Buy now, pay later with WooPayments

Buy now, pay later (also known as BNPL) payment methods allow your customers to pay for orders over time using a series of payments. For example, a customer could pay for a $2,000 USD product in four installments of $500 USD. You, the merchant, would still receive the full amount immediately — minus fees of course.

How do BNPL methods work?

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BNPL services are used by a variety of businesses to increase conversion, increase average order value, and reach new customers. The BNPL providers underwrite customers, manage the installments, and collect payments — so you can focus on your own business.

Are BNPL methods a good fit for my business?

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BNPL payment methods may be a good fit for your business if:

  • You sell high-value goods or services and want to increase conversion.
  • You sell low-value goods or services and want to increase the average order value.
  • You’re trying to reach customers who might not have access to credit cards.
  • You want to sell to customers who may not be able to pay in full right away.

However, BNPL payment methods may not be a good fit for you if:

Do customers pay more when using BNPL methods?

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Customers will not see an increase in the product price. However, they may have an option to purchase products using a loan that accrues interest:

These loans are issued by the BNPL provider. As a result, these interest payments are collected by the BNPL provider and not by you or WooPayments.

What are the fees for BNPL methods?

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Please see our full fees page for a list of the fees associated with each BNPL provider.

Note that the Klarna fee applies even if the customer pays the full amount immediately.

Supported providers

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WooPayments supports Affirm, Afterpay, and Klarna so that merchants in a wide range of countries can offer flexible ways for their customers to pay.

NOTE: Afterpay is known as Clearpay in the United Kingdom, but this page and our other documentation pages use the name Afterpay for brevity.

Which BNPL provider(s) you can use depends on the country you chose during the WooPayments signup process.

Account CountryAffirmAfterpayKlarna
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Finland
FranceOnly “Pay in 3”
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
Other supported countries

Enabling

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To use a BNPL method, first navigate to Payments > Settings and find the Buy now, pay later section. From there, you can enable Affirm, Afterpay, and/or Klarna.

“More information needed”

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If you’re trying to enable a BNPL method, you may see a popup modal that indicates that more information is needed:

Or, you may see some information next to the payment method details in Payments > Settings:

In these cases, it means that you need to provide a few more bits of information before you can enable that particular BNPL payment method.

To do that, log into your Stripe dashboard and see if any information is missing there. If it is, you’ll see an alert in the Stripe dashboard.

Click the Edit link next to any sections with incomplete information and provide whatever missing details are required.

Be sure to save after you’re done. Once Stripe has verified the information you provided, the BNPL method should automatically be enabled.

Customer experience

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After you enable Affirm, Afterpay, and/or Klarna, those methods will be available to customers so long as all of the following are true:

A small promotion for Affirm, Afterpay, and/or Klarna will also be shown on eligible product pages. This messaging will also be displayed on the cart page for eligible carts.

By clicking on this promotional text, customers can see a list of potential payment plans they can use during checkout. These options depend on their location, their currency, and the cart total.

Checking out

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During checkout, if the customer chooses to pay with a BNPL provider, they will be taken to that provider’s website after clicking the Place Order button. There, they can create (or log into) an account with that BNPL provider.

Next, they can accept or decline the terms of the payment plan(s) offered to them. Assuming they accept the terms, they will be returned to your site with the checkout process complete.

Affirm has a video demo and some screenshots of their customer experience. Afterpay’s documentation and Klarna’s documentation are a bit less detailed, but the customer experience is more or less the same: they log in or create an account, choose a payment plan, and finish checking out.

NOTE: BNPL providers will offer various payment plans to your customers depending on the purchase amount, the customer’s location, and other factors. Since merchants are paid in full as soon as the order is placed, the details of the customer’s payment plan (mostly) do not impact you.

Merchant experience

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Orders placed via a BNPL payment method will appear under WooCommerce > Orders and Payments > Transactions, just like orders placed with cards.

