Why Financing DoorDash Orders Is Wildly Irresponsible

Recently, DoorDash announced a partnership with Klarna that allows people to finance their purchase of food delivery. Users will be able to choose between paying immediately, making four interest-free payments on their purchase, or paying at a designated time in the future so they can better align their payments to their payday.

Since DoorDash is a food delivery service, and most people don’t think of restaurant food as something you should borrow money for, this decision generated a lot of commentary. One Reddit poster, for example, started a thread discussing the ridiculousness of paying over time for takeout. Many other commentators also shared the opinion that you should not be borrowing for DoorDash.

Those posters are right. Here’s why it would be a wildly irresponsible financial decision to finance DoorDash food. 

You’re committing future income to unnecessary purchases today

One of the biggest reasons you should not finance a DoorDash purchase is that you are tying up your future income for something you are buying today that you do not need. You will become less capable of living within your means in the future if you have a bunch of payments going out towards other things, and that money is not available for you to use on things you need later. 

This process can get you trapped in a debt cycle that’s really hard to get out of. Since you have already promised part of your paycheck to your past DoorDash purchases (and potentially other creditors), when you want something later, you’ll have to borrow again. It can be really hard to ever get out of this debt cycle once you get into it. 

Going into debt is too easy

There’s also another problem with borrowing for DoorDash. It makes it too easy to overspend. Maybe you can’t afford that $38 delivery order, but if you can break it down into four payments, it seems like it becomes more manageable. The reality, though, is you are still spending the same thing– and if you can’t afford to pay for the item all at once, then you can’t really afford it.

With DoorDash making it so simple to click to purchase food and finance it, it’s also going to be really easy to end up running up a big balance without even realizing it. A little treat here, and a little treat there, and you could be shocked to realize you’re in hundreds of dollars of DoorDash debt. 

DoorDash is an expensive way to buy food and shouldn’t be used if you can’t afford it

As the Reddit users pointed out, DoorDash is a really expensive way to get food. It costs a lot more than going to the grocery store, or even just going to pick up food yourself from a local restaurant.

If you have tons of spare cash, you can afford to waste money on doing this. If you have that much spare money, though, you aren’t financing your food purchase. If you need to borrow to buy DoorDash, you should be going to the grocery store instead. 

Klarna charges processing fees — and late fees

Finally, Klarna may provide “interest-free” loans, but the company is still making money. They aren’t giving you loans just for fun.

Klarna typically charges merchants when it is integrated into their platform, and if that happens, DoorDash is going to pass those costs onto consumers in the form of higher prices. If you are late on payments, you could also get hit with fees and penalties.

For all of these reasons, you should simply not finance DoorDash items. If you can’t pay cash, don’t place a takeout order. And, even if you can pay cash, think twice about whether this is really the best use of your limited funds.