3 ms·

This may just be Sunday-brain, but I can't seem to see what this service actually does - is it effectively just an outsourced credit-control department? If so

This may just be Sunday-brain, but I can't seem to see what this service actually does - is it effectively just an outsourced credit-control department? If so (and even if not, to be honest), I do find it interesting how often something pops up that seems to be a return to older ways of doing things. In this case, I'm reminded of how things worked in my early childhood (1980s, UK) - our local butcher, petrol station and others would all keep an account, which my parents would pay off when invoiced. In the context of the last 15-20 years, though, that appears old-fashioned to the extreme - yet here we are reinventing new ways of doing things the old ways.

tilt_error 11y ago
For one thing, it offloads the risk inherent in online transactions -- you buying an iPad and getting a brick and the seller actually getting her money. Second, it makes dealing with payment a _lot_ easier for any internet business. You know the headlines from hacking where a lot of credit card numbers are stolen. Using Klarna, the internet company does not have to handle credit numbers by offloading that whole thing to a trusted third party. An online store using Klarna is really a stamp of quality on that business. Disclosure: I'm writing this from Sweden where Klarna is based, but I am not affiliated with the company. I did some research into online payment for a customer (a municipality) a while ago and came across Klarna.
- eponeponepon 11y ago
  Mm, I'm not speaking against it by any stretch, just to be clear. To be honest, I like the approach more - there's a lot to be said for more pervasive trust in commerce between vendor and customer; it feels nicer to me. Naturally there are related problems that one has to solve, but the major one (unintentionally extending credit to someone you shouldn't have) is, I think, a lot less of an issue than commerce at large instinctively thinks.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- seivan 11y ago
  Stripe does all of that. What klarna allows, is that you can pay with credit as a person without owning a credit card.

tilt_error 11y ago

For one thing, it offloads the risk inherent in online transactions -- you buying an iPad and getting a brick and the seller actually getting her money. Second, it makes dealing with payment a _lot_ easier for any internet business. You know the headlines from hacking where a lot of credit card numbers are stolen. Using Klarna, the internet company does not have to handle credit numbers by offloading that whole thing to a trusted third party. An online store using Klarna is really a stamp of quality on that business. Disclosure: I'm writing this from Sweden where Klarna is based, but I am not affiliated with the company. I did some research into online payment for a customer (a municipality) a while ago and came across Klarna.

eponeponepon 11y ago
Mm, I'm not speaking against it by any stretch, just to be clear. To be honest, I like the approach more - there's a lot to be said for more pervasive trust in commerce between vendor and customer; it feels nicer to me. Naturally there are related problems that one has to solve, but the major one (unintentionally extending credit to someone you shouldn't have) is, I think, a lot less of an issue than commerce at large instinctively thinks.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
seivan 11y ago
Stripe does all of that. What klarna allows, is that you can pay with credit as a person without owning a credit card.