Living expenses are biting a few too, as 12% of study participants said that they are resorting to borrowing simply to cover basic needs, pointing to a fragile financial state. Apart from this, most of these consumers borrow for a variety of end uses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey borrow to buy appliances and utilities like refrigerators, coolers, TVs, mobiles, home improvement and business reasons. They also borrow for experiences like travel etc.,\u201d Tiwari adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the lower middle class saves in cash, it does not mean they do not embrace the digital way of life. As per the study findings, 63% of consumers believe digital tools have made it easier to pursue their financial goals, with the strongest confidence coming from tier-1 cities like Jaipur (86%), Pune, and Kolkata (80%).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even as physical stores remain dominant for apparel and home appliances purchases, online channels are rapidly gaining traction. Online retail payments now account for 51% of transactions (up from 42% in 2024). More importantly, preference for online loan applications is nearing parity with offline at 50%, demonstrating growing trust in digital lenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UPI continues to remain popular with around 80% of consumers now relying on the platform for everyday transactions, as compared to 72% in 2024. Adoption is highest among men, Gen Z, and metro dwellers\u2014especially in Hyderabad (93%) and Kolkata (87%).\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, as always there is a catch\u2014nearly half of people say they might stop using UPI if fees are introduced. After all, for those who save in cash, and hold money tightly, the convenience of a payment is not worth the fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living expenses are biting a few too, as 12% of study participants said that they are resorting to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,78399,1700,78398,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-191464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-consumer-discretionary-space","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-school-fees","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114698307782432618","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}