Klarna introduces sub-accounts for savings

The payment provider from Sweden wants to enable its customers to save money. To do this, they can create sub-accounts with a savings goal free of charge.

The payment provider Klarna has introduced a new savings function for bank accounts. Users can now create up to three sub-accounts for savings amounts free of charge. They have the option of setting a target amount and a time period. Klarna automatically transfers the amounts from the main account to the sub-accounts. Customers can also set the intervals at which the money is paid into the savings pools.

With the optional "rounding up rule" of the Klarna bank card, the provider rounds up the amount to the nearest euro with every payment and transfers the difference to the savings pools. "The Klarna app combines shopping and saving in one place, making it even easier to keep an eye on your finances," says Felix Würtenberger, Head of Banking at Klarna.

The Swedish start-up Klarna is a unicorn, i.e. a company with a valuation of over one billion US dollars, which has become known above all for its "buy now, pay later" offers, where customers can buy products and pay for them in installments. Consumer advocates criticize the business model as it can lead to overconsumption and debt. According to reports in the Süddeutsche Zeitung the payment provider recently got into difficulties: in a financing round in September, investors only valued the start-up at 6.5 billion US dollars. At the end of last year, Klarna still had a total valuation of 45 billion US dollars.