Cassie Bennett and her best friend had been planning a trip to Antarctica for over a year. They booked a balcony cabin, and Bennett put down the deposit with the understanding that each of them would pay her own balance when it came due. However, when the deadline arrived, her friend’s card wouldn’t go through, and Bennett had to put the roughly $8,000 balance on her own credit card.

Repayment Anxiety

For a growing number of American travelers, the hardest part of a group trip is not the planning or taking time off work, but what happens after everyone gets home and someone has to bring up the money. New national research from Zelle finds that among Gen Z consumers who have fronted money for a shared expense, 76% say they were not fully repaid. Nearly half of Gen Z respondents say they have gone into debt covering group costs for other people.

Dr. Traci Williams, a board-certified clinical psychologist and certified financial therapist, has a term for what Bennett spent those months feeling: “Repayment anxiety is the stress, discomfort, or emotional hesitation people experience when it’s time to settle shared expenses.” Williams doesn’t think the phenomenon is new, but rather newly visible, as more people split the cost of vacations, high-end meals, concerts, and sporting events, and talk about it openly.

The Avoidance Economy

Zelle has a name for it: the avoidance economy. One in five Gen Z respondents said they had canceled plans, or muted or ignored a group chat, specifically to avoid a conversation about paying someone back. The obvious solution – just ask for your money back – is the thing almost nobody does. Part of the reason is a strange inversion of who feels bad. “Many people worry that asking to be repaid will make them seem petty or will create unnecessary conflict, even when they’re simply asking for money they’re already owed,” Williams said.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.