tbi bank survey: 80% of Romanians prefer ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ to buy electronics & appliances

In the last year, due to increased interest rates, Romanians became more pragmatic and started to focus more on interest free financing to purchase services and products needed for a safer and more comfortable lifestyle. More than 80% of Romanians would choose a Buy Now Pay Later financing solution, with 4 interest free installments, to buy electronics and appliances, to take advantage of lower cost of financing in a delicate economic context, according to a tbi bank survey among 1,057 respondents across the country.

More than 23% would use BNPL to go on holiday, and almost 18% to access quality medical services. Moreover, about 53% of subjects said they prefer to take multiple small loans for smaller purchases, to be repaid in interest-free installments, and only 21% would choose a larger loan, to be repaid in installments with interest.

”The consumers had to adapt in the last year to a more complex economic and social context. Higher interest rates represented a big problem for most of them, so they started to choose interest free financing, and BNPL is a great option in this regard.  As usual, we adapted to their needs and offered to them more advantageous financing options, but especially BNPL, to help overcome a difficult situation that shows no signs of ending very soon”, said Gergana Staykova, Market Leader, tbi bank.

Regarding of how they find more advantageous to pay for a purchased product, more than 41% said they want to pay in 4 interest free installments, almost 36% would choose to fully pay in the first day, and 22,4% would choose to pay in more installments, but with 0 interest on the first 4 installments.

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About 84% of the respondents said that BNPL allows them to buy products they would otherwise not be able to afford on the spot, and almost 70% consider it, in most cases, a trustful financing solution. 34.53% of respondents would need over 3000 lei through BNPL financing, and 22.42% would want a maximum of 1000 lei.

The tbi bank survey on Romanians’ perception of the financing was conducted nationwide in August-September 2023 via the iVox platform, on a total sample of 1,057 internet users in Romania. Slightly more than 50% of the participants are women, little less than 75% are at most 45 years old and more than 87% live in urban areas.