Buy Now, Think Later? A Conceptual Take on Malaysian BNPL Choices

“Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) has reshaped consumer spending behaviors, with Malaysia experiencing a significant surge in adoption and usage. BNPL is widely used by Gen-Z and millennials as a form of payment, leading to increased spending due to this borrowing scheme. It has introduced a shift in consumer spending patterns, often characterized by the ‘Buy Now, Think Later?’ mindset. Due to the rising popularity of BNPL schemes, Bank Negara Malaysia is looking to amend the Consumer Credit Act. As BNPL schemes often synthetically promote positive payment behaviors through readily available installment credit options, many consumers seem to adopt a “buy now, think later” attitude. However, the financial knowledge and impulsivity of Malaysian consumers’ attitudes toward BNPL remain underexplored. Therefore, this conceptual paper develops a framework to investigate the role of financial knowledge and impulsivity in shaping attitudes toward BNPL among Malaysians. The study will employ a quantitative approach by collecting primary data through an online questionnaire among BNPL users from Gen Z and Millennials in Malaysia. Data analysis will be conducted using IBM SPSS software, incorporating demographic analysis, reliability testing, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression to test the proposed hypotheses. Practically, the findings can help policymakers, financial institutions, and educators promote responsible BNPL usage among young consumers to prevent excessive reliance on BNPL.