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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now we're going to talk about the consumer watchdog, which is concerned about these buy now, pay later schemes that allow people essentially to buy things that they can't afford, certainly not right at that time that they're making the purchase. And this includes things like groceries and even takeaways.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission were in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance yesterday talking about this. And Charlie Weston, personal finance editor with the Irish Independent, is here and knows all about these things and is going to tell us about them now. Charlie, good morning to you.
Good morning, Clare.
Lovely to see you.
And you.
So buy now, pay later has become increasingly common and popular in recent years. But I think a lot of people will be surprised to hear that some people are using them to buy takeaways.
Yeah, buy takeaway. As we headline the story on that one, eat now, pay later, because Klarna, which is one of the big providers, they teamed up with Deliveroo. So essentially you can, if, you know, obviously it needs to be minimum sized order, but you can basically buy your
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Chapter 2: How does Amanda Geard describe the inspiration behind 'The Glass Key'?
your takeaway on what your granny used to call the never, never.
On the tick.
On the tick, pay it later.
That's grand if you can afford to pay that back before the interest starts accruing.
Yeah.
But then where you might run into trouble is if you leave that bill on the long finger.
Exactly. You know, and you forget about it or else, you know, or else you do this multiple times. I mean, because by now, pay later is extremely popular. It's growing rapidly. There's been a 25% of people are using it, according to central bank research, up to 25%. It's particularly younger people, 25 to 44 year olds.
And I suppose the big fear is people will, you know, use this a number of times. You know, they'll use it on different sites online. It's very popular for cosmetics, for clothes, for phones.
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Chapter 3: What themes are explored in Amanda Geard's new novel?
And as you say, even fast food delivery.
Do you have to go through any credit checks to use it?
tends to be relatively easy to use this. You know, if you're borrowing for a car, even though that's not controlled by the central bank. But I mean, if you're taking out a loan with a bank, you have to go through all sorts of rigmarole and provide access to your bank account and all sorts of stuff. But this is relatively easy to get. And most people don't even realize it's credit.
They just think it's a payment plan that, you know, gives them 30 days to pay it off and so they can manage that. It's often people who are quite financially vulnerable that maybe are living week to week on their wages and just don't have the money now, but they want something and they'll buy it. And that is the big problem here. Research by the Central Bank has found that
One in four people are impulse buying. They're buying stuff that they don't actually need. They want it, but they don't need it. And, you know, to me, the great definition of marketing, and it's kind of sinister as well, it's when, you know, the company focusing on you is turning something from a want into a need.
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Chapter 4: How does Amanda Geard develop her characters in 'The Glass Key'?
You just want it, but you actually don't need it. So this is the problem here. You know, people see something, can't afford it. Okay, here's a simple way to pay for it. And what they don't realise is there could be administrative charges and you will hit interest if you don't pay by the designated time, maybe 30 days, you'd start being charged interest.
So in general though, Charlie, is it free... As long as you don't go over that 30 days.
So it's not going to cost you anything. It won't cost you anything. If you're very disciplined and pay down the money that you owe within the time. But the risk is that you'll forget about it. You won't do it. You won't have the money. You might have multiple payments on these buy now, pay later, different arrangements. Because there's three different big providers.
Chapter 5: What challenges did Amanda Geard face while writing 'The Glass Key'?
There's Klarna, there's Revolut, Pay Later. And there is Home, an Australian company. Yeah. So, you know, it's become extremely popular. So, I mean, regulators are worried about it. I think there should be tighter regulations. The Finance Committee yesterday was making that point, you know, particularly Peirce Doherty of Sinn FĆ©in. We're saying, look, it's just too loose, too easy to get.
It's become very, very popular. And, you know, there's a real lack of education, a lack of awareness of what exactly these things are.
Now for some people it might work if there's too much month left at the end of the money and you need a few bob or you need to buy something and you pay it back and you don't accrue any interest or charges and it works for you, that's fine. It's for the people who can't make the repayments, that's where the concerns are now, right?
Yeah, and they've no experience of managing money. Maybe they're young and they're only just working recently and maybe they're on a summer job. It's attractive.
Chapter 6: How does Amanda Geard perceive the role of women in her writing?
It's easy to use. It's very convenient, you know, and you don't realize it's credit. So that's a problem. But yeah, look, if you've suddenly found yourself stuck, you need to replace the phone. The phone was broken. and suddenly you don't have the money to buy it and you desperately need a phone. Everybody needs a phone. If you observe the rules, yeah, that's a good way of doing it.
You can pay it off later rather than borrowing money on a credit card. Now, these companies, to be fair, sort of make the point that I put it to them, they were irresponsible to be, you know, allowing buy now, pay later when it comes to deliveries, for example, fast food deliveries. And they said, hold on a minute here. A lot of people buy their groceries on a credit card.
That's, you know, can take forever to pay on that. That's not at all a sensible thing to do.
Chapter 7: What advice does Amanda Geard offer to aspiring authors?
You know, we will offer you credit free money upfront. There's no conditions if you pay it within 30 days. It's just clear. You're not going to be charged anything.
They're not even an admin fee.
Well, yeah, there can be a small admin fee, but generally the way it works is it encourages more purchases on websites. So what Klarna or Home do or Revolu... So if I'm the retailer, I'm winning from this as well. You're winning because they will pay the amount to you straight away and then Klarna, Home or Revolu pay later. We'll organise it in the background. So it's very, very attractive.
It increases sales volumes for them. So you can see why it works.
You could argue like, Charlie, we've always had this with credit cards or with payday loans, you know, with all that type of stuff. This kind of thing has always been around. It's just a different name.
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Chapter 8: What future projects does Amanda Geard have in mind?
It's a different name. Now, payday loans is interesting because that's a big thing in England. It's very controversial, but the central bank put its foot down on that one and said, we're not having payday loans here. Because they see it as quite sinister. But we've allowed, you know, the buy now, pay later thing to take off here in a big way. And it's minimum regulation of it, you know.
And really, maybe it should be tightened up. Maybe there should be much more effort put into telling people, look, this is credit. You are taking out credit. If you don't meet these payments, there's serious implications. Particularly if you build up... a record of not paying off these things.
Well, let me tell you what this listener says. Can we please stop trying to oppress poorer people with very few credit options? People with money have no idea what it's like to have all the traditional finance and loan facilities closed to you.
Yeah, that's a fair point, you know, and that's why it's so attractive for people who, you know, are living payday to payday, as you say, you know, that there's too much month at the end of the money. But yeah, you know, it just should be clear to people, people should not be entering into this and not being aware that it's credit, that there's implications if you don't pay it.
Maybe that's I often think that's just not clear enough and it pops up too easily on the screen.
Sometimes it's almost the first option that you see when you're paying for something as well. And it's just to say to people to be careful. And if you if you have a few of these on the go, you could quickly run into trouble where you're having to use a good chunk of your money at the end of the month to pay it back.
You're juggling then, you know, and you end up playing the one that is nearest to coming to the end of the interest-free period. So, yeah, it's about making people aware. It's not saying, it's not closing it off. Of course, poor people don't have great options and, you know, isn't life always stacked against them, but they need to be fully aware of the dangers of this.
Okay.
Charlie, thank you very much and thank you for coming as well. That is Charlie Weston from the Irish Independent. We're going to be finding out how to DIY your very own garden for the lovely weather.
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