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It's never really better than a credit card.

4 payments over 8 weeks, so you owe money sooner than you would with a credit card (2 weeks), and credit cards are also interest free assuming you pay in full.

The longer deferred payment option includes interest fees.

Failing to pay immediately puts you up near credit card interest APY (19% to 33%) and includes additional fees (usually $7 fee immediately).

Then the merchant fees are higher as well (3.5% to 6% fees for klarna, 1.5% to 3.5% for visa) and the fixed fee is high (30 cents for Klarna vs 5 to 10 cents for visa), so you'll see additional surcharges on the product.

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If this was designed for orders over a specific amount and targeted things like large catering orders... fine I guess. As is... micro-finance is a nasty form of usury.




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