SOCKS CAN NOW be purchased using buy now, pay later services in stores and online shops in Ireland. But is this a good thing?

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) arrangements were traditionally limited to larger products such as furniture, but the popularity of services like Klarna and Humm means buying purchases as small as socks on credit is now accessible.

Rather than paying for the cost of an item upfront, the services let shoppers split payments into instalments spread over time. The services generally make money by through merchant commission fees and charging shoppers late payment penalties.

Several major BNPL services first launched operations in Ireland in recent years. By 2023, nearly one-in-four people surveyed by the Central Bank had used BPNL over the previous year.

The figures indicate the highest rate of BNPL services occurs among people aged 18-34.

Because of the lower or lack of up-front costs, BNPL can make online shopping seem cheaper or more affordable to customers despite items costing the same price. It can also be a convenient way to manage cashflow.

However, concerns have been raised that many people don’t fully understand it is the equivalent of taking out a loan, and financial experts have warned that people can easily rack up debt.

‘Just Klarna it’

An advertisement for Klarna on the tag of a pack of socks in Schuh. The Journal The Journal

The use of BNPL services has become something of a feature in popular culture in recent years.

The phrase ‘just Klarna it’ regularly crops up on social media, sometimes accompanied by the hashtag ‘girl maths’ – a social media trend that was kicked off by women bonding over using creative logic to justify spending.

TikTok videos either trivialising accruing large debts from using BNPL services or warning others that BNPL is a ‘debt trap’, are also common.

“Turns out it’s not free money,” the caption of one TikTok said.

Many BNPL services are also quite social media friendly, creating TikToks to advertise or paying influencers to promote the services.

see this is why i dont use klarna… AFFIRM DA WAY pic.twitter.com/ZwizlwAEy1

— liz 🦭 (@luv2liz) August 20, 2026

Lauren*, a 23-year-old pharmacy technician, told The Journal she uses Klarna for the majority of her online purchases.

“I use Klarna for as much as I can and I’ll actually shop places that offer Klarna,” she said.

“If I’m looking at a website and it doesn’t offer Klarna, then I’ll go to a different website that does offer Klarna and I’ll shop there first.”

Lauren said the services are “brilliant” for students and people that wouldn’t have a lot of money to spend at once. “It just makes things a bit easier,” she said.

Over the past six months, Lauren’s monthly payments ranged between €80 and €400. She has used BNPL services to buy a phone, and also pays for medical appointments with it.

She said she has never missed a payment and tracks the amount she owes Klarna so she can budget for this. Currently, she owes €1,000 on Klarna, which she said is unusually high for her and mainly due to buying a phone.

Risks

Although BPNL services are popular among younger people, Michael Byrne, chief executive of Core Credit Union, said that it is particularly important for this cohort not to create too much debt.

Speaking to The Journal, Byrne said that the service can make spending “feel very manageable” due to the relatively small repayments – but he warned that if frequently used, those repayments add up.

“The issue is that it’s very easy to have several of those repayments running at the same time, and suddenly a sizeable part of your income is already committed before the month begins,” he said.

“That’s particularly important for younger people who are hoping to buy a home,” he said, adding that building a deposit and preparing for a mortgage requires you to have room in your budget to save consistently.

Some BNPL repayments are interest-free, but others can involve interest, account fees and charges for missed payments.

Byrne warned that missed repayments may be reflected on the Central Credit Register, which is important for people seeking mortgage approval as financial institutions may review the register when deciding on mortgage approval. 

BNPL services are offered on many online stores, including Intersport Elverys.

Paul Merriman, financial expert at askpaul.ie, told The Journal that BNPL services are “particularly attractive to younger consumers” because it makes relatively expensive purchases feel more manageable.

“For younger people who may be dealing with high rents, everyday living costs and less disposable income, that flexibility can be genuinely appealing,” Merriman said.

“BNPL can appear directly at the online checkout and the process can take seconds, so it does not necessarily feel like applying for traditional credit.”

He said the ease is “one of the biggest selling points, but also one of the risks”, adding that when something is interest-free and split into instalments, it can be “easy to forget” that you are taking on debt.

However, he warned that depending on the agreement, missed payments could result in fees or charges, and unpaid debts can ultimately be passed on for debt collection.

A Klarna spokesperson said: “Higher-income consumers use Klarna more than lower-income ones, and the average Klarna customer is 38 years old.”

“Klarna’s instalment products are interest-free and a fresh lending decision is made on every purchase, unlike credit cards and other revolving credit products which are 20%+ APR, only check once at sign-up and allow people to borrow repeatedly without further checks,” they said.

“This means debt is actually harder to accrue with Klarna than with a credit card, and that’s why Klarna has a default rate below 1% — much better than credit card companies.”

Understanding

There are also concerns that customers using BPNL services don’t understand what they are signing up to. 

The Central Bank found that over 20% of people don’t fully understand how BNPL worked and see it as a form of payment rather than a form of credit. It also found that BNPL use is “disproportionately concentrated” among people showing signs of financial vulnerability.

The Money and Advice Budgeting Service told The Journal that there “appears to be a gap in consumer understanding around BNPL services”.

“The big issue we are seeing in our casework is that users are not fully aware that they are entering into a credit agreement at the point of purchase when they opt for BNPL,” a spokesperson for the state body said.

“The concern here is that users could be accumulating multiple BNPL repayment agreements, which may lead to difficulty in managing repayments and managing a household budget.”

Regulation

Since May 2022, all BNPL providers must be authorised by the Central Bank to operate in Ireland. Meanwhile, the Consumer Protection Code 2025 affords customers the same protections as customers of other credit providers.

The Department of Finance told The Journal it “monitors developments” in the BNPL sector routinely. 

It said the new EU consumer credit directive, which will come into effect in November 2026, will further regulate all BNPL agreements up to €100,000.

Intersport Elverys and Humm have been contacted for comment.

*Name has been changed

With additional reporting from Emma Hickey.