Affirm Credit Reporting Question

[Kimberly]

Tldr :Initially, using #Affirm, I thought it wouldn't affect my credit like standard "pay-in-four" plans, but it led to a 30-point drop and shows as a new credit account. I paid off my other two Affirm plans immediately to try to lessen any further damage, but I'm unsure if that will stop them from reporting it. I'm very concerned about these additional plans affecting my already lowered score. Will paying off an Affirm installment payment plan in full prevent it from hitting Experian? Any guidance or advice is appreciated.

More details : 
I used Affirm, assuming it wouldn't impact my credit similarly to "pay-in-four" plans, but it unexpectedly caused a 30-point drop in my score. Realizing this, I paid off my other Affirm payment plans early, aiming to prevent any further negative impact. In my view I'm not sure why something that was paid off in full and before they reported it to Experian would need to be reported .

Despite settling these early, I'm uncertain if it prevents the impact on my credit. With my credit already so much lower, I fear more damage could be significant. I've learned from this experience and caution against using Affirm due to its considerable effect on credit scores.

Affirm payment plans (at least the longer ones with interest) via Amazon do seem to create new credit accounts, significantly impacting scores and they seem to report a month or two late. My hard-earned credit score has been adversely affected due to Affirm so hopefully others will keep this in mind when thinking about using them.

If I settle an Affirm installment plan before its reporting, I'm unsure if it will still be reported to Experian.

Any guidance or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

NOTE: If for some reason the other installment plans do appear on my credit and completely ruin my credit what's the best thing I could do to build it quickly and how long could it take. We are planning on buying a home within the next 2 years so I really need to make sure my credit is in a good place. I should have known better than to mess around with these payment plan type of things. 

[GZG]

while it's not ideal to have affirm reporting on your credit report, unless you're late with your affirm payments, I wouldn't worry too much about it and the negative impact should mostly fade with time 

ideally you have no new credit tradelines or inquires for at least a year before going after a mortgage, so you should be good

affirm reporting to your credit is negative for two reasons: it makes the average age of your credit younger, and it is considered a "consumer finance account" (in the old days prior to things like affirm existing, it meant 'very risky credit product for people who aren't trusted to pay their bills') which docks you some points on your credit score 

you can mitigate these impacts by getting and holding on to credit for a long time, if you only have 3 credit cards and a car loan, with 2 years of history, affirm will impact you much more than if you had 12 credit cards, 2 car loans and a mortgage with 15 years of history for example 

you already know to stop using affirm unless they can provide to you in writing that they won't report to your credit, the same goes for other similar services. And absolutely never pay affirm or anybody else late because that will entirely derail your credit and they will always report when you are late paying per your agreement with them

[JoeRockhead]

Welcome to the forum. Aside from the question of if the points loss was Fico score or Vantage. The issue with products like Affirm are they're considered, and scored as a CFA (consumer finance account).

CFAs tend to be scored more harshly due to being considered products focused towards higher risk borrowers. An unfair assessment as not everyone who makes use of these types of products is high risk.

Affirm and it's reporting has been known to be sporadic at best, so it's anyone's guess as to what they'll report, or even if and when they'll report. Maybe someone with more experience with an Affirm account will chime in about their reporting.

The best thing you could do is pay them in full at your earliest convenience and avoid using them in the future... Your scores should have no problem recovering in plenty of time for your home purchase.

[Pppoolboy]

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@GZG wrote:

you can mitigate these impacts by getting and holding on to credit for a long time, if you only have 3 credit cards and a car loan, with 2 years of history, affirm will impact you much more than if you had 12 credit cards, 2 car loans and a mortgage with 15 years of history for example 

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excellent advice.... "wait around for a decade or so. And buy a house."

[coldworld]

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@Pppoolboy wrote:

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@GZG wrote:

you can mitigate these impacts by getting and holding on to credit for a long time, if you only have 3 credit cards and a car loan, with 2 years of history, affirm will impact you much more than if you had 12 credit cards, 2 car loans and a mortgage with 15 years of history for example 

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excellent advice.... "wait around for a decade or so. And buy a house."

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This was not the advice given at all 

[Din2]

I'm a little confused here. I have an Affirm loan from last year and it is not on any of my credit reports. Are you saying you went past due on your Affirm loans? I think that would make sense as to why they would decide to report to the creditors.