I can’t afford my buy-now pay-later payment
Taking out buy-now pay-later credit can seem like a good idea at the time, but now that people’s financial situations have changed unexpectedly, many may struggle to keep up with their agreed payments.
If you can no longer afford to make your agreed payments, contact your creditor as soon as possible to find out how they can help.
Help with buy-now pay-later payments
Buy-now pay-later creditors were asked to help their customers who were struggling financially due to coronavirus. The deadline to apply for a payment holiday has been extended to 31 March 2021.
The conditions of these payment holidays are:
- If you’re still experiencing financial difficulties because of the coronavirus outbreak, you may still be able to apply for a payment holiday, under certain conditions
- If you haven't taken any holidays on your agreement yet, you can apply for a payment holiday of up to six months in total
- If you’ve already taken a payment holiday, this can be extended up to six months
If you have already taken the full six-month payment holiday, you can't apply for a further holiday, so we recommend speaking to your creditor to discuss your options.
Think first before you buy now, pay later
When you’re shopping online, it’s a good idea to ask yourself these questions before you make a purchase using BNPL:
- Is the money needed for the purchase within your weekly (or monthly) budget?
- If BNPL was not available, would you still make the purchase?
- Is what you’re buying a necessity?
- Can you wait for the item until you next have some money to spend?
It's also worth thinking about how you can save the money in advance to avoid using buy now, pay later. You might consider:
- Budgeting an amount each month for online shopping
- Selling unwanted items first, to raise money you can spend on purchases
- Reducing your outgoings in other areas, to save money