I recently have become concerned in the rise of the buy now and pay later companies as this just encourages poor financial control and bad money habits and it seems that now that one of the main companies involved in this – Klarna – is now going to report any missed payments to the credit referencing agents which will damage a person’s credit file and restrict their borrowing options in the future.

I find Klarna’s attitude a bit irresponsible – after all they are the ones encouraging people to take out debt they can’t afford and to buy goods on credit.

Of course, the person should also be partially to blame, but many people don’t really understand what these offers are as our financial education in this country is very poor.

The average person doesn’t understand debt or credit files and although they should get educated in these matters, companies like Klarna could take some responsibility and help more when people get into difficulty rather than damaging their financial future even further.

Many people are calling for these buy now and pay later products to be financially regulated and that’s a great idea.

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Reported on the BBC website.

Gill Fielding

Author Gill Fielding

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