That $20 burrito you order from DoorDash could now cost you $70

Look, to put it plainly: You almost certainly shouldn't buy a delivery burrito using a buy now, pay later plan. I know it may be tempting. It's burrito season, getting out of the house can be hard, and having stuff you do not need dropped on your doorstep is a fun tiny luxury of our tech-enabled world. But if you're considering using a Klarna financing plan to DoorDash your Chipotle order, maybe take a beat.

With all the DoorDash fees, plus the tip — and, yes, you should tip — that little treat is going to run you quite a bit more than you bargained for. Splitting the cost up into four payments may make you feel better about your little indulgence — and may even encourage you to add on a second little treat. But there are some potential downsides. You might wind up missing payments, in which case on top of delivery fees and tip, you'll also be hit with late fees and overdraft fees from your bank. By the end of it all, your $20 burrito could wind up costing closer to $70.

I don't mean to be judgmental. If you really insist on paying for food delivery on a payment plan, you can. In fact, DoorDash and Klarna are betting you will.

Last week, the delivery platform Doordash and the soon-to-IPO payment company Klarna announced a partnership through which customers will be able to buy now, pay later on food orders. People will have the option to pay right away, like normal, using Klarna, but they'll also be able to split the cost into four installment payments for purchases above $35 or, eventually, push the payment to a later date. In a press release announcing the agreement, company executives said it was intended to make "convenience even more accessible" for consumers and offer payment options that were "essential to meeting our customers' needs."

The announcement, um, raised some eyebrows. On the one hand, it's a free country, and anyone is welcome to pay for a burrito taxi in $10 installments over a month and a half. On the other hand, this scenario might involve more risk than reward for consumers, many of whom are already drowning in debt.

"It certainly doesn't seem like a positive development except for Klarna and maybe DoorDash," said Robert Lawless, a law professor at the University of Illinois who specializes in consumer finance. "I just don't think it's an advisable way to be paying for your DoorDash."

The BPNL industry, which includes companies such as Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna, has taken off in recent years. The total value of loans originated by the industry jumped from $2 billion in 2019 to $24 billion in 2021 to $34 billion in 2022, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. BNPL was initially seen mostly as an option for large-ish purchases — maybe a Peloton bike, if you're still into that, or a couch. The flexibility can be useful, by splitting payments into smaller, what might be more manageable amounts, and charging zero interest if payments are made on time. Buy now, pay later companies often do not do extensive credit checks as credit card companies do, meaning the option may be more accessible to some consumers.

The optionality and ease of use helped BNPL boom during the pandemic, but in recent years growth has slowed. In an effort to reignite expansion, companies have increasingly been allowing (and encouraging) consumers to use it on smaller-dollar and more trivial purchases, even groceries. In terms of consumer finance, it's a disturbing sign that some people might need to put essentials on payment plans. But businesses aren't just offering BNPL out of the kindness of their hearts; it's because they think they can make money off of it.

"We're seeing it for smaller and smaller and smaller purchases," said Anastasiya Ghosh, a marketing professor at the University of Arizona. "Part of it is driven by these partnerships. So you see more and more merchants like DoorDash that are willing to participate and engage, which to me signals there is a revenue stream."

You could really balloon the amount of money you pay for just one thing.

Part of the way BNPL companies make money is through merchant fees, where the platform that actually books the sale pays a fee to the payment partner, like Klarna or Affirm. This is similar to credit card swipe fees, but the payouts tend to be even higher. Businesses sign up for merchant fees because giving consumers expanded payment options like BNPL makes them likelier to buy and increases the size of their baskets.

"It works on our optimistic view of ourselves in the future. Obviously, in the future, maybe my income stream would improve or I would stick to my budget better," Ghosh said.

It's not that different from the psychology around credit cards, but we've also had years of consumer education around their risks. With BNPL, not so much.

