Sweaty Betty connects to the Clearpay BNPL – Retail Technology Innovation Hub service

[ad_1]

Pay better

Clearpay recently reached two million active customers in the UK.

The firm, known as Afterpay outside the UK and Europe, made the announcement by launching a Pay Better campaign that aimed to shed light on ways consumers can regain control of their financial lives and beyond. pay later, but pay better.

Research on advice for citizens

One in ten shoppers who use buy now pay later have been chased by debt collectors, the city council said last week.

According to his research, these people have been charged 39 million in late fees over the past year.

Of those who turned to a debt collector for non-payment, 96% suffered a negative consequence.

They reported at least one of the following: sleepless nights; ignoring texts, e-mails and letters in case of debts; avoiding answering the door; borrow money to pay off debt; or their mental health deteriorates.

However, the charity found that none of the BNPL cashiers on major retailer websites warned people that they could be referred to debt collectors for missed payments. Instead this was only reported in the T & Cs on a separate page, if at all.

Citizens Advice conducted a mystery shopping at 100 leading retailers and found that 38 BNPLs on offer, 22 of which offer more than two options, meaning there were a total of 74 BNPL checkouts.

Of those offering BNPL, only 11% warned buyers that they were entering into a credit agreement, the remaining 89% entered this information in small print or in the T & Cs.

Citizens Advice asked the BNPL companies featured in the research if they ever referred customers to debt collectors.

Klarna, Clearpay, Laybuy, and Openpay confirmed that they do this as a last resort. Splitit said no. PayPal refused to comment.

Citizens Advice says it is asking the Treasury to urgently regulate this space as it fears buyers have been left unprotected and misinformed during the rapid expansion of the industry.

[ad_2]