Klarna’s launch of a card is crashing into the cost-of-living crisis

A recent report by StepChange found 4.4 million borrowed £13bn to pay everyday bills, so making it easy to get into debt to pay for goods in bricks-and-mortar shops is like throwing petrol on a bonfire, writes James Moore

Klarna’s cards are coming to a high street near you (Getty)

When it comes to the cost-of-living crisis, the Klarna card – announced last week in your choice of pink or black – is like lobbing a can full of petrol onto a bonfire. Say your prayers, Mr Fawkes.

The people working at debt charities could well be left feeling like the luckless Guy if it all kicks off. Let me explain: Klarna is the biggest, and arguably the best known, of a raft of buy now, pay later firms that mostly operate over the internet.

The card makes it much easier to use its service in retailers’ bricks-and-mortar stores (it’s already in some of them via apps and QR codes). Users will at first be restricted to the “pay in 30 days” part of the service, but payment via three monthly instalments is likely to follow.