Borrowers with the controversial buy now pay later (BNPL) company have reported that they have been able to access other shoppers’ accounts when trying to log in to their own Klarna account.

Many have taken to social media to complain, with the issue first being raised at about 10.30am this morning.

One Klarna user Tweeted: “Each time I tried to log in to my @Klarna account this morning, I’m on someone else’s account? Does this also mean someone else might currently be my on account? What the hell is going on?!!” followed by “Oh dear… I can see all the information they provided including stored bank details, addresses, phone numbers, purchases etc. This doesn’t look good.”

The same Klarna user said she had tried to remove her bank card details from her Klarna account – presumably because she had security concerns – but was unable to do so.

Other Klarna customers replied to the original Tweet reporting the same issue and saying that Klarna’s online chat was not working.

One Tweeter posted a video that showed each login to the Klarna app resulted in being shown a different customer’s account, but not their own.

The @AskKlarna Twitter handle has sent a standard reply to each Klarna user involved in the Twitter thread. It said: “We are currently experiencing system disturbances caused by a technical error. We apologise for any inconvenience this is causing. Whilst we are addressing the issue, customers are unable to log into the app.”

The same statement was repeated on Klarna’s website.

Klarna is a BNPL lender which allows borrowers to pay for goods, often of relatively low value, in instalments, or pay the whole balance at a later date. It has been criticised for tempting young shoppers into debt.

In December last year a Klarna advert was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for encouraging borrowing for non-essential purchases during the pandemic. The advertising watchdog said that future promotions placed on social media by ‘influencers’ must not irresponsibly encourage the use of Klarna’s deferred payment service, particularly by linking it with lifting or boosting mood.

When contacted, Klarna repeated the short statement posted on its website and could not offer further details about the app outage or potential data breach.