Consumer debt masked in tempting pink branding. Paying for a new t-shirt in 3 or splitting up payments for a takeaway, buy now pay later has normalised debt for too long.

Picture this: You’re scrolling on Asos and see a pair of trainers you absolutely need! You add them to the basket and before you check out, you realise you only have £40 left in your clothes sinking fund for the month. Hold on, what’s that!? “Pay in 4 interest-free installments of £40 with Klarna” Yes please! Without thought, you press order and pass the burden of the leftover £120 to your future self. Sounds easy right?

If you’re a buy now pay later lover, this might be a tough read for you, but I’m going to be getting stuck into why I hate afterpay products.

No matter how pretty their branding is and how logical they make BNPL (buy now pay later) sound, they are not budgeting tools. In actual fact, when using a BNPL product, you’re more likely to spend more than you originally expected. The Behavioural Insights Team found that 38% had spent more than they planned because BNPL was available. Upon finding this information, I did some more digging and found out that this is actually how Klarna markets itself to retailers. Klarna says that the average order value increases by 68% when customers choose to spread the cost over time. They are making money from us spending more than we can afford!

As an ex BNPL user, the best thing I did was to prioritise paying off my outstanding balances and closing my account for good. Since then, I’ve focussed on curbing my impulse spending and building my sinking funds to give myself permission to spend.

My top tips to ditch buy now pain later

Build up your emergency fund

Building up your emergency fund will allow you to stop relying on BNPL when things go wrong. Need to replace your laptop quickly? The security blanket of your emergency fund allows you to make last minute purchases without leaving your future self in the lurch.

Sinking funds change lives

Sinking funds are the cornerstone of every budget. Not only do they ensure you have money to hand for those important expenses that regularly come up, but they help you practice the discipline of planning ahead and not spending everything you earn before you’ve earned it.

Decide what you want to spend on and create dedicated pots of money to pay into regularly. Think of it as the opposite of BNPL.

Create a waiting period

When you go to make an unplanned purchase, instead of making an immediate decision, write it down and sit on it for 48 hours. I can guarantee that when you come back to it, the dopamine will have taken a backseat and you’ll be in a better mind to make your decision.

If you’re struggling with BNPL head to the Financielle community. If you share your BNPL struggles you’ll be met with a positive helpful community of people who will help hold your hand and steer you towards financielle enlightenment 😌