No cash? No Problem! DoorDash-Klarna partnership lets you pay for takeout in installments

[Shawn Knight]

Recap: DoorDash has partnered with Swedish-based financial services company Klarna to offer customers more ways to pay for deliveries. At checkout, you'll have the choice to break a bill up into four equal, interest-free installments, defer a payment until a later date, or pay in full as you normally would.

DoorDash said the option, which will launch in the coming months in the US, can be used on food deliveries as well as groceries, retail purchases, and to pay for a DashPass annual plan.

As NBC News highlights, the announcement has drawn criticism on social media. Folks are not terribly upset with DoorDash or Klarna so much as they are concerned about what the partnership says about our ever-increasing, debt-minded economy.

what do you mean you have $11k in "doordash debt" pic.twitter.com/pu1h8GqdZg

– adam 🇺🇸 (@personofswag) March 20, 2025

A Klarna spokesperson told the publication that the feature will only be available for DoorDash purchases totaling at least $35. "Wherever high-cost credit cards are accepted, consumers should be able to choose a zero-interest credit product, instead," the rep added.

Adam Rust, the director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, told NBC News, "I wouldn't characterize this as a solution. It is a fintech innovation that creates problems."

Douglas Boneparth, president of Bone Fide Wealth, shared a similar sentiment. "Eat now, pay later is an awful trap. If you need to borrow to have a burrito delivered to you, you are the product. Nothing more."

Klarna is one of several buy now, pay later (BNPL) operations that have emerged over the past decade or so. Such services allow users to make interest-free installment payments on purchases, and make money by charging fees when customers are late or miss a scheduled payment. Some services also earn revenue through partnerships with retailers.

BNPL is more popular than ever. According to Adobe, the option hit an all-time high during the 2024 holiday season and was responsible for $18.2 billion in online spend.

Consumer debt continues to be a problem for millions of Americans. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, total household debt surpassed $18 trillion at the end of 2024. Unfortunately, society has normalized debt to the point where few see an issue with it… until they can't make their next payment.

A DoorDash spokesperson did not comment on the online criticism the partnership has sparked, but told NBC News that customers can already pay with a variety of methods including CashApp, Venmo, and even with government aid like SNAP benefits.

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No cash? No Problem! DoorDash-Klarna partnership lets you pay for takeout in installments

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Using this service for fast food should trigger a lifetime ban from taking out loans of any type. This is peak "I must CONSOOOM" behavior and it's absolutely disgusting.

 

[yRaz]

The credit crunch is getting so bad that people need micro loans.

 

[wpontius]

Ridiculous, if you have to finance payments for a take-out burger order it is way past time to make drastic changes to your spending and eating habits!! This is beyond simply using a credit card to protect your checking account being hacked, WOW!

 

[madboyv1]

I think the greater travesty is the fact that doordash/klarna sees the potential demand for such a service for FOOD. You know, something that as a category* of spending is generally considered a need if you want to survive and not a want/nice to have.

*focusing on the grocery purchases/deliveries mind you, but still.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I think the greater travesty is the fact that doordash/klarna sees the potential demand for such a service for FOOD. You know, something that as a category* of spending is generally considered a need if you want to survive and not a want/nice to have.

*focusing on the grocery purchases/deliveries mind you, but still.

It's not so much the food, but rather yet another avenue for them to take advantage of people with terrible self control and critical thinking skills to generate yet more debt.

Kinda like payday loans were, nobody with a working brain thought those were a good idea nor would use them.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Yeah this is definitely one of those stories where we can all link arms and say in unison "What the ****..."

I've almost entirely given up on eating out, costs too much to get too little while quality has definitely declined. Stack food delivery apps on top of that and I dunno how or why people do it.

I'm no master chef (that's the Mrs.) but I can definitely cook the kind of food you'd normally be getting through doordash for less money, better quality, and bigger portions without even putting in that much effort.

 

[VariableSpike]

As someone who has unfortunately learned the hard way about credit, this is atrocious, if you are having to split the cost for fast food, then something clearly is going wrong, at a really fancy restaurant I'd maybe undersfand it (even though I don't understand the point of "fine dining" in the first place), but this judt makes no sense

 

[noel24]

Those mortages and rents must becoming insane if They firgured out food credit is a thing. Or those egg prices are getting out of hand.

 

[amghwk]

I wouldn't want to take installment to eat a meal. If I'm so poor to do this, I might as well just have bread or make soup at home.

 

[LetTheWookieWin]

To quote from In Living Color's Homeboy Shopping Network:

No job? No problem!
No credit? No problem!
No money? PROBLEM.

Seriously, though, we really need financial / consumer health education in schools. That would be a far better use of our resources than a lot of other things being taught.

 

[human7]

There are some sectors of the economy where "innovation" almost always causes harm. The financial sector is definitely the largest one of them.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

To quote from In Living Color's Homeboy Shopping Network:

No job? No problem!
No credit? No problem!
No money? PROBLEM.

