Klarna dangerous?

Get straight to the good stuff every day with the Multiply Minute; a lightning-quick round-up of the money news and how it affects you.

Klarna alarm

Popular “buy now, pay later” schemes are growing at 39% a year and the rise has got consumer groups worried. Over seven million people in the UK have used zero-interest credit provider Klarna to delay payments for items such as clothes and even exercise bikes. Critics say it encourages people to make snap purchases, and that falling behind on payments might affect their ability to borrow in the future.

Pensions gone missing

Do you know exactly where your pension is saved, and how much is in it? As many as one in five of us could have lost a pension pot, according to the Pensions Policy Institute. The Association of British Insurers found that the same proportion don’t check their pension information. Parliament is currently preparing to reignite discussion of a digital pensions dashboard which would allow savers to see all their pensions in one place.

Stamp duty giveaway?

High stamp duty is clogging up the housing market by discouraging people from moving out of big homes they don’t need, according to a think tank. The Centre for Policy Studies has proposed raising the stamp duty threshold (paywall) from £125,000 to £500,000. It said by scrapping the tax on nine in 10 homes, the giveaway would pay for itself by releasing a boost of buying and selling.

Heathrow runway “illegal”

Plans to build a third runway at Heathrow have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because it would flout the UK’s climate change commitments. We’ve set a legally binding target to hit zero emissions by 2050, so the extra runway (which would have brought an extra 700 planes a day to London) doesn’t cut it. The court’s ruling is the first in the world to be based on the global Paris climate agreement.