Buy now, pay later users tend to be in more precarious spots than the average consumer. A June 2023 survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that women, renters, people without college degrees, low-income people, and those with lower credit scores were more likely to report having used BNPL in the previous year. BNPL may also make people's finances worse: Its users have been found to see fast increases in bank overdraft charges and credit card interest and fees compared with consumers who don't use the option. The use of buy now, pay later has been linked to increased total spending, too.

The concern is that people who use BNPL might buy more even when they shouldn't. They wind up with multiple short-term loans they're trying to pay off every two weeks. It's hard to keep track of, as the bills or automatic withdrawals can hit at different times. That makes it easy to miss payments and easy not to recognize just how big of a hole one might be in. For some consumers, this may result in excessive levels of borrowing and debt cycles they can't get out of.

"Let's say you miscalculate something. You pay a late fee of $7 to $10 on your order, and then maybe you have to pay an overdraft fee because of a cash flow issue," said Nadine Chabrier, the senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending. "So you could really balloon the amount of money you pay for just one thing."

Food delivery with companies such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub has become a weirdly controversial topic on the internet over the past few years. The kerfuffle is always the same: Someone posts something about all the delivery fees making their order extra expensive, someone else says they should just go pick it up or cook for themselves, and then everybody yells about whether it's offensive because some people can't leave their homes or cook or some other protest. On this DoorDash-Klarna announcement, you can already hear a similar argument: What about people who can't afford that burrito right this second but really need (OK, want) it and for whatever reason don't feel that they have another option? I posed this question to every expert I talked to, and the answer was mainly, sure if you want to do this, go ahead, but it's not in your best interest.

"People have the free will to make a choice of the way in which they want to pay for something, but there may be unintended consequences," Chabrier said.

If you want to do this, go ahead, but it's not in your best interest.

"DoorDash and Klarna will "undoubtedly tout the idea of, 'Well if you pay for it in four payments, it's the same as up front,' but we're not talking about major purchases where that's going to save you any type of money," Lawless said.

Breaking up large payments for goods that we're going to use for years can make sense. You buy a house on a mortgage so you can pay it off over years as the value (hopefully) goes up. You get a car loan so you can pay it down every month with the money you make driving to and from work. Paying down larger purchases over time frees up cash for other needs, or for investments that will grow over time. But a quick food order may not fall into this category.

"There's a good economic case for financing investments over the long term, and we have stretched the definition of durable goods in a lot of ways," said Michael Madowitz, an economist at the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank. "Delivered food may in fact be the least durable good we've tried this with."

Amid the backlash to the announcement, Klarna and DoorDash are trying to emphasize their partnership is about more than burritos. In an emailed statement, a DoorDash spokesperson said the company's customers already had "plenty of ways to pay" including PayPal, Venmo, SNAP/EBT, and credit cards, and added that this option wasn't just for food orders. "With over 25% of customers now shopping beyond restaurants in categories like retail, beauty, and home improvement — whether it's the gaming console or laptop for your kids, the new barbecue ahead of summer grilling season, or the running shoes you need for tomorrow's 5K — this partnership provides even more flexibility, control, and options," the spokesperson said. They also pointed to a Klarna blog post about the deal. A Klarna spokesperson said the partnership was "especially important as DoorDash expands its offering into electronics, big-box retail, and gifts."

This partnership isn't the end of the world in terms of signaling some sea change in consumer credit; nor is it a sign that a recession is here. These companies are offering people more ways to pay so they'll buy more, perhaps, than they had planned. This is a way to squeeze more cash out of consumers.

This is happening at a moment when the cops who are supposed to be on the consumer beat — the CFPB — may not be doing much, Madowitz noted, given the current White House administration's hands-off bent. "I don't know if this is the kind of thing CFPB, SEC, or both should have a very close eye on, and maybe we just won't ever know," he said.

Regardless, the option to pay in installments is coming to a DoorDash order near you. Maybe think twice before you take advantage of it.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.