This BNPL payment service helps with financial planning – Wired PR Lifestyle Story
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[This is a sponsored article with Grab.]
Proper financial planning seems easy, just spend what you can afford, right? While this may have been true before the pandemic, its closure for nearly two years has affected all of our spending habits.
According to reports, cases of revenge spending among young people are on the rise. This new type of spending is attributed to people who spend too much on things they used to enjoy and those who spend an unusual amount on new experiences that they have previously postponed.
Because it’s 20/20 in retrospect and we want to help you avoid this problem, I talked to my co-workers about the worst revenge of this past year, in the hope that you can avoid some of our mistakes.
Marcus, Content Manager
I first started cooking at MCO1.0 and enjoyed it a lot. I continued to cook and managed to save a lot of money by having dinner outside. When MCO2.0 was announced, I’ll admit that I was a little lazy, but I still persevered and prepared dinner and lunch at every meal for my family.
When MCO2.0 was finally removed in August I had had enough of cooking and was constantly ordering meals. In a particularly lazy month of November, my meal transactions were over RM1,000!
Needless to say, I immediately dusted off my spending diary, grabbed the wok by force, and started cooking again.
Sarah, managing director
I spent 500 RM on skates, and I don’t even like exercising! I bought it during the pandemic: “Well, I can’t go out to exercise at the gym. I’ll skate in my parking lot.”
How many times have I actually used them? Three times. And now they’re back in the box.
I also fell and hit my hand very hard and had painful elbow pain for almost two months. I should know that I am too old (and too lazy) for this workout.
Want to buy a pair of skates that you love?
Sade, managing editor
So this was around 2020, I wasn’t getting much out of it and was saving on travel expenses (gas, toll, parking, etc.). At the time, I was playing a lot more games because at least I couldn’t live a virtual life if I couldn’t in real life.
Specifically, I started joining Genshin Impact and initially played on mobile, but I wanted to upgrade, so obviously I needed a portable game. Since I was already heavily invested in gaming, I made an impulsive decision to buy a gaming laptop within a week.
I asked some tech experts for advice – I didn’t even do my research – and they mentioned a good model for RM3,800, so I bought it.
Normally, I would do a lot of research and make sure I was getting a good price and bargain, but at the time I thought, if I’m going to be happy, why not?
It’s certainly not how I would normally spend my pre-pandemic, and now, in the post-pandemic era, I don’t think I would be so gentle with my money. That period from 2020 to 2021 was definitely an exception in terms of my spending.
What could they do differently?
Sometimes we are all victims of our own impulses, so it’s good to know how you can avoid costly financial decisions. According to this budget hack, you need to put in time for impulse shopping.
This means that if you are in a physical store, you need to walk around a bit more before buying this item. If you are shopping online, leave the item in the cart for a week or two. If you see that it still makes you happy, go ahead and buy it.
One useful budget hack is to count the number of hours it takes to purchase an item. For example, a fully specified iPhone 13 Pro Max will cost you RM 7,599 RM. If you earn RM 3,000 a month, it is a two and a half month job or 450 hour job. Thinking this way, is it really is it worth the hour?
Lastly, since most of the Vulcan Post staff are relatively modest and the best I’ve found of these three stories, I found out that Rikco, our Business Development Manager, made a big purchase recently, but managed to spend it prosperously but in a manageable way.
Save now, pay later
Rikco recently bought a pair of Apple AirPods Pro worth RM849 before RM199.75 using PayLater by Grab, leaving more cash for emergencies.
“I usually like to think a bit before buying things, for example, for this AirPods, I thought for a while and since I had the right to use PayLater, I decided to use and pay for it. I also got a RM50 discount using PayLater,” Rikco said.
With PayLater, you can also collect smaller items such as food, groceries, and utilities on an invoice that you can split into four-month installments. If you prefer to pay in one payment, you can do the same.
To help you keep track of your finances, the app will also show you a detailed overview of your payback periods and amounts so you can better plan your budget.
Get started with PayLater
To use the service, you must have at least a Silver Business Member (accumulated at least 200 GrabReward points) and made three transactions in the app in the last month.
You can buy not only food, e-haling rides and groceries, but also from Grab’s partner retailers such as Lilit, Zalora, All IT Hypermarket (as Rikco did) and so on. The full list of merchants can be found in the app.
PayLater automatically removes funds from GrabPay Wallet early next month, so you don’t have to worry about late payments if you have enough money in your Wallet.
In addition, when you make your first payment using PayLater, you will also receive GrabRewards Points that can be used to clear future transactions.
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Properly planning your finances in 2022 has become even more crucial, especially with the emergence of new variants of COVID, recent floods, and the reintroduction of festive gatherings.
As I said before, the best way to keep your coffers under control is to stay on top of your expenses.
BNPL services like PayLater offer a way to control your spending, but like any service, it should be used at your discretion. You collect too much extra pay and you get it pay for later.
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