Almost one in five of generation Y surveyed have fallen into debt by using contactless and online payments, research say

Almost one in five of generation Y surveyed say they have fallen into debt from making contactless and online payments, new research says.

A survey of people aged 18-44 in London found that 18 percent encountered a debt problem because of using digital payment systems.

Three researchers from The Claude Littner Business School at the University of West London conducted the survey of 100 people—91 aged between 18 and 34, and nine aged 35-44.

The British Academy of Management's annual conference in Birmingham heard today [5 September 2019] that 69 percent said they relied entirely on digital systems to make payments, and 86 percent said their buying behavior had changed after adopting new technology.

Dr. Yehia Nawar, Dr. Amelia Au-Yeung and Mian Chaudhry found that problems those interviewed said they had with digital technology included overspending (64 percent), running up an unauthorized overdraft (19 percent), having their data stolen (19 percent), and having their credit or debit card stolen (14 percent).

Some of those surveyed had doubts about using the technology, with 12 percent not sure they would use it in the future—66 percent were worried about the security of their data.

"Since 2014, the financial institutions have pushed the consumers to adopt digital payments as their primary mode of payments," Dr. Nawar told the conference.

"This study has discovered that the primary factor that affects the generation Y's buying behavior was overspending as a result of reliance on digital payments,"

The research was carried out at a time when the value of the UK's digital payments transactions is predicted to grow to £400 billion a year by 2020.