I think it’s a dream for everyone to purchase whatever they’ve set their hearts on and pay for it later without using their credit cards. That dream has now come true thanks to the Buy Now Pay Later option or BNPL. This plan allows people to purchase and make payments later at once or a fixed amount each month, ” Equated Monthly Installments.”, without paying an extra fee.
Nowadays, people seem to show a lot of interest in this payment system when purchasing something online through platforms such as Clearpay, Laybuy, and Klarna.
These platforms let the customers try before they buy and make the payment one month later.
Besides how convenient these systems seem, many believe they are too tempting for the young generation and make them waste all their money or purchase what they can’t afford in hopes of having more money by the end of the month.
Table of Contents
What is Buy Now Pay Later?
As discussed in the introduction, this short-term payment solution enables customers to purchase and pay for it later, as the name suggests! To activate the BNPL, you should sign up with the providers and permit them to pay on your behalf.
If it’s your first time using the BNPL, there’s a KYC procedure on the provider’s platform that you need to finish. Once the activation process is completed, users can see their assigned credit limit for shopping.
Getting to Know How BNPL Works
Given you’ve chosen something and you are on the checkout, if you click on the card payment, the process takes place as it used to. However, opting for “Pay Later,” your payment is due next month. There’s another option which is “Pay in 3 Instalments.” If you choose it, you need to pay the first instalment right away, and the next ones will be taken from your card on a settled date.
Based on the BNPL platform you use, these options may differ a bit.
For instance, when you use Klarna, your payment takes place in the next 30 days. Using Clearpay’s instalments, you should pay the first one immediately, and the three others will take place over the next six weeks.
As you can see, there are tons of payment options that may overwhelm some shoppers who don’t know the difference, especially the younger adults or under-18 children. If your children are old enough to shop online, be sure to tell them the difference and ask them not to choose any of these options. However, using YounGo, you can see how much, where and when they’ve spent on something. Besides, our under-18 marketplace prevents any of these unwanted problems.
The BNPL payment method is only useable for customers older than 18. The Klarna platform performs a soft credit check, and Clearpay asks shoppers to verify their ages with a passport before they approve you.
How do the BNPL Platforms Decide about your Credit Limit?
Each platform and provider may use particular methods and algorithms to interpret the users spending routines and then offer a limit.
The Popularity of Buy Now Pay Later in Different Industries
We can’t ignore the impact of Covid-19 and lockdowns on people’s shopping behaviours. Since then, many people have turned to online shopping, and that has made a significant change in BNPL’s popularity.
The clothing industry is on the top of the BNPL payment method’s list with 63.5%, and Entertainment with 30.3% comes next.
The Buy Now Pay Later Regulation in the UK
As we mentioned earlier in this blog, there have been and still are critical reviews and bad press about the BNPL, and this is what happened for months in the UK. Despite all these challenges, the UK government finally included some laws to regulate this payment method in the UK.
The BNPL regulation in the UK happened in October 2021. The law mainly works for the protection of consumer data and to make sure the BNPL advertisement is not misleading.
BNPL Pros and Cons
There’s no doubt that BNPL is a convenient method of payment, and it also makes the process of deciding easier as you can try the items and choose whether to keep them or not.
However, there have always been a lot of controversies about the BNPL payment system.
Critics believe these systems appeal to that group of people ( mainly young adults) who use them despite their poor knowledge about credit and how it works, and that can have serious consequences such as building up a lot of debt and having bad credit.
Another downside of BNPL is that many customers have complained about having a hard time returning an item you bought via BNPL because of the delays.
To sum up:
Pros
- It’s a convenient method to purchase items online.
- The BNPL has a lower or zero-interest rate than the credit cards
- Your credit score doesn’t have to do anything with it whether it’s good or bad.
- The approval process takes place very fast.
Cons
- The users think the payment is not easy to track
- If you don’t pay on time, it may damage your credit score.
- It doesn’t offer any reward or cash back.
- Returning the items can be a headache.
To Wrap Up
The BNPL payment method is popular amongst people shopping online.
You have to complete a procedure and sign up for these platforms and see how much they assign to you as the limit and then you can simply purchase the item you like an pay for it in a lump sum or EMIs.
