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Wikipink is aimed at policy makers and the media to ensure the conversation around BNPL is grounded in fact.

Traditional credit providers are failing consumers

For too long, credit card companies and traditional banks have been exploiting customers with sky-high interest rates and rip off fees. 

The system is broken. 

And it will crack. 

Klarna is different. We are a global leading payments network and financial assistant that accelerates commerce by offering fairer, more sustainable, innovative solutions. We’re committed to providing a seamless and secure shopping experience that helps our customers save time, save money, and worry less.

By publishing our facts and figures with full transparency, including age demographics, repayment rates, and late fee rates, we’ll demonstrate that interest-free BNPL leads to better consumer outcomes than traditional credit.  Where credit card companies had to be forced by the FCA to publish complaint rates, we are doing so voluntarily. 


Klarna = a fairer alternative to spiraling credit debt

Klarna is well known as a leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” but as the industry faces heavy criticism around offering predatory credit products to consumers, it is more important than ever for us to show how we are inherently different in our credit offerings from both the traditional financial services and the BNPL industry at large.

5% vs 50%

In 2023, 60% of Klarna’s interest free products were paid off in full early, 35% on time and just 5% were late. While credit card users struggle to pay off their monthly balance in full with half (50.1%) of credit card balances incurring interest.

£70bn

Outstanding credit card debt has increased by 9.2% and is now at an all time high at almost £70bn and with credit card interest rates at their highest in 27 years according to Bank of England data, UK consumers are looking for more sustainable payment alternatives.

0.4%

While the Bank of England reports that default rates for credit cards continue increase, Klarna’s default rate has never been lower at 0.4%.

The beginning of fair and sustainable payment methods

Since Klarna’s founding in 2005 and our UK launch in 2014 we have been redefining the shopping and payment experience making it more secure, transparent and frictionless for all our customers. Our business model is focussed on charging retailers, not consumers. We take our responsibility as a lender very seriously and have not waited for regulation of the BNPL sector before introducing a number of measures to help protect customers. This includes credit checks on every purchase, restricting the use of our services if repayments are missed, the first ever credit-opt out tool and reporting BNPL usage to credit reference agencies.

99%

Payments repaid

Less than one 1%

Default rate

60%

Pay us back early

Klarna's payment products

Pay in 3

Pay in 3 is our most popular product. It splits a purchase into 3 equal parts. The first part is paid at the time of purchase, the second after 30 days and the third after 60 days, no fee, no interest This is perfect when buying an unexpected but necessary item, like a replacement washing machine.

Pay Later

Pay later gives shoppers 30 days interest-free before they have to pay. It means consumers can try before they buy. It gives added safety to online purchases, customers do not have to release the money from their bank account until they have received the item.

Pay Now

Pay Now Launched in 2021 and growing faster than any other product, is a super smoooth instant debit purchase offering customers the opportunity to pay at the time of purchase. Globally, Pay Now accounts for over a quarter of our transactions.

Financing

Making up just 1% of Klarna purchases in the UK. Financing is Klarna’s answer to a more traditional regulated credit product for higher-ticket items. The majority of these payment plans last between 6-24 months. This is offered interest-free or interest-bearing depending on the retailer. Klarna's Financing plan has an APR ranging from 0-21.9%.

99% of transactions are interest free

Any late payment is a failure on us

It’s not in our interest to lend to people who can’t pay us back as it impacts our business negatively. We encourage on time payments with multiple reminders. We will send up to 4 reminders to a customer ahead of their payment due date. In that time customers can extend the due date of their payments for free which gives them 10 additional days to pay. 

We’ll send a reminder on the day a payment is due and another reminder two days after a payment is missed. We may charge a late fee of up to £5 if any payment remains unpaid after 7 days, the total of late fees charged on an order will never exceed 25% of the total order. 

We never charge more than two late fees per order. We will continue to send reminders. After 4 months we will tell the customer we will pass their order to a FCA approved debt collection agency who will attempt to make contact through phone, text, letter and email, the customer will no longer be able to use Klarna to make a payment.

Klarna's late payment statistics

In 2023, 95% of Klarna’s purchases were paid on time or early. Our late fee rates and debt collection rates are declining over time. This is a testament to Klarna’s business model and underscores our consumers pay responsibly and on time. While the banks report jumps in credit card defaults.

 Wikipink Late fee graph

All age groups

Share of UK Pay in 3 orders which had a missed payment and may have incurred a late fee
WIkipink DC

All age groups

Share of UK Pay in 3 orders that have been referred to debt collection
Wikipink Late fee

All age groups

Share of UK Pay Later orders which had a missed payment and may have incurred a late fee

Wikipink DC rate Pay Later

All age groups

Share of UK Pay Later orders that have been referred to debt collection

(UK) Wikipink Pie NEW

More than half of our orders are paid early

In 2023, over half (60%) of purchases were paid back early, 35% were paid on time, and 5% were late. In comparison half of UK of credit card consumers do not pay off their balance each month and incur interest.

(UK) Wikipink New Waterfall

Just 0.61 % of orders are handed over to a DCA

In 2023, 5.18% of orders received a late fee, 4.6% of total orders were paid after receiving a late fee and 0.61% of orders were handed over to an FCA-regulated Debt Collector.

(UK) Wikipink Late fee Service

Late fees encourage on time payments

We charge the lowest late fees we can to ensure they act as a deterrent to missed payments, but that they do not become a large proportion of our income. That’s why our late fees are the lowest in the credit industry.

Credit card companies employ many dirty tactics to keep milking more and more money out of their customers

Wikipink BNPL vs creditcards
(UK) Age brackets

There is no typical Klarna customer, everyone uses Klarna

The average age of a customer in the UK is 36, and continues to trend upwards as consumers of all generations realise the benefits of BNPL.

Wikipink_Q22024_Trustpilot_Global

Our consumers love us

Klarna is rated 4.1, Great on TrustPilot, traditional banks and credit cards can’t scrape past a 2. Don’t believe us? Take a look at

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Our complaint rate is 136 for every 1,000,000 transactions

(UK) Wikipink complaints new version

Traditional banks report complaint rates for credit cards and bank accounts to the FCA per 1,000 accounts. We’ve compared Klarna to some of the biggest credit card providers using the same metrics.

Sources

  • The stats on credit cards all comes from

  • The stat on credit card interest rates being their highest in 27 years is based on Bank of England data.

  • The stat on default rates for credit cards continue to increase comes from

    .

All information comes from Klarna

All information comes from Klarna

All information comes from Klarna

  • The late fee stat on Clearpay comes from

  • The HMRC penalties can be found at

  • The late fee stat from O2 comes from

  • The stat on parking fees comes from

  • The stat on the average credit card interest rate being 23.8% comes from Bank of England

  • The stats on credit cards all come from Money Charity see

    .

  • "58% of users with a credit card, do not even know the interest rate on their credit card"

    • Data comes from Klarna UK Consumer Survey of 2,481 UK adults 30 March - 4 April 2023

All sources are linked to directly from the text

  • Stats from other companies than Klarna comes from the FCA

Copyright © 2005-2024 Klarna. Klarna Financial Services UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) for carrying out regulated consumer credit activities (firm reference number 987889), and for the provision of payment services under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (firm reference number 987816). Klarna Financial Services UK Ltd offers both regulated and unregulated products. Klarna’s Pay in 3 instalments and Pay in 30 days agreements are not regulated by the FCA. Incorporated in England (company number 14290857), with its registered office at 10 York Road, London, SE1 7ND.