Open every app, list every outstanding plan with its amount and its dates in one document, and add it up. That total, and the monthly figure underneath it, is the number you have been missing. Most people are wrong about their own by a wide margin and almost always in the same direction. It takes about thirty minutes and it changes the conversation entirely.
Why the total disappears
This is not a failure of attention on your part. It is arithmetic.
One order becomes four instalments. Four orders across three providers become twelve payments falling on nine different dates, some weekly, some monthly, some starting a fortnight from now. Each app shows you its own plans and none of them shows you anybody else's. Your bank statement shows twelve small payments to companies whose names do not obviously mean anything.
So there is no screen anywhere in your life that displays what you owe. The only way it exists is if you write it by hand.
That is the real damage of buy now pay later for somebody whose spending is already compulsive. Not the interest, and not any single purchase, but the fact that the running total stops being visible at exactly the point in your life where you most need to see it.
Get the number, in thirty minutes
Do this once, properly, with a pen or a spreadsheet.
- **List every provider you have ever used**, including the one you used once for a coat. Check your email for confirmations if you cannot remember, and check your bank statement for recurring small payments you cannot immediately name.
- **Open each one and write down every open plan**: what it was, the amount still outstanding, the instalment amount, and the dates.
- **Add up the outstanding total.** That is what you owe on this alone.
- **Then build the calendar.** Every payment date in the next eight weeks, in order, with the amount. This is the one that produces the reaction, because it shows you the weeks where four things land together.
- **Work out the monthly figure.** What leaves your account each month across all of it. This is the number to quote to anybody, including a debt adviser.
Then add it to the rest. Cards, overdraft, loans, money owed to people. [The full list method is here](/guides/spending/telling-someone-what-you-actually-owe), and having it on one page is the precondition for every useful conversation that follows.
Where this sits in the order of debts
The most useful thing anybody can tell you about a buy now pay later letter is that it is usually not the debt to pay first.
Citizens Advice explains that ["priority debts" are debts that can cause you particularly serious problems if you don't do anything about them](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/help-with-debt/dealing-with-your-debts/work-out-which-debts-to-deal-with-first/), and that you need to work out which of your debts are priority debts and deal with them first. Rent, mortgage, council tax, energy, court fines and unpaid tax sit in that group. Credit cards, catalogue debts, unsecured loans and overdrafts do not.
Buy now pay later does not appear anywhere on the priority list. Which produces the pattern that catches people out: the app sends three emails a day, adds fees and mentions your credit file, while the council tax arrears sit in silence carrying far heavier consequences. People move money to quieten the loud one and fall behind on the serious one.
Pay the quiet debts. Deal with the loud ones through a free adviser.
Do not add another one to clear the last
The instinct when the calendar looks bad is to smooth it out with something else: a new plan, a credit card, an overdraft extension.
It does not smooth. It adds a payment stream and moves the problem four weeks to the right, and four weeks later there is more of it. If your calendar has weeks where three payments land together, that is a signal to get free advice rather than to refinance.
**StepChange** is a debt charity and its advice is free and impartial: 0800 138 1111, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. Ring them before anybody who advertises debt help, because a good deal of what advertises is a commercial product.
If you live in England or Wales, an adviser can also apply for [Breathing Space](https://www.gov.uk/options-for-paying-off-your-debts/breathing-space) on your behalf, which gives "temporary protection for up to 60 days". Three things people get wrong about it: it is England and Wales only, you cannot apply for it yourself because "you need to talk to a debt adviser" who submits it, and it does not write anything off. Interest, charges and enforcement pause, and GOV.UK still says "you'll still need to make your debt repayments."
Stopping the next one
Two practical changes, once you have the number.
**Take the stored payment methods out of the apps themselves**, and delete the buy now pay later option where a shop offers it as a saved choice at checkout. The whole product is designed to be one tap, and one tap is exactly what the spending needs.
**Remove the apps and keep the accounts.** You will still need access to manage the existing plans, and you do not need the app on the home screen offering you the option. Buying now requires a browser and a login, which is two more decisions than it had before. [The full friction list is here](/guides/spending/putting-friction-between-you-and-checkout).
Why this hits compulsive spending harder than it hits other people
Two reasons, and neither is about being bad with money.
The first is the delay. Compulsive buying already runs on a relief that arrives now and a cost that arrives later. Splitting the cost into four and pushing the first one back a fortnight extends exactly the gap the behaviour depends on.
The second is that the price on the screen stops being the price. £160 presented as "four payments of £40" is not the same number psychologically, and it is the same number financially.
Neither of those makes you unusual. They are properties of the product working as intended.
Some people find it easier to keep the payment calendar, the risky hours and the person they message in one place, which is what [the recovery side of Renovyn](/my-recovery) is for. It tracks and it nudges. It does not treat anything, and it is not debt advice.
Common questions
**How do I find out how much I owe on buy now pay later?** Open every provider you have used, list every open plan with its outstanding amount and dates, add it up, and then build a calendar of the next eight weeks of payments. No single screen does this for you, which is exactly why the total goes missing.
**Should I pay my Klarna letter before my council tax?** Almost certainly not. Buy now pay later is not on Citizens Advice's priority list, while council tax arrears are, and priority debts are the ones that cause particularly serious problems if left. Ring StepChange on 0800 138 1111 before moving money around.
**Can I get a payment plan paused?** That is a question for a free debt adviser rather than for the provider's chat. In England and Wales, Breathing Space can pause interest, charges and enforcement on included debts for up to 60 days, but only a debt adviser can apply for it on your behalf.
**Should I use a credit card to clear my instalment plans?** Not as a first move, and not without advice. Refinancing while the spending is still happening tends to rebuild the same debt on top of itself. Get the number written down, get free advice, and put the friction in place at the same time.
Sources
- [Citizens Advice, Work out which debts to deal with first](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/help-with-debt/dealing-with-your-debts/work-out-which-debts-to-deal-with-first/). The definition of priority debts, and that credit cards, unsecured loans and overdrafts are not among them.
- [GOV.UK, Breathing Space (Debt Respite Scheme)](https://www.gov.uk/options-for-paying-off-your-debts/breathing-space). Up to 60 days of protection in England and Wales, applied for through a debt adviser, with repayments still owed.
- [StepChange Debt Charity](https://www.stepchange.org/). Free and impartial debt advice.
