Money Box Live: Buy Now, Pay Later Shake-Up

Money Box Live: Buy Now, Pay Later Shake-Up

From Money Box by BBC Radio 4

August 12, 2026 · 28 min

About this episode

The episode discusses new regulations for Buy Now Pay Later services and their impact on consumer protection and debt management.

New regulations begin today (Wednesday July 15th) for shoppers using Buy Now Pay Later. Consumers using services like Klarna and Clearpay will now be given more protection but also a greater risk of rejection, as new affordability checks begin. BNPL schemes often provide interest free payment options over several months and have proved immensely popular. Experian estimates that a 100mn transactions were made that way last year, adding up to about £7bn. Meanwhile, new data from one of the country’s largest free money advice services, Money Wellness, shows BNPL has become an increasingly common feature of customers' finances over the past four years, with June recording 4,520 customers seeking help with BNPL debt. That's the highest June on record and second only to the traditional post-Christmas spike seen in January. Presenter Felicity Hannah talks to the Financial Conduct Authority to find out if the new rules are going to improve things for shoppers. She’s joined by an expert panel answering listener questions – Mick McAteer of The Financial Inclusion Centre, a UK not-for-profit policy and research group. and Matthew Sheeran from Money Wellness. Presenter: Felicity Hannah…

People in this episode

Host: Felicity Hannah

Guests: Mick McAteer, Matthew Sheeran

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Financial Conduct Authority, Money Wellness, Klarna, Clearpay

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