Seriously, though, we really need financial / consumer health education in schools. That would be a far better use of our resources than a lot of other things being taught.

90% of "personal finance" is 2nd grade math, and another 5% is common sense. No amount of "we need more classes in school" is going to fix the problem; that is so many people are either too dumb to figure this stuff out or simply do not care to learn how to lead a better life.

When I went through school, we got it POUNDED into our heads that fast food was unhealthy, eat your greens, obesity bad, ece. today 75% of america is overweight or obese and fast food chains make a killing. All that education did the square root of F all to fix the problem.

 

[Win7user]

Yeah, and I hear how Americans are struggling to make ends meet, for a myriad of reasons. Now, I know why.

 

[LetTheWookieWin]

90% of "personal finance" is 2nd grade math, and another 5% is common sense. No amount of "we need more classes in school" is going to fix the problem; that is so many people are either too dumb to figure this stuff out or simply do not care to learn how to lead a better life.

When I went through school, we got it POUNDED into our heads that fast food was unhealthy, eat your greens, obesity bad, ece. today 75% of america is overweight or obese and fast food chains make a killing. All that education did the square root of F all to fix the problem.

I agree that much of it is common sense and elementary math. However, when I see the number of people that don't understand compound interest (look at how many people don't understand how inflation works), can't balance their checkbook, get overextended on loans, and fall for scams, I can't help but think we need better consumer education.

Put it this way - I would rather have my kids learn a couple weeks of personal finance and budgeting than pronouns and 9 weeks of health class.

Like you said, there's a lot of people that won't take personal responsibility or will blow it off. The only way those folks will learn is to be held accountable for their personal choices. I'm more concerned with helping the young adults who are generally responsible but financially naive.

 

[NumberNine]

Imagine a meal staying in your credit report longer than your digestive tract.

 

[human7]

90% of "personal finance" is 2nd grade math, and another 5% is common sense. No amount of "we need more classes in school" is going to fix the problem; that is so many people are either too dumb to figure this stuff out or simply do not care to learn how to lead a better life.

When I went through school, we got it POUNDED into our heads that fast food was unhealthy, eat your greens, obesity bad, ece. today 75% of america is overweight or obese and fast food chains make a killing. All that education did the square root of F all to fix the problem.

Education speaks to logic and reason. Fast food advertisements and high caloric foods speak to instincts and emotion - the thing that easily overwhelms logic and reason. For personal finance, I'm not so sure it's stupidity that's the issue here, for the same reason education didn't stop obesity - there are forces at play that undercut logic and reasoning. Some are psychological, some are systemic. So yeah, sadly, you are right that more classes won't be enough.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

90% of "personal finance" is 2nd grade math, and another 5% is common sense. No amount of "we need more classes in school" is going to fix the problem; that is so many people are either too dumb to figure this stuff out or simply do not care to learn how to lead a better life.

When I went through school, we got it POUNDED into our heads that fast food was unhealthy, eat your greens, obesity bad, ece. today 75% of america is overweight or obese and fast food chains make a killing. All that education did the square root of F all to fix the problem.

- Ignorance is not stupidity, it is simply the lack of knowledge. A lot of people are ignorant about finances.

They're ignorant about safety nets (thinking there is... something... that would stop them from destroying their lives financially). They are ignorant about regulatory capture, that actually prevents safety nets from being put in place and allows and even promotes predatory advertising/lies by omission.

Additional education wouldn't save everyone, not by a longshot, but its absolutely better than the **** all we're doing about the situation now and it might help enough people from making that One Big Mistake (TM) that they wear like an albatross around their necks for the rest of their lives, unable to live up to their full potential.

 

[Underdog]

The "system" doesn't favour common sense these days. Back in the 80's I was unemployed for quite a few months. With next to nothing coming in I instinctively started reducing my overheads. Sold my car, spent nothing on booze or entertainment, and for a short time spent only a couple of (UK)£s a day on food. Sure, I lost weight but I was still healthy enough to get out to take basic labouring jobs to keep a roof over my head. What amazed me is during this long period of unemployment I was offered three different credit cards! No fiscal requirements at all, just sign up and get a card. Thankfully I had the sense to see that living on credit doesn't make the debt go away. It just postpones the inevitable disaster while making the banks richer. In my entire life I have never taken a loan. If I don't have enough cash to buy something, I wait until I have.

 

[Rocky4040]

My take is if you cannot afford to pay for a hamburger when you order it then maybe you should not order it at all. unless you want to pay the extreme interest rates that will most likely will be either hidden charges for this service. Maybe just save up until you can afford to make that order and eat something from your own fridge.

 

[Puiu]

WTF? taking loans for doordash deliveries? that sounds so stupid... and people will use it and they will destroy their finances...