Quarter of Brits racked up £2.3bn via buy now pay later schemes to fund their Christmas spending

British consumers spent £2.3bn through buy now pay later schemes to fund their Christmas in 2020, according to new research from Credit Karma.

The researchers also found that 26% of Brits over all used services from the likes of Klarna, with their average bill totalling £170, representing roughly 40% of each person’s individual Christmas expenditure.

The researchers also found that young people between the ages of 18 and 35 were more likely to use the BNPL services, with 46% of the total customers using the services falling into that age bracket.

Moreover, 33% of men used the tools compared to 20% of women.

“Buy now, pay later schemes have seen a meteoric rise, but in doing so have attracted attention for being unregulated and potentially risky for consumers who don’t fully understand how the schemes work,” Akansha Nath, head of partnerships at Credit Karma, told Yahoo Finance.

“At Credit Karma, we believe people should be rewarded for the sensible management of borrowing, as this helps them make financial progress towards important things like mortgages or competitively-priced car finance. Until this changes, borrowers are risking debt without any credit given for handling it.”

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