debts
Published 18 Jul 2025
3 min read
New buy now, pay later affordability checks on the way
Stricter affordability checks for shoppers using buy now, pay later are to be introduced.
Published: 18 July 2025
From July 2026, lenders will have to check that people can afford to repay loans and give them support if they get into financial problems.
Borrowers will also have the right to complain to the financial ombudsman if something goes wrong.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hopes this will stop people from taking on more debt that they can afford.
What is buy now, pay later?
Buy now, pay later lets you delay paying for your online shopping in two ways.
You can either:
- put off paying for a purchase for 14-30 days
- ‘slice’ the cost of a purchase into smaller amounts to pay off over a number of months
Who is using buy now, pay later?
According to FCA data, 10.9 million UK adults have used buy now, pay later at least once in the last year.
That’s up from 8.8 million in 2022.
The most common uses for it were:
- lifestyle and beauty purchases (41%)
- treating myself or other people (37%)
But 8% said they’d used it to cover everyday essential expenses.
And figures also show that 30% of those who’ve used buy now, pay later in the last year are adults with low resilience, while 29% live in the UK’s most deprived areas.
Our view on the new buy now, pay later rules
We strongly welcome the FCA’s proposals, as we’ve seen a sharp rise in the number of people struggling with buy now, pay later.
In the past year alone, we’ve seen a 58% increase in customers disclosing buy now, pay later debts during advice sessions.
And buy now, pay later now features in 20% of all the cases we help with - up from 15% the previous year.
While buy now, pay later can be a helpful budgeting tool when used responsibly, its current unregulated state lets people get into debt across multiple providers without fully understanding what they owe or what they can afford.
“The ‘frictionless’ nature of buy now, pay later is exactly what makes it so dangerous; it’s easy to spend, but much harder to keep track and stay in control,” said Sebrina McCullough, director of external relations at Money Wellness.
“The new protections are vital steps toward making credit safer and more transparent.
“Regulation will help prevent vulnerable consumers from falling into debt spirals and give them the protections they deserve.”
James has spent almost 20 years writing news articles, guides and features, with a strong focus on the legal and financial services sectors.
Published: 18 July 2025
The information in this post was correct at the time of publishing. Please check when it was written, as information can go out of date over time.
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