Whether Klarna or PayPal – everyone wants to pay conveniently online, but it is not always clear which of the two providers offers the better conditions and safeguards. This is an overview to help you shop online safely.
Paypal and Klarna: Klarna in comparison
The Swedish company Klarna offers its users the option to pay for the goods only after they have received them. These are the features of the payment provider at a glance:
- Payment options: The main payment options are immediate payment and invoice – you have 14 to 30 days from the invoice date to inspect the goods and pay for them. You can also pay in fixed or flexible installments, manually or by direct debit.
- Buyer protection: According to the company’s website, extensive measures are taken in collaboration with authorities, retailers and logistics providers to offer the safest payment method. If goods are damaged or do not arrive, you can contact customer service via chat, phone or the “Report a problem” option. The payment is automatically paused. In the event of fraud, Klarna works with the police so that you don’t have to pay anything.
- Receiving money: Klarna offers a bank account that can be used to receive and send money. Money cannot be sent between family and friends outside of the account.
- Distribution: According to the Klarna website, the company works with more than 400,000 retailers such as H&M, adidas, IKEA, ABOUT YOU and Nike. There are more than 147 million active Klarna users worldwide.
PayPal: Everywhere & Multifunctional
PayPal is the market leader among payment providers for online shops. You can pay quickly and easily with PayPal in almost every shop today; all you need is your login.
- Payment options: With PayPal, you can pay immediately by direct debit, 30 days later or in installments of 3 to 24 months. This also gives you the option to inspect the goods first and possibly return them; however, in this case the payment is not paused and will still be collected by direct debit 30 days later.
- Buyer protection: If the item has not been shipped or is significantly different from the item description, you can file a claim for buyer protection with PayPal. You will receive the full purchase price including shipping costs back (provided that the requirements are met). Payments are transmitted in encrypted form to counteract fraud. Customer service can be reached by phone or contact form; there is no chat option and payments are not paused.
- Receiving money: Sending and receiving money to a bank account linked to PayPal is easy and inexpensive. The “Send Money to Friends and Family” option is a free way to send money, but the amount is not protected. When shopping online, you should select “Send Money for Goods and Services” so that buyer and seller protection is in effect.
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Distribution: This is another example of why PayPal is one of the most popular payment methods worldwide. Around 429 million people use the payment provider worldwide. More than 1 million online shops such as Sony, asos, dm and Zalando offer payment via PayPal worldwide.