Orders paid via Klarna will have additional information on the Payments > Transactions page. This information includes:

When the transaction is complete, your WooPayments account receive the entire purchase amount immediately. The important thing to keep in mind is that the customers are not paying you over time, they are paying the BNPL provider over time.

Customer country, currency, and BNPL

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WooPayments does not support cross-border/international transactions using BNPL methods. As such, not all of your customers will be able to pay via BNPL.

Specifically, for them to be able to use BNPL methods, customers must:

  • Use a billing country that matches your WooPayments account country, and
  • Pay in the national currency of your account country, shown in the chart below.
Your account
country
To use BNPL, customers
must be paying in…
AustraliaAUD
AustriaEUR
BelgiumEUR
CanadaCAD
DenmarkDKK
FinlandEUR
FranceEUR
GermanyEUR
IrelandEUR
ItalyEUR
NetherlandsEUR
New ZealandNZD
NorwayNOK
SpainEUR
SwedenSEK
United KingdomGBP
United StatesUSD

Purchase minimums and maximums

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There are minimum and maximum amounts that each BNPL provider can be used for, which can also vary by currency. These limits are shown in the charts below.

Affirm

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Customer CountryMinimum AmountMaximum Amount
Canada$50 CAD$30,000 CAD
United States$50 USD$30,000 USD

Afterpay

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Customer CountryMinimum AmountMaximum Amount
Australia$1 AUD$2,000 AUD
Canada$1 CAD$2,000 CAD
New Zealand$1 NZD$2,000 NZD
United Kingdom£1 GBP£1,200 GBP
United States$1 USD$4,000 USD

Klarna

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NOTE: Klarna allows customers to either buy now, pay later (BNPL), or pay immediately (Pay Now). Which of these are offered to customers depends on their country and the cart total. The maximums for BNPL and Pay Now are shown below for each country.

Customer CountryMinimum AmountMaximum BNPL AmountMaximum Pay Now Amount
Austria€0.10 EUR€5,000 EUR€10,000 EUR
Belgium€1 EUR€1,500 EUR€10,000 EUR
Denmark1 DKK50,000 DKK100,000 DKK
Finland€1 EUR€5,000 EUR€10,000 EUR
France€35 EUR€1,500 EURN/A
Germany€0.10 EUR€10,000 EUR€10,000 EUR
IrelandNone€1,000 EUR€4,000 EUR
ItalyNone€1,500 EUR€10,000 EUR
Netherlands€1 EUR€5,000 EUR€15,000 EUR
NorwayNone75,000 NOK100,000 NOK
SpainNone€4,000 EUR€10,000 EUR
SwedenNone100,000 SEK150,000 SEK
United KingdomNone£2,000 GBP£4,000 GBP
United StatesNone$10,000 USD$4,000 USD

Testing BNPL purchases

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BNPL payment methods can be tested while in test mode, just like any other payment method.

Affirm

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If you’re testing Affirm, you’ll be shown the following screen after placing your test order:

Enter your mobile phone number, click Continue, and then enter 1234 as the verification code. Next, enter a fake name and email address, click Continue, and then enter a fake birth date and Social Security Number.

Choose from one of the available payment plans and click Continue.

Finally, disable the AutoPay option on the summary page, check the terms and conditions checkbox, then click Confirm.

After confirming, you’ll be taken back to your site’s Order Received page as normal.

Afterpay

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If you’re testing Afterpay, you’ll be shown the following screen after placing your test order:

Click Authorize Test Payment to test a successful order or Fail Test Payment to test a failed order. If you authorize the test, you’ll be taken back to your site’s Order Received page.

Klarna

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If you’re testing Klarna, you will go through a mockup of the Klarna account creation flow alongside placing an order.

Klarna test information

Depending on the country you selected when creating your WooPayments account, customers will be asked to provide different personal details. Klarna has test information that you can use to achieve specific results.

The country-specific information to place a successful test purchase via Klarna can be found below, along with a link to additional information if you’d like to test other experiences, such as declines or disputes.

