Julie Morgan

The reasons for using these services include the fact that the payments are spread out, zero interest, the loans are easy to access, it's convenient.

Which brings us to the investment side of things.

Julia says when you weigh a firm against Klarna, a firm is a buy in her opinion.

But not everyone feels that way.

Out of all the most recent analysis, there's one contrarian view.

Merck Research on Seeking Alpha rates Affirm a strong sell.

It says with a 30 to 50 percent downside on Affirm, they maintain a sell position due to Affirm's disadvantages in an increasingly multi-option checkout and larger-than-expected UK expansion challenges that will hinder the street's lofty expectations.

Affirm went public in January of 2021.

It was founded in 2012.

Affirm is priced at $54.26, down 27% year-to-date.

It's rated Buy by Seeking Alpha Analysts and Wall Street.

The Quant rating is Hold.

Klarna was founded in 2005.

It went public less than a year ago, in September 2025.

Klarna shares officially started trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $52 each, representing a 30% premium to the $40 initial public offering price.

As of the time of this recording, Klarna is trading at $18.34 per share.

Klarna Next reports earnings before the bell on February 19th.

Julia says Klarna right now is just risky business.

But Klarna could be a nice play.

if the stock goes down slightly more.