<![CDATA[The massive shift toward ShopeePay among Gen Z students in Batam has done more than just digitize transactions; it has created a complex environment where digital ease often clashes with impulsive spending. While fintech adoption is skyrocketing, we still lack a clear understanding of how technological acceptance (TAM) and financial literacy actually interact to drive these sudden purchases. This research investigates the relationship, testing how Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), and Financial Literacy (FL) influence impulsive buying, while positioning fintech usage as a potential bridge. We collected data from 350 active student users in Batam and analyzed it through a PLS-SEM framework via SmartPLS 4.0. The findings reveal several unexpected results that differ from previous behavioral assumptions. While PEOU and PU significantly drive fintech adoption, financial literacy shows no significant relationship with app usage intensity. The results suggest that higher financial literacy may also increase impulsive buying behavior, where higher financial literacy is significantly and positively associated with increased impulsive buying. This finding points toward a potent overconfidence bias, where theoretical knowledge reduces perceived risk and lowers cognitive barriers to spending. Furthermore, neither the technology itself nor the frequency of usage directly triggers impulsive urges, causing fintech usage to fail as a mediator. These results indicate that the negative behavioral impact of fintech in Batam is not driven by the platform's technical attributes, but by the psychological overconfidence of its users. This research suggests that financial education must pivot from purely theoretical knowledge to addressing digital behavioral psychology and emotional self-regulation.]]>
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