You missed one BNPL payment, the app is still open, and you do not know whether the next thing in the mail is a bill or a collector.
Short answer: After one missed payment, the three big providers describe different first steps: Afterpay pauses your account, Klarna retries and may add a fee of up to $7.00, and Affirm says it charges no late fees but may report to credit bureaus and use a collections agency. None of their pages gives a number of days before collections. Free help: NFCC at nfcc.org or 877-360-6322.
What each company says
- Afterpay: it will immediately pause your account, you can be charged late fees, your spending limit may drop, and long-overdue payments may lead it to decline or restrict you (Afterpay). The page does not give fee amounts.
- Klarna: it retries a failed payment, adds a late fee of up to $7.00 on Pay in 4 if the second attempt fails, rolls missed amounts into your next payment, and may block you from future use (Klarna).
- Affirm: no late fees on Buy with Affirm, but it may report late and missed payments to credit bureaus and may contact you, send your details to a collections agency, or take legal action (Affirm).
What the regulator’s data showed
The CFPB’s 2022 report, as summarised by law firm Mayer Brown, looked at 2021: about 10% of borrowers were charged at least one late fee, fees were often around $7 on an average loan of $135, and 3.8% of borrowers had a loan charged off (Mayer Brown summary of the CFPB report). Charged off means the lender wrote the loan off as unlikely to be repaid. It is old data, so treat it as a guide to scale, not a forecast.
Our own illustration, not a quote: a $135 order split into four is $33.75 a payment. A $7 fee is 5.2% of the order, and a 25% cap would be $33.75. One fee is small. What can cost more is a paused account or a mark on your credit file.
What one missed Klarna payment looks like
| Step | What the company says it does | Your balance |
|---|---|---|
| Payment fails | Klarna tries to collect again. | Unchanged |
| Still unpaid | The missed amount is added to your next scheduled payment. Late fees may apply, and Klarna does not state an amount on its help page. | Next payment is bigger |
| Final reminder date passes | The debt can be passed to a debt collection agency. Klarna gives no number of days. | Fees and the balance chased |
| After 15 July 2026 agreements | The lender must contact you about a missed payment and explain the consequences. The government says people in difficulty are pointed to debt advice before a collector is used. | Support first |
A worked example: £90 split in three
| Payment | Due | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 of 3 | £30 at purchase | Paid |
| 2 of 3 | £30 a month later | Fails. Klarna retries. |
| 3 of 3 | £30 the month after | Now £60, because the missed £30 is added to it, plus any late fee |
The total you owe has not grown, but the last payment doubles at the moment you are least able to pay it, which is how a small miss becomes a larger one. If you can only manage part, contact Klarna before the last reminder date and ask for more time. Sources: Klarna help page, FCA and GOV.UK.
If you have already missed one
- Open the app and note the exact amount and date, then screenshot it.
- Pay the missed amount if you can, or contact the provider before the next due date.
- Keep every email and letter about the balance.
- Check your credit reports in a few weeks to see whether anything was reported.
If BNPL is one of several debts, our guide to BNPL for groceries shows how small plans stack up.
Questions people ask at 2am
Will Afterpay, Klarna or Affirm send me to collections after one missed payment?
None of the pages we read says that. Afterpay says it pauses your account straight away (Afterpay), Klarna says it retries the payment and may add a late fee (Klarna), and Affirm’s terms say it may use a collections agency if you do not pay (Affirm). None gives a number of days.
How many days until BNPL debt goes to collections?
We could not find a day count from any of the three providers, so we will not give you one. Any figure you see elsewhere, such as 90 days, is not something we could confirm from their own pages.
Does Affirm charge late fees?
Affirm’s terms say you will never be charged late fees when you buy with Affirm, and list the late payment penalty as none. They also warn that failure to pay may affect your credit score (Affirm). Other products with a bank partner follow their own agreements.
How much is a Klarna late fee?
Klarna says that on Pay in 4 a late fee of up to $7.00 is added if the second attempt to take the payment fails, and fees never exceed 25% of your order value. On Monthly Financing it can be up to $35.00 per missed month, never more than the minimum payment due (Klarna).
Can a missed BNPL payment hurt my credit?
It can. Affirm’s terms say it may report on-time, late and missed payments and defaults to credit bureaus (Affirm). The Afterpay and Klarna pages we read do not cover credit reporting. Our BNPL and FICO guide goes through what we could verify.
A collector called about a BNPL balance. What are my rights?
Ask for the details in writing and keep every letter. Our know your rights guide covers what collectors can and cannot do. Free counseling is available from the NFCC at nfcc.org or 877-360-6322 (NFCC).
What if I cannot pay this month?
Contact the provider before the due date. Klarna’s page says that if you face hardship you should contact customer service to plan future payments (Klarna). Afterpay lists in-app chat as a way to reach it (Afterpay).
Disclaimer: DebtShift is an educational platform operated by H Ali Logistics Ltd. This article is general education, not legal or financial advice. For free, nonprofit credit counseling, contact the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) at nfcc.org or 877-360-6322.
Sources
- Afterpay US, I missed a payment: what happens to my account
- Klarna US, What happens if I can’t pay on time?
- Affirm, Terms of Service
- Mayer Brown, CFPB releases report on the BNPL industry (2022)
- NFCC
Last reviewed October 2026
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