The plans finally made it out of the group chat: one person covers the apartment rental, another covers dinner for two nights, someone else grabs the concert or sports tickets, while the others are happy to let someone else do the planning. Friends cover the expenses with the expectation they’ll get paid, but a new survey says otherwise: Gen Z is spending big on group trips and events, but they’re not getting reimbursed.
A new report from Zelle finds that 46% of Gen Z currently owe friends or family more than $1,000, and 30% owe $2,500 or more. Nearly half, 47%, say they’ve gone into debt covering a group expense they expected to be repaid for, compared with 13% of Boomers.
Dr. Traci Williams, a clinical psychologist and financial therapist, said in an interview that the reluctance to settle up often starts before the trip even happens. “It’s really uncomfortable to have money conversations with people that you’re close to, and so they may not hash out what the payment arrangement should be before they front the cost,” she told Fortune. The person who organizes the trip is usually the one left holding the bill, she said, because nobody agreed on repayment terms beforehand.
“There’s a lot of assumption that happens, and so making the expectations clear and talking through it can really help.”
