YOUNG people are increasingly falling into debt due to the ease of contactless and online payments, warns a new study. Some are even considering of going back to cash, with 12 per cent not sure they want to continue with contactless and online payments. Researchers found one in five adults under the age of 45 in London are struggling to pay their debts due to the ease of tapping their debit cards on purchases. The research comes as UK's digital payments transactions is predicted to grow to £400 billion a year by 2020. Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) also blamed digital payments on overspending. Others also said they had run up an unauthorised overdraft (19 per cent), having their data stolen (19 per cent) and having their credit or debit card stolen (14 per cent). 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 to 44. Dr Yehia Nawar, Dr Amelia Au-Yeung and Mian Chaudhry said two thirds (66 per cent) were worried about the security of their data. Dr Nawar said: "Since 2014, the financial institutions have pushed the consumers to adopt digital payments as their primary mode of payments." He added: "This study has discovered that the primary factor that affects the generation Y's buying behaviour was overspending as a result of reliance on digital payments." The findings were presented at the British Academy of Management's annual conference in Birmingham.
Contactless and online payments are leading young people into debt , according to researchers from The Claude Littner Business School at the University of West London . One in five adults under 45 in London are finding it difficult to pay off debts because of easy transaction costs and 64 % blame digital payments for their overspending . Meanwhile , 19 % said they 'd run up unauthorised overdrafts and 33 % have had their payment card stolen . Data represents another significant issue for them ; 33 % claim to be worried about data security and 19 % said they 'd had money stolen .