Klarna 24 month contract on purchase

LamaDelRey

Hello all, 

I have a question that I hope someone can shed some light on regarding a purchase I made via Klarna for a piece of office equipment. Below I will give a brief outline with my question.

At the point of purchase I decide to spread the cost of the item with a 24 month contract term, I intended to make a large down payment of around 65-70% of the item cost but Klarna limit this initial payment to around £270, which I paid, intending to make an overpayment within the next few days.

Before I made this overpayment of almost a £1000 I contacted Klarna on ‘chat’ with a few questions I had before doing so. After navigating their awful Ai chat bot I got through to an actual human agent who I was able to ask my question. This was to get their payment details and to clarify that the overpayment I was about to make would come off the amount owed and NOT affect the term length. 

I was expressly told it would come off the amount owed, and not the term length, I got the agent to clarify this a number of times in the chat, which they did, telling me it would indeed come off the amount owed and the term length would remain the 24 month contract I agreed to enter into, the monthly amount to paid being reduced accordingly. This is what I wanted so I was happy to make the large downpayment as I had intended to do at the point of purchase. I also raised my concern that they should have the option to put a custom downpayment amount down beyond the mandatory amount they set. Naturally they said they would pass on my suggestion… as would be expected (cynically I know they wouldn’t!) I have screen shot transcripts of every part of this chat with the agent.

When I checked a few day later to ensure my overpayment had registered (it had) I noticed that they had done EXACTLY what I was told they would not, they had unilaterally reduced my term length from a 24 month contract to an 11 month contract, keeping the monthly payments the same. Exactly what I was told they would not.

Naturally I have started a complaint, currently I have received what I would describe as a ‘copy & paste fob off’ bizarrely telling me they have upheld my complaint but have not reinstated my 24 month contract that I had agreed to at the point of purchase. This was done as I say, unilaterally by them with absolutely no prior notification or contact with me.I find it deeply concerning that Klarna have staff supplying customers with incorrect information on the financial products being sold. So I will naturally raise this complaint with the relevant regulatory body. I will also now reply to their email hopefully escalating the complaint as I believe they are in breach of the contract I agreed to.

My question is simple, can they actually do this after expressly telling me the 24 month term I agreed to would continue, with the monthly amount being reduced accordingly? In my next communication I will ask them to show me within the terms and conditions of this contract, where it states that an overpayment will result in an agreed term length being shortened unilaterally in this manner. I will of course include to them again the transcripts of their agent giving me inaccurate and misleading information.

I am interested to hear what you all think on this matter, and whether they can legally do this. Advice and opinions very welcome.

Many thanks in advance.

born_again

What do the T/C of the loan state in terms of overpayments?

LamaDelRey

It appears i cant post links yet, but a sample is below.

cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/legal/terms/0/en_gb/account_agreement/