Payment methods

Regardless of what country the WooPayments account is based in, you may be prompted to provide a payment method such as a debit card. You can find the test card information for Klarna below.

FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Debit card number4012 8888 8888 1881
Expiration dateAny future date in a MM/YY format.
CVV123

It is also possible for you to test other payment methods via Klarna. Read more about these payment methods.

Austria
Email addresscustomer@email.at
Phone number+4306762600456
First nameTest
Last namePerson-at
AddressMariahilfer Straße 47
Postcode / Zip code1060
CityWien
CountryAT
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Austria.

Belgium
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.be
Phone number+4306762600456
First nameTest
Last namePerson-be
AddressGrote Markt 1
Postcode / Zip code1000
CityBrussel
CountryBE
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Belgium.

Denmark
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.dk
Phone number+4533137112
First nameTest
Last namePerson-dk
AddressNygårdsvej 65
Postcode / Zip code2100
CityKøbenhavn Ø
CountryDK
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Denmark.

Finland
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.fi
Phone number+3580401234567
First namePerson FI
Last nameTest
AddressMannerheimintie 34
Postcode / Zip code00100
CityHelsinki
CountryFI
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)01-01-1999

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Finland.

France
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.fr
Phone number+33689854321
First nameTest
Last namePerson-fr
Address33 rue la Fayette
Postcode / Zip code75009
CityParis
CountryFR
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1990

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in France.

Germany
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.de
Phone number+4901761428434
First nameMock
Last nameMock
AddressNeue Schönhauser Str. 2
Postcode / Zip code10178
CityBerlin
State / CountyBerlin
CountryDE
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Germany.

Ireland
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.ie
Phone number+3536789010
First nameTest
Last namePerson-ie
Address30 King Street South
Postcode / Zip code / EircodeD02 C838
CityDublin
CountryIE
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Ireland.

Italy
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.it
Phone number+393339741231
First nameTest
Last namePerson-it
AddressVia Enrico Fermi 150
Postcode / Zip code00146
CityRoma
ProvinceRoma
CountryIT
Fiscal code (Codice fiscale)RSS BNC 80A41 H501B
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1980
ID CardUse this image when prompted.

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Italy.

Netherlands
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.nl
Phone number+31689124321
First nameTest
Last namePerson-nl
AddressOsdorpplein 137
Postcode / Zip code1068 SR
CityAmsterdam
CountryNL
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in the Netherlands.

Norway
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.no
Phone number+4306762600456
First nameJane
Last nameTest
Personal numberNO1087000571
AddressEdvard Munchs Plass 1
Postcode / Zip code0194
CityOslo
CountryNO
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)01-08-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Norway.

Spain
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.es
Phone number+34910695129
First nameTest
Last namePerson-es
AddressC. de Atocha, 27
Postcode / Zip code28012
CityMadrid
ProvinceMadrid
CountryES
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970
ID cardUse this image when prompted.

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Spain.

Sweden
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.se
Phone number+46701740615
Personal numberSE194103219202
First nameAlice
Last nameTest
AddressSödra Blasieholmshamnen 2
Postcode / Zip code11 148
CityStockholm
CountrySE
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)21-03-1941

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in Sweden.

United Kingdom
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.uk
Phone number+4408082580300
First nameTest
Last namePerson-uk
Address 110 New Burlington Street
Address 2Apt. 214
Postcode / Zip codeW1S 3BE
CityLondon
CountyLondon
CountryAT
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in the United Kingdom.

United States
FIELDVALUE FOR A SUCCESSFUL TEST PAYMENT
Email addresscustomer@email.us
Phone number+13106683312
First nameTest
Last namePerson-us
Last four digits of SSN1234
Address509 Amsterdam Ave
Postcode / Zip code10024-3941
CityNew York
StateNY
Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)10-07-1970

There are also other ways to test Klarna payments in the United States.

