A mum has claimed that Klarna has wrecked her “20-year-old good credit rating over £5”. Writing on the UK parenting forum, Mumsnet, she says, “Despite the glossy marketing, I think they are totally untrustworthy.”
With more of us using Klarna and other buy now pay later sites, it’s a scary thought that we could accidentally damage our credit rating. Let’s take a look at why she was caught out and how you can avoid wrecking your credit rating.
How Klarna damaged my credit rating
The UK based mum explains, “A few months back, I used Klarna for the first time to purchase some clothing from two retailers. It all went fine – payments taken automatically and all getting paid off.”
But things took a turn for the worse when she bought a new phone for her teenage son. She says, “The option to pay interest free with Klarna was cheaper than a new phone contract, so we went with that.”
She thought all was well. But then, she says, “I received a credit alert to say my credit rating had changed. For 20 years it’s been ‘good/excellent’, so, panicking, I logged in.”
It turned out that the UK-based mum had accidentally “missed a £5 payment to Klarna.” And this has immediately affected her credit rating and possibly made it harder for her to get other finance in the future.
Autopay is not automatic on the Klarna website
The mum, who writes under the Mumsnet name of Bluebellberry, uncovered a little known catch on the Klarna website.
The phone she bought was classed as finance rather than an order. She explains, “Apparently, I was meant to press ‘enable Autopay’.” But at the time, she didn’t realise that she needed to do this on the Klarna website and assumed the payment would be set up to auto-pay just like her previous purchases.
The stressed mum exclaims, “How on Earth was I meant to know this? Not once had Klarna said, ‘By the way, for this phone order, you need to comb through the app to find Autopay’. The other payments had been automatic, so why think different?”
The Klarna website confirms that there are several steps to enable an autopayment on a finance purchase.
You need to:
- Go to your profile settings and click on ‘Payment methods’
- Or select ‘Purchases’ or ‘Payments’ and find the purchase you’d like to set up automatic payments for
- Add your bank account or card information, and click the button labelled ‘Autopay’
- If set up successfully, the ‘Autopay’ button will turn green
Extra interest and fees now due
The stressed Mum is worried that she will now have extra costs as, “Klarna have also added interest and told me to pay a fee or my account will revert to 18% interest.”
She adds, “At no point did Klarna tell me this before, during or even after ordering the phone. In fact, if it wasn’t for the credit alert, I’d still have no idea.”
Be careful and read the small print
It just shows how easy it is to get a bad credit rating, even over something small. It’s all too tempting to click through quickly when we’re making a purchase and forget to read the small print. I know I’ve done it! It’s a lesson to us all to sort out auto-payment on all Klarna orders, including those on finance.
The mum hopes that others can learn from her mistake. She says, “If this post stops one person getting into this situation, then it did something.”
And she warns, “If you do already have finance with them, make sure Autopay is on – even if you’ve auto-paid before.”
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About the author
A Chartered Accountant, Mum and personal finance geek, Alice writes on topics including budgeting, saving and investing.
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