My advice? Don’t use these services if you don’t want to owe loads of money

Nurse Ashleigh Hanlon has used buy now, pay later services – but wants to warn others that things can quickly get out of hand.

Ashley, 29, of Edinburgh, said: “I’d say I used these too often, probably twice a month on average. It was far too easy, and they would send you out an email advertising their “after-pay day” sales, then I would usually buy something, because it’s a bargain, right?

“I never got into financial trouble personally, but I know friends who were in about £500 of debt using it. Because of this, I stayed vigilant of what I was spending and what I still owed.

“But in saying that, it wasn’t like they were reminding you of what you owed overall, I would just get a reminder a day or two before a specific payment was due. But because I often had a few orders at different stages of the payback scheme, I started to feel like I was constantly paying out money.

“Also I found it encouraged me to spend more than I normally would, because the initial payment was nothing, and then the smaller broken down payments looked really affordable.

“The trouble is when you start to get multiple orders going out at different times, then that small amount suddenly becomes quite a few regular small amounts.

“It was far too easy to treat myself and justify the spending, because it didn’t seem like much.

“In the end I paid off what I owed and vowed to just use it for special purchases or occasions, like if I needed a nice dress for an occasion.

“If you are not careful, like my friend wasn’t, you end up just owing loads and because your account gets debited directly you always feel short of cash or can’t make the payments on other debts.

“I actually thought it was genius at the start but now I wouldn’t use these services unless it was a one-off big purchase for something I really needed.”