Consumers seeking buy now pay later (BNPL) credit also actively utilize credit card debt instead of replacing one with the other, according to a study released today by consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion.

While BNPL and point of sale (POS) financing have emerged as popular sources of credit, the study found that such offerings have not had a major impact on a typical consumer’s usage of other forms of credit. Although both BNPL and POS financing both are used by consumers to take on additional credit, POS is typically used for bigger ticket items and involves a credit check and potentially high interest payments while BNPL is generally used for smaller purchases and does not involve a credit check.

More than 6 million applications for BNPL services in the United States were analyzed for the study, which found that consumers seeking such services also tend to use other means of credit at a higher rate than the overall population.

“Consumers are looking for new ways to finance purchases and the convenience and budgeting POS offerings provide are driving them to finance more, larger purchases,” Liz Pagel, senior vice president of consumer lending at TransUnion told Bank Automation News.

While it is commonly assumed that BNPL services end up cannibalizing credit card debt, the study found that consumers are actually building balances on both types of credit services, Pagel said.

About 29% of surveyed consumers stated that their main motivation behind using BNPL services is to spread payments over time, according to August survey of 999 consumers conducted by TransUnion.

The jump in users attracted to BNPL services has also incited a flurry of investment activity, as evidenced by PayPal’s recent $2.7 billion acquisition of Japanese BNPL provider Paidy and neobank Revolut’s recent announcement that it will be working on its own product.

“Investors are looking at lots of potential growth, both converting credit card users to BNPL users and providing non-credit card users with a flexible payment option — 85%-90% of BNPL installment payments are made with debit cards,” Ginger Schmeltzer, senior analyst at Aite Group’s retail and banking payments practice previously told BAN.

POS financing applicants also tend to have more credit products, such as credit cards, retail cards, and installment loans in their wallets as compared to the general population, according to the TransUnion study. “POS financing applicants perform slightly worse on credit cards, but outperform the non-POS segment on unsecured personal loans,” the study noted.

The surge in BNPL activity has also incited calls for regulation, and while the U.K. has pledged to regulate the sector, Pagel said that she hasn’t heard much about regulatory activity in the U.S., and TransUnion doesn’t see “any signs of it making its way onto the agenda.”

Overall, the study found that 78% of consumers seeking BNPL and POS financing fall between the ages of 18 and 50, and tend to perform at par with the general credit active population when it comes to delinquency.

“This highlights an opportunity for both traditional and POS lenders to provide more diverse credit solutions to this attractive segment,” Pagel said.