Search for Klarna on TikTok and you’ll find young people making light of the debt they’ve racked up using the wildly popular “buy now, pay later” app. Some dance to the caption “crippling debt” after showing themselves using Klarna when shopping for clothes. Others share videos of payment demands from the company, overlaid with a line from a remixed song: “I know you’re obsessed with me.”
One TikTok video posted by Joella Louisa is captioned, “When you’re wearing a new outfit and Klarna reminds you to pay for it.” She looks elegantly appalled by this unwelcome reality check. It’s not enough to put her off, though. “In the past when I didn’t have money I simply just couldn’t shop,” Louisa tells Bloomberg News. “Now with Klarna, I can.”
