Deb Shroot is a Canberra-based financial counsellor for the National Debt Helpline and says the people resorting to these schemes "don't seem to have enough money" due to the ACT becoming more expensive.

"A few years ago we were finding a few clients presenting with this, and now I would say that most of our clients or 80 per cent of clients who call up would have at least one 'buy now pay later' product," she said.

Ms Shroot says clients either have difficulty making repayments or need to forgo essential items, seeing people "have up to nine or 10 products at once". The financial support industry is also concerned by a number of people using the pay later schemes for essential products or services.

"We've had a client who called us this week and they're even using it for Uber to send their kids to and from school, so as you can imagine, if someone's needing it to pay for that service, they are probably unlikely able to afford to repay," she said.

Clients are often aware "they might be getting themselves into trouble" but the need to put food on the table, fill their car with petrol or pay rent outweighs the risk.

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"People become reliant on these products and it leads to defaulting, which is very expensive because you're charged late fees and it also leads to people getting into what we call a debt spiral, which is when you're taking out more debt to pay for previous debt," Ms Shroot said.

On Thursday, more than 100 organisations including Anglicare Australia and Financial Counselling Australia have signed an open letter calling on the next parliament to make buy now pay later and wage advance products safer.

The easy loan industry has exploded its product range, selling unregulated credit products using a loophole in credit laws to bypass basic consumer protections.

A 2020 report from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found more than half (55 per cent) of people with buy now pay later loans had more than one loan at a time.

In addition 20 per cent of people with buy now pay later loans had missed a repayment and 20 per cent also went without essentials to make a repayment.

"These products are a huge problem, they're putting so many people into financial stress, into financial hardship and they're causing harm," Ms Shroot said.

"We have been advocating for law reform or an investigation and also a parliamentary inquiry into what the best laws for these products would be and we appreciate they are here to stay' but we do want to make them safe for consumers."

For anyone needing financial advice or support, the National Debt Helpline is 1800 007 007 or via their website ndh.org.au which automatically takes calls to a local service to provide local knowledge.

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