Where Paying Bills Is A "Future Me" Problem

While short- and long-term credit dealings are as old as human civilization and credit cards as we know them have been around since the 1950s, fintech firms offering a "buy now, pay later" option for almost every imaginable online purchase is comparably new. With the announcement of a strategic partnership between payment provider Stripe and Europe's highest valued private fintech company Klarna, this type of service is bound to reach even more customers. As our chart shows, at least two of the world's biggest markets are still hesitant when it comes to the adoption of this payment model.

According to data from our Statista Global Consumer Survey e-commerce special covering six major markets, 39 and 37 percent of respondents in Germany and the UK, respectively, don't plan on using the "buy now, pay later" method any time soon, even though around one quarter of participants from those markets are at least willing to give it a try. When looking at countries notorious for ever-expanding credit lines and a deeply ingrained mentality of borrowing and refinancing like China and the U.S., the figures are reversed. 77 percent of Chinese participants have paid either the whole amount or in installments for products bought, while in the United States, 58 percent have already used "buy now, pay later" in the past.

These attitudes are corroborated by research from Rhodium Group, which shows Chinese household debt now stands at 128 percent of household income at least in part because of the rise of online payment providers like Alipay. At the end of 2019, the People's Republic even surpassed the U.S. in total outstanding credit card debt, surpassing the $1 trillion mark and the United States' figure of $972 billion.