Examined Oct 1, 2026 Paid in points, not cash No link we may carry Klarna's referral pays you $20 in cashback points, but only after you take a paid Klarna Card membership and make 3 purchases of $10 or more within 30 days.
The $20 is not money off anything. It is Klarna Cashback Rewards points, added to your cashback a few days after the third qualifying purchase, and the page's footnote says a Klarna balance is required for redemption. The current terms say the same: “If your Reward is Klarna Cashback Rewards Points, you must open a Klarna Balance account to redeem your Cashback for cash in your Klarna Balance.” How long the points last depends on your membership plan, and Klarna gives no number.
What pays what
| You, joining through a friend's link, taking a monthly membership and making 3 purchases of $10 or more within 30 days | $20 in cashback points |
|---|---|
| An existing Klarna user who has never bought anything with the Klarna Card | Still eligible for the $20 |
| Anyone who has already made a purchase with the Klarna Card | $0 |
| A Klarna Card application that is not approved | $0 |
| A qualifying purchase returned, cancelled or reversed | Reward lost |
Do this, in this order
- Check you have never bought anything with the Klarna Card, then get a link from someone who has an account. The referral page says you can refer anyone who has not used the Klarna Card yet, and answers a direct question about existing users: as long as they have not made a purchase with the Klarna Card, they can use a friend's link. The link must come from an existing customer with no overdue balance, shared from their app; Klarna's terms say invites go only to family, friends and acquaintances.
- Choose a monthly membership and apply for the card, knowing the application can fail. The page's step two reads: “Your friend chooses a monthly membership to sign up for a Klarna Card.” It does not say what the membership costs, and a footnote says a physical card is only included with a paid Klarna Membership Plan. If the card application is not approved, the referral is not completed and neither side is paid.
- Make 3 purchases of at least $10 each with the card within 30 days, in categories that count. The page says: “They have 30 days from signing up to complete all steps.” The terms list purchases that never qualify, among them “Financial services & P2P, Crypto purchases, money transfers of any sort”, loading value on prepaid cards or gift cards, and paying bills or debts of any kind, including Klarna bills. Eligibility is decided by the merchant category code the card network assigns, and Klarna says it is not responsible for unexpected classifications.
- Keep all three purchases. A return, cancellation or any other reversal of a qualifying purchase forfeits the reward, and the excessive-returns clause applies on top.
- Look for the points a few days later, open a Klarna Balance, and move them across. Klarna's FAQ says the reward is added to your available cashback a few days after the steps are complete, that cashback expires sooner without a membership, and that transferring it to your Klarna balance avoids expiration. The terms add that rewards may be subject to income tax and that paying it is entirely your responsibility.
Two referral terms documents, one of them expired
The one that governs. Klarna's legal hub links to a Klarna Referral Terms and Conditions, United States, marked v1.4.0 and “Published on April 27, 2026”. It is generic: no amounts, no dates, no purchase counts. It says the value of rewards, the promotional period and any campaign-specific conditions are shown in the app and on the invite page. The live $20 campaign has no published end date; the referral page's FAQ says rewards are only available up to the maximum number of successful referrals for the current campaign.
The one that expired and stayed online. A second document with almost the same name, Klarna Referral Terms and Conditions (US), v5.15.0, “Published on November 12, 2025”, is still served from a different path on Klarna's own CDN. It describes a different program: the new customer had 7 days to make a $10 purchase with any Klarna payment method except the Klarna Card, and the new customer got nothing for it. Its own dates are the reason it matters.
The Program starts at 00:01AM EST on July 29th, 2025 (“Start Date”) and ends at 11:59PM EST on November 30th, 2025 (“End Date”), this period being the “Promotional Period”.
So a post that says Klarna gives you 7 days, or that any Klarna payment method counts, is describing a program that ended on November 30, 2025. A post that says the new customer gets $20 is describing the live one. Neither referral document prints the membership price. The Klarna Membership Plans Agreement, v2.0.0, published November 23, 2025, does: Core $4.99 a month, Plus $9.99, Premium $19.99, Max $44.99. Klarna's memberships page shows a first month free on Core and Plus. On October 1, 2026 it was still showing 30% off Premium or Max for 3 months, labeled “valid through September 30”, a date that has now passed with no new one printed, so do not count on that discount. After any free or discounted start the full fee applies, and the agreement warns: “Please note that you may not be notified that your Promotional Period of Access is ending or has ended and that your period of paid Membership has started.” Klarna's address for publishers, klarna.com/us/business/affiliate-program-for-publishers/, still returned a 404 on September 25, 2026.
Is it worth your time?
Only if you were going to pay for a Klarna Card membership regardless. Then the referral costs you nothing extra: three purchases of at least $10 that you would keep, made within 30 days, and $20 in points lands a few days later. Treat it as points toward a Klarna balance, not as money off the membership, and remember the referral page does not tell you what that membership costs.
If you were not going to pay for a membership, $20 in points is not a reason to start. You can refer instead: each friend who joins through your own link earns you $60 in points, for up to 10 friends, which is $600 in points by our arithmetic; but the invite may only go to family, friends and acquaintances, and Klarna may void every referral if it decides a link went wider than that.
