38% Indians Don’t Have Money For Diwali; 21% Will Neglect Parents For Diwali Gifts [Paysense Survey]

Paysense, a leading fintech startup which provides instant personal loan without any hassles, has conducted a unique survey related to Diwali gifts.

The most shocking discovery of this survey is: 38% of Indians don’t have enough money for Diwali!

When it comes to spending on Diwali gifts, and the inclination to avail personal loans, a lot of interesting insights and revelations have been discovered, via this survey.

Here are the major highlights:

Diwali Gifts: 38% Indians Don’t Have Enough Money

As per the results of this unique survey, Paysense has discovered that 38% of the respondents don’t have enough money to spend on Diwali gifts.

Out of this 38%, 21% are willing to take a personal loan to cover the expenses.

Interestingly, out of 62% of respondents who believe that they have enough money to spend on Diwali celebrations, almost half are willing to take a personal loan to cover the additional expenses.

What Does This Mean: A lot of Indians want to spend on expensive Diwali gifts for their friends and families, but are lacking in funds. Personal loans seems the right option for them right now.

21% Are Willing To Forego Sending Money To Parents

As per the survey, millennials are more likely to apply for a personal loan, compared to Gen Z citizens.

And among these millennials, taking a personal loan for Diwali gifts is more important than many other crucial tasks.

When the respondents were asked, what can they forego or sacrifice in order to buy a Diwali gift, shocking results were found.

21% of the millennials are ready to forego sending money to their parents, in exchange for buying a Diwali gift. 15% are willing to skip paying EMI for their home loans, and 7% are even willing to skip a month of their kid’s schooling fees!

What Does This Mean: Millennials are more likely to apply for a personal loan, compared to the older generation, or even the younger GenZ. The very fact that they are willing to skip some of the crucial expenditures means that buying Diwali gifts and celebrating the festival ‘now’ is more important for them. The adage: ‘Seize the moment’ has been embraced wholeheartedly by the generation of millennials.

The Rise Of Personal Loans, And The Need For It

Definitely, expenses have increased, and the ‘need’ to take a personal loan is right now at an all-time high.

Here are some other interesting ‘sacrifices’ which Indians are ready to do, in order to buy that a Diwali gift (which indirectly proves the importance of personal loans today):

• 9% of Indians are ok to skip their monthly medical test, in order to buy a Diwali gift
• 8% of Indians are willing to let go of their teas and cigarette for a year if they are able to buy that Diwali gift (this, will be a noble decision!)
• 15% will sacrifice their next travel plan and save money to buy a Diwali gift
• Out of 77% who don’t have enough money to buy a Diwali gift, and don’t want to take a personal loan, only 25% have said that they won’t sacrifice anything.

Personal Loans Trends: Regional Analysis

The survey also found an interesting fact: Compared to North, which traditionally celebrates Diwali with more pomp and show, Southern states are more inclined to take a personal loan for Diwali.

22% of the respondents from Karnataka have admitted that they will take a personal loan this Diwali for buying gifts, whereas only 15% of the respondents from Northern states (Delhi, Punjab, Haryana) have admitted about their inclination to take a personal loan this Diwali.

What Does This Mean: Personal loans is no more a regional, festival specific phenomenon, but has become a need at this time. A lot of socio-economic factors may be in force here, which needs some further research and studies.

Diwali Shopping Trends: Factors Fuelling This Phenomenon

As per Paysense, e-commerce can be attributed as a strong factor in fuelling the trend of Diwali shopping.

As we have seen in the last few weeks, leading e-commerce portals such as Amazon, Flipkart and others have thrown in massive discounts and offers, and tempting online shoppers with mind-blowing deals.

And data support this.

In 2016, $2.2 billion worth of online shopping was done during the festive season (Dusshera, Diwali, New Year), which increased to $3.2 billion in 2017.

Almost 50% increase in the volume of online shopping tells a lot about the trend of festive shopping. And we haven’t yet touched offline shopping here.

This year, as we are in the midst of the festive period, we can expect much more online shopping, and this translates to more personal loans.

Personal Loans Are #1 In India

When it comes to loans, then online personal loans are the #1 category of preference by users as they require very minimal documents and are available quickly in comparison to the regular bank loans.

Prashanth Rangnathan, CEO and Co-founder – PaySense said, “While consumer spending last Diwali was low due to multiple economic factors such as GST and Demonetisation, it is expected to scale up again this Diwali. We have seen an 85% growth in availing personal loans for small and large ticket purchases from the metros so far this year. Technology has enabled users to avail low-interest credit without any credit history. Hence, Indian consumers are welcoming the idea of taking a personal loan even for buying gifts.”

And we have data to support this claim as well.

As per the Business Standard report, which quotes RBI numbers, 96% of new loans applied in FY 2018 are personal loans. This shows that today’s generation is ready to embrace technology and the means to acquire what they want, that too right now.

This means that personal loans will be the drivers of growth when it comes to consumerism in India.

What Is Paysense?

Paysense takes the pain away from personal loans and provides a seamless, quick and easy way to get them. Present across 30+ cities, and having more than a million users of their app, Paysense provides short-term loans ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 2,00,000 with one-time documentation, and with no hidden charges.

As per KPMG and H2 Ventures, Paysense is among the top 100 fintech innovators of 2018.

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