CONSUMER BEHAVIOR TOWARD PAYLATER SERVICES IN INDONESIA: A PUBLIC-DATA ANALYSIS THROUGH THE LENS OF LOAN SELF-CONTROL THEORY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65336/WJMS.2026.3903Keywords:
paylater, buy now pay later, loan self-control, public data, OJK, financial behaviorAbstract
The rapid growth of paylater (Buy Now, Pay Later/BNPL) services in Indonesia has reshaped the digital consumer financing landscape. This article analyzes paylater consumer behavior using secondary public data published by Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), the research firm Populix, and Pefindo Credit Bureau (IdScore), covering financing growth trends, non-performing financing (NPF) ratios, demographic profiles, and usage patterns from 2023–2025. The data show consistent financing growth above 40–80 percent year-on-year, with NPF ratios actually declining in the second half of 2025, alongside user dominance by millennial and Gen Z segments. These patterns are interpreted through the Loan Self-Control (LSC) Theory framework developed in the author's prior research on informal lending and government-subsidized microcredit (KUR), to understand the psychological mechanisms behind paylater's rapid yet relatively contained aggregate credit risk. This article employs descriptive-comparative analysis of secondary public data rather than structural model testing (SEM/PLS-SEM), given the absence of primary individual-level survey data to directly measure psychological constructs. Findings indicate a gap between growing access (inclusion) and financial self-control capacity among younger user segments, implying the need for more targeted digital financial literacy and stronger paylater consumer protection regulation.
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