Martin Lewis hails 'actually useful' change to 'buy now pay later' schemes

Martin Lewis has praised Klarna after it announced it is extending its 'buy now pay later' schemes to cover household repairs.

A new partnership between Klarna and small business platform Xero could see people using the repayment schemes for everyday home repairs, such as fixing a leaky shower or getting the boiler serviced.

In means smaller businesses will be able to receive payments over time from consumers looking to spread out their expenses.

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Klarna said it checks a consumer's eligibility before approving each purchase and gives reminders to help shoppers keep on top of their payments.

David Sykes, chief commercial officer at Klarna, said: "Klarna's flexible payment options are typically associated with clothes and shoes but that has been changing for a long time.

"This partnership brings Klarna's flexible payment options to micro businesses of all kinds so business owners can get paid on time and their customers can choose how and when to pay.

"This includes businesses where gardeners and landscaping services using Xero can now offer a Klarna buy now pay later payment option, plumbers and heating engineers using Xero can fix their customers' boilers and let them spread the cost while small businesses involved in the construction industry could spread the cost of smaller projects over three interest-free instalments."

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, consumer champion Martin Lewis said: "Payday lenders selling disguised debt to people as they're about to pay for instinct buys or takeaways is something I've long criticised and called for regulation of (hopefully coming in the budget) Yet fair's fair @klarna has today announced it'll start allowing people to interest free spread payments for plumbers and car repairs. I think that's actually useful for some (if done carefully) as these are often unexpected necessities. A far more appropriate purpose (still needs regulation tho)."