One in three Singaporeans have had a dispute over travel expenses after a group trip, and 21 per cent say they would not travel with the same group again, according to a new survey by YouTrip, Singapore’s multi-currency digital wallet.

The YouTrip Group Travel Expense Report surveyed 1,000 respondents and found the disputes are rooted in practical friction: late repayments (54 per cent), incorrect calculations (53 per cent) and unfair splitting of expenses (49 per cent) were the top triggers. The problem scales with group size — travellers in groups of six or more are 1.5 times more likely to clash over expenses than those travelling in pairs.

The reluctant “accountant” problem

YouTrip’s survey split respondents into two roles: “accountants”, who pay upfront and manage the group’s expenses, and “post-trip payers”, who settle what they owe after the trip. Accountants were more likely to have experienced a money dispute (35 per cent) than post-trip payers (30 per cent) — and one in three accountants say they took on the role reluctantly, with 45 per cent spending more than a day settling expenses once the trip is over. Reluctant accountants were four times more likely to end a friendship over travel expenses.

For accountants, the biggest pain point isn’t the maths — it’s the social friction of getting friends to pay them back. Sending awkward payment reminders (54 per cent) ranks as their top concern, ahead of losing personal money to inaccurate tracking (53 per cent) and sorting through receipts (47 per cent). Notably, receiving those same reminders ranks as post-trip payers’ lowest concern, suggesting the discomfort runs one way.

Poor visibility drives overspending

Separately, 88 per cent of respondents admitted to exceeding their personal budget on a group trip. While 68 per cent chalk this up to “living in the moment”, others point to losing track of who paid for what (37 per cent), the hassle of tracking expenses in real time (35 per cent), and having no real-time overview of group spending (30 per cent). Asked what would improve the experience, respondents’ top requests were a simpler accounting process (67 per cent), eliminating manual tracking (67 per cent) and an all-in-one balance overview (65 per cent).

“Travel has become increasingly seamless, from booking flights and accommodation to making payments overseas, yet managing shared expenses remains surprisingly manual. Our survey shows the burden often falls on one person to keep track of what everyone has spent and chase repayments after the trip,” said Kelvin Lam, Chief Operating Officer of YouTrip. “YouTrip Split is designed to change that by bringing the tracking, splitting and settling of group expenses into one app that Singaporeans already use for their travel spending.”

YouTrip Split: tracking expenses as they happen

YouTrip Split lets users create a group, add friends, and pull transactions directly from their YouTrip history to split. Within a split, expenses can be divided equally or by exact amount, percentage or share, with the amount auto-populated from the original payment to remove manual entry and exchange-rate calculations. Settlement can happen in the original transaction currency or in Singapore dollars. YouTrip sends a push notification whenever a split is created, and users can settle their share directly in the app.

To mark the launch, YouTrip is covering the travel expenses of three groups between 17 September and 14 October 2026 for users who initiate a split with three or more friends, capped at S$5,000 per group. The company is also running a companion giveaway on Instagram and TikTok, with the five most chaotic or creative group-trip submissions having their split reimbursed.