. It just feels easier to justify when there\u2019s no interest involved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When she missed a payment once, the consequences were swift and anxiety-inducing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey started spamming me with repeated reminders through chat,\u201d she recounted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me feel anxious, and I would end up paying immediately just to stop the notifications. Afterwards, I would actually feel a sense of regret for using BNPL in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 \u2014 It starts with a small, forgettable purchase. The first time Syarlina Zakaria used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,80829,329044,329043,164,329042],"class_list":["post-682292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-buy-now-pay-later","tag-consumer-credit-oversight-board-task-force","tag-deputy-finance-minister-liew-chin-tong","tag-economy","tag-shopee-paylater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}