To think if you’re buying luxury goods on Klarna, you can’t afford them?

[ThatHonestOchreSloth]

It’s not classist. It’s just maths.

With your logic, the same can be said of purchasing with a credit card.

Not everyone pays them in full every month.

But rule of thumb for using a credit card is only buy stuff you can afford to pay off at the end of the month. Obviously there are some exceptions*, but if you couldn't save up the money over the last x months why will you have it spare to pay back over next ones?

*Yes emergencies, unforseen circumstances, expections of some money coming in that's not usual income etc.

Providing it’s easy for you to pay back, wouldn’t using it boost your credit rating?

Meh.

I often use PayPal pay in three, even though I could afford to pay it up straight away. Why wouldn't I keep my money in my account that bit longer? It earns interest, and it's not costing me any more to pay it over three months. Klarna offers exactly the same, as far as I'm aware.

This. I often spread payments simply because I get to keep my money longer. Why do you care what other people do?

In theory, yes but that’s assuming people are using it strategically. My point is, if you need Klarna to afford a luxury item, that’s not strategic - it’s delusion dressed up as ‘clever credit use.’

I think there’s a difference between choosing to spread payments for convenience or cash flow, versus needing to. I’m taking about people who use Klarna because they genuinely couldn’t afford the item otherwise. That’s not financial strategy, that’s just overreaching.

It’s not about policing how people spend, it’s about the wider culture around consumption and pretending things are affordable when they’re not. If you’re using pay-later options by choice, that’s one thing. But let’s not act like everyone doing it is just being financially savvy. Some people are papering over bad habits and it’s okay to name that.

If you’re buying a house with a mortgage you can’t afford it? Using your logic.

I use Klarna a fair biT for things I need to get, cash flow is tight and spreading it makes it doable

Is that who you are talking about?

Your opening post made no mention of that. Your opening title/post suggests that anyone using klarna to spread the cost can't afford the items. So my reply is absolutely a valid response to that.

Out of curiosity, what proportion of people use Klarna because they couldn't otherwise couldn't afford the item? And surely if they can pay it over three months interest free, they can afford the item - but they are just speeding up the process by three months?

How do you know they are doing that?
It's interest free and is a good way of managing money. We need people to spend money. If everyone hoarded money the way people do on here, our economy would be shot to pieces.

Well, yes, of course. I’ve personally never had a credit card. The only debt I have is my mortgage, and that will be paid off early. I’d rather save up to spread the cost than go into debt. Perhaps emergencies being the exception, but I can’t think of many reasons for an emergency new tv.

Klarna makes somethings affordable for people. I don't see the issue with using it if you can afford the 3 payments, I don't see how buying something in 3 payments rather than 1 means you can't afford something. Clearly they can as they have bought it and paid for it.

A house is an appreciating asset - luxury clothes and handbags aren’t. Mortgages are designed for long-term investment; Klarna is designed to make consumer debt feel casual. Not quite the same thing.

There are always potential risks with credit - although do the likes of Klarna have a mechanism for charging interest if you don't pay? - but much of the economy is built on credit, and it can work very well if used carefully and responsibly.

Suppose you can only afford one nice restaurant meal every three months and it's (obviously) June now. That means you can choose to have a meal on any date in June, July or August. What's the point in waiting until 31st August, which may not be any kind of special date to your family, if you have a big family birthday on 1st June that you want the meal to celebrate?

Ok, let’s say a car on finance then. Cars in the main are depreciating assets, so if you can’t afford one outright you shouldn’t finance one?

You’re right that my OP could’ve been more specific - it was worded broadly and I can see how it came across as sweeping. My main point was really about the mindset behind why people use Klarna or similar services. If someone can afford something but chooses to delay payment for convenience or cash flow, fair enough - that’s strategic.

But increasingly, I’ve noticed people using Klarna as a workaround to buy things they genuinely can’t afford up front (e.g. luxury goods), then justifying it post-purchase. That’s a different pattern and that’s what I was getting at.

On your point about affordability: if you can only manage something by stretching it interest-free over months, I’d argue it’s worth questioning whether it’s a sensible spend in the first place. “Can pay in instalments” doesn’t always mean “can afford” in the truest sense. Anyway, appreciate the pushback - it helped me sharpen what I meant.

I get that, we all want a functioning economy. But there’s a difference between healthy spending and buying things you can’t realistically afford just to keep up appearances.

Of course not everyone who uses Klarna is overreaching but I’m talking about a specific behaviour I’ve seen more and more: using it to buy non-essentials you wouldn’t otherwise be able to purchase - like £700 designer bags or £300 trainers - then spinning it as savvy money management.

And no, I don’t know what every single person’s financial situation is. But patterns emerge, especially when people openly post about being in debt while still using BNPL schemes for lifestyle purchases. That’s not economic stimulation. That’s avoidance.

Then were you a high enough earner to not need to build a credit rating for a mortgage? How dud you build your credit rating? Even landlords go off credit ratings now.

Same

Sure, and in that scenario, if someone knows they’ll easily cover the cost in three months and is using Klarna to smooth out timing, that’s fair enough. I’m not against credit as a tool - I’m against using it as a crutch.

What I’m talking about is different: it’s when people use BNPL not because it fits better with their cash flow but because they genuinely don’t have the money full stop and they’re relying on future income they haven’t budgeted properly. That’s where it stops being strategic and starts being risky.

So yes, credit can absolutely be used responsibly. But let’s not pretend that’s always the case.

I think you started a judgey thread and you’ve quite rightly been called out on it.

People use Klarna and similar options for any number of reasons. I suspect you may fall into the ‘people on benefits always seem to have massive tellys’ mindset.

Where are you noticing this? What's wrong with paying for things instalments, it's as old as buying things. Previous generations used catalogues with monthly payments

By definition if youve paid off by the end of the installments you could afford it

A car isn’t a luxury good in the same way a designer bag is. It’s often a necessary tool for work, childcare, or mobility. Financing a car can be a practical decision when it’s about function. Buying a £300 coat you can’t afford to impress strangers? That’s different. My point is about intent and affordability - not about banning credit altogether.