It's hard to shop online without seeing a logo for a buy now, pay later service, such as Afterpay or Zip, and Australians are converted.
Australians were more than double spending last financial year, compared to just $5.6 billion three years ago, as the flirtation with the new credit providers blossomed into a full-blown romance during the long COVID 19 lockdowns.
According to research released exclusively to ABC's 7.30, 38 per cent of 1,746 people surveyed had used one of the buy now, pay later BNPL services, and platforms reported 5.9 million active accounts, according to the research carried out by RFI Global for the Australian Finance Industry Association.
The services are essentially a digital lay-by, but you get to take the item home straight away and pay the debt back in fixed instalments.
The mother of three Mel Theobold, from Shellharbour in New South Wales, uses Zip and Afterpay to juggle her budget.
I've used Zip in the past to purchase a washing machine. She said afterpay I use for groceries, birthday gifts, little things like that.
She didn't have a job when she signed up and Afterpay offered her $500 without a credit check and Zip offered her another $500.
They increased her limits to $3,000 and $2,000 a month, giving her a combined total of $5,000 a month.
It doesn't make sense to me, because I don't know how I can pay back that much, she said.
Ms Theobold has never gotten into real trouble with her debts, but plenty have.
One in 14 said they had to cut back on essentials just to make their repayments.
When 7.30 signed up to Afterpay, the process took about two minutes, with no credit check and instant access to $600 of credit.
Stephen Jones, the new federal Minister for Financial Services, wants to stop doing that.
He told 7.30 that he didn't want to have an argument about whether this is credit or not.
I don't want to argue about whether there should be a minimum credit-worthiness check for consumer protection background checks. The minister says he's going to introduce legislation within a year, which will involve robust consultation with the industry, because BNPL isn't regulated in the same way as credit cards.
There are big voices with deep pockets, whatever you do in the financial services space, he said.
Peter Gray, Zip's co-founder and chief operating officer, is campaigning for credit legislation-lite.
He said that simple regulation that fits our products but it is very important that it does not stifle competition, such as very heavily compliant regulation that would be similar to a full-blown national credit code.
We're very conscious of providing our services in a responsible way, and only providing amounts or limits that customers can reasonably afford. Apple is going to enter the BNPL space in the US later this year with Apple Pay Later, and could make a play in the Australian market too.
If it does, he'll make sure they don't wipe out competition.
If Apple enters this space, we want to make sure that we have a level playing field in the way that their devices work and the way that other apps and other platforms have access to their devices.