For Alannah-Jayne Simpson and her young family, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) schemes have been a lifeline during times when money is tight.

“It helps us be able to survive without too much struggle,” the 30-year-old mother-of-two says. “We use it to pay our rent, bills and food shop. It helps us a lot. If we want to go out for a day as a family and get something to eat, we use that.”

Simpson is one of more than 360 million people who use BNPL worldwide. They allow people to buy items and spread payments over time, typically interest-free.

Polling from personal finance company Finder shows that two in five Brits have used them at least once, representing 22.6 million people – and a further one in 10 think they might use them in the future.

But BNPL has dangers. There is risk of deb

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