If you've used Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) since the summer, congratulations: you've been quietly subjected to an affordability test, whether you noticed or not. BNPL has always been a type of loan, usually repaid in instalments, but it's only been officially regulated since July - meaning stricter background checks on your ability to repay are now the norm. Fail the check, and your purchase via BNPL gets blocked. Nothing says festive spirit like being declined by an algorithm before you've even picked a colour.

BNPL lenders such as Klarna, Clearpay and others must now have regulator approval to operate, which gives shoppers more access to refunds and independent rulings on complaints when things go wrong. The trade-off? New affordability checks on each BNPL transaction could leave you blocked from services for the first time - because nothing says consumer protection quite like being locked out of your own shopping cart.

There are different affordability checks for different purchases, partially based on how much is borrowed. But with the expensive festive season approaching, here's how to avoid being blocked when time and finances are tight - because the only thing worse than a budget is a budget that won't let you spend it.

Here are four things to consider if you find your account is closed or your borrowing limit has been massively reduced, courtesy of Sara Williams, a former volunteer debt adviser at Citizens Advice who posts tips as Debt Camel on social media. First: slow down your purchases - is what you're buying essential, or can you postpone it? Second: be more careful about what you buy to avoid needing a high credit limit for, say, buying lots of clothes in different sizes. Third: cancel subscriptions to escape the trap of having to use BNPL to make up for the cost of previous payments. Fourth: talk to debt charities for help and access to food bank vouchers if you're using BNPL for essentials.

If you're struggling to make repayments on any type of loan - BNPL or otherwise - you should seek help before things spiral out of control. The government-backed, independent MoneyHelper website has a guide to finding free debt advice near you. It also suggests writing down exactly what you owe to help plan how you'll repay the money, and offers tools to work out if you're receiving all the benefits and grants you're entitled to, plus a bill prioritiser to show which payments to make first and what to do if you miss a payment.

And a final note of caution: you should also be sceptical of supposed debt solutions you might see on your social feeds - because the only thing more persistent than debt is someone on the internet claiming they can make it disappear.