Alya’s Story

Alya is a 22-year-old housewife from rural Maros, South Sulawesi who frequently borrows from various digital lending platforms to meet her household needs. While taking care of her children, she also runs a home-based business, selling fried meatball snacks to relatives and neighbors. In her free time, she enjoys using her smartphone, especially entertainment apps that offer small incentives, which eventually motivated her to onboard a digital wallet as a withdrawal platform.

Alya first encountered digital lending in 2019, and since then, she has relied on these services for their quick and easy access to funds. However, borrowing from multiple platforms has left her exhausted. She now plans to consolidate her five outstanding loans by taking out a larger bank loan, hoping to simplify her repayment process.

Due to bad experiences with debt collection practices, Alya stopped using one particular lender and shifted to another. At one point, she even changed her mobile number to avoid aggressive debt collectors, despite paying off all her debts

Now, Alya prefers Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services, where she receives goods instead of money. She finds this method more practical, as the money from loans can quickly disappear.

“It’s not bad, I can get IDR 2,000 in just 2 days.” Alya, a 22 year old Housewife in Maros - South Sulawesi, likes to collect coins from doing tasks in BacaPlus to have small earning in between taking care of her children and household chores.” - Alya