Klarna test payment flow

After placing a test order via Klarna, you’ll be shown the following screen:

This field will be pre-populated with the phone number used at checkout (if applicable). Enter the test phone number based on your WooPayments account country, click Send code, and then enter any six digit string except for 999999 as the verification code.

Next, enter the email address, address, and other information based on your WooPayments account country.

Choose from one of the available payment methods and click Continue.

Select any option aside from Pay now and select Continue. Choose from one of the available payment plans and click Continue.

Review the order information and select Pay [amount] today with Klarna to complete the order. Next, you’ll be taken back to your site’s Order Received page as normal.

Refunds

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You can fully or partially refund BNPL orders just as you would for any other order. Each BNPL provider has a time window within which you must issue the refund.

BNPL ProviderYou must issue a refund within…
Affirm120 days of the order being placed
Afterpay180 days of the order being placed
Klarna180 days of the order being placed

As with other payment methods in WooPayments, transaction fees are not refunded.

Disputes

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Because customers must authenticate with their BNPL provider of choice during the purchase process, this helps reduce the risk of unauthorized payments. However, customers can still dispute BNPL transactions for other reasons.

Notably, the timelines for BNPL disputes can differ from those of regular card payment disputes, so we have outlined the relevant details below.

Customers must dispute the transaction within:

  • Affirm: 60 days
  • Afterpay: 120 days
  • Klarna
    • “Transaction unauthorized” disputes: 60 days.
    • All other dispute reasons: 180 days.

Once a dispute has been created, you must submit evidence within:

  • Affirm: 15 days
  • Afterpay: 14 days
  • Klarna: 13 days

After you submit evidence, the BNPL provider will decide within:

  • Affirm: 15 days
  • Afterpay: 30 days
  • Klarna: 90 days

Aside from the timeline changes above, disputes for BNPL orders function the same as any other dispute (e.g., you can view them and submit evidence under Payments > Disputes).

Klarna inquiries and returns

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The Klarna returns process is somewhat unique. Specifically, if a customer begins their return using the “Report return” option in the Klarna app, or on the Klarna website, an inquiry is created. You will be notified of this via email.

These inquiries are not damaging to your business’ rating with card networks or Klarna. However, they must be resolved within 21 days or they will convert to disputes.

During the 21 day inquiry period, you will not be able to submit evidence against the inquiry. Instead, you can either:

  • Close the inquiry by issuing a refund, which does not incur a dispute fee. Or…
  • Allow the inquiry to remain open for 21 days, at which point it will become a dispute.

Although it sounds little scary, most Klarna inquiries are likely to be simple returns. This means you can leave the inquiry open until you receive the returned item(s), and then issue a refund to close the inquiry with no harm done.

Prohibited products and businesses

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Because BNPL payment methods inherently involve a third-party company, there are additional restrictions on the types of products you can sell with them. In addition to our general list of prohibited or restricted products, the restrictions below also apply.

Affirm

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  • Home improvement services, including contractors
  • Titled goods and auto loans, including cars, boats, and other motor vehicles
  • Professional services, including legal, consulting, and accounting
  • Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
  • Business-to-business (B2B)
  • Subscription products

See the full list for more details.

Afterpay

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  • Alcohol
  • Donations
  • Pre-orders
  • Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
  • Business-to-business (B2B)
  • Subscription products

See the full list for more details.

Klarna

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  • Charities
  • Political initiatives, organizations, or parties
  • Subscription products

BNPL offers in Apple Pay and Google Pay

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Apple Pay and Google Pay may offer buy now, pay later options via their interfaces. Please note that there is no way for WooPayments to control or disable these offerings, aside from disabling Apple Pay and Google Pay entirely.

Please check Apple’s and/or Google’s documentation for further details on what BNPL offerings might be included and how they work.

How do I switch from a BNPL extension?

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If you already use a BNPL extension from our Marketplace (e.g., Affirm, Afterpay, or Klarna Payments), you should disable that extension before activating the matching BNPL payment method in WooPayments.

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