I used to work for a competitor to Klarna, and looked fairly closely into how their services work. My understanding is Klarna was originally built on BankId in

I used to work for a competitor to Klarna, and looked fairly closely into how their services work. My understanding is Klarna was originally built on BankId in Sweeden, which is a pervasive gov backed payment id. Since they are working with an established system, the friction is lower for customers there. I found my experiences more in line with yours, payment is clunky, and seems dubious.