Affirm Loan - PIF before it reports

[Anonymous]

So quick question for all you MF'ers! I recently took out a loan with Affirm. The first payment is due November 29th. This will show as a consumer loan? If so I didn't know this prior to the transaction or I would've thought twice! 

My question is if I PIF before the due date is it possible that it never reports? Either way I think I'm going to go this route. Worst case scenario lenders will be able to see that it wasn't necessarily desperation as I paid it off prior to due date. It was a really good deal and thats the only reason I took it! 

[Anonymous]

By "consumer loan" do you mean Consumer Finance Account?  All loans that people typically discuss here (auto loans, home loans, student loans, personal loans) are loans taken out by consumers, but I am guessing you mean a CFA, which is indeed viewed as a bad thing by FICO and hurts your score.

I do not know that all (or any) loans from Affirm are being tagged by FICO as CFAs.  (Though that certainly could be true.)  What evidence do we have that this is so?

I seriously doubt that paying the loan to zero tomorrow will stop Affirm from reporting it to the three bureaus.

If the loan is being considered by FICO as a CFA, then it's the FICO scoring impact that you will care about.  I am doubtful that a particular lender will penalize you for seeing it in a manual review.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback Credit Guy! You are correct that is what I meant! I think they only report ot EX or at least thats what I've read on here. Also I beleive I've seen that it's tagged as an CFA but not certain about this! 

By the way - didn't see the gains on NFCU SSL that I had hoped. Although it's yet to report to EX. 

[Anonymous]

Is the SSL reporting as being paid to under 8%?

Are you certain that you have no other open installment accounts?  (Car leases, consumer finance accounts, student loans, mortgages, any loans of any kind)?

Also, what tools are you using to track your credit scores?  (In particular the scores that you say didn't go up.)

Finally is it possible that you did get a scoring boost but this was obscurred by a score harming event?  To take one example, your credit card balances going up?  Or your credit card balances all becoming $0?

[Anonymous]

Yes - Actually 7.6%. I MIGHT have ganed 8-12 points. I saw more of an increase when the AU popped up.

You think it's an error that NFCU is reporting all that history? It opened in October like it says - maybe just an error on legend. 

But this is odd

[Anonymous]

I have a loan through affirm it does not list as a CFA on Experian for me. They don’t update monthly for me either. It still shows $688 owed when it’s down to 121 owed.

I’m not sure how often they do their reporting, but for me it seems every 3 months or so.

[Anonymous]

Did do anything for you score? Revolving or installment? I’m just going to pay mine off before it reports.

[RonM21]

Worst case is that you pay it off and it reports as closed and paid up to date.  I also can't see this being a negative in the eyes of lenders.  It will just be one more account in your file, at least for Experian.   

[Anonymous]

Hi Brandon.  One of the things I notice is that your Navy Fed loan has $0 listed as its original balance.  It's possible that FICO 8 views your loan as being maxxed out, since your Balance ($19) is greater than the Original Loan Amount ($0).  In the SSL technique you want a loan that has a balance reporting at 8% or less of the original loan amount.

I suggest you start a separate thread where you discuss this and try to get advice from other people who have implemented the Share Secure Loan Technique at Navy (and had great success)... directing them to the $0 Original Loan Amount.

BTW, you may not understand how the SSL technqiue actually works.  If you did, you wouldn't be opening more loans within a few weeks of opening the Navy SSL.

PS.  Can you give me the source of the screenshot you posted?  Is it from a particular credit bureau?  If so, which one and when was that report pulled?

[Anonymous]

Experian is the source. That is odd that the original balance shows $0. Good catch. I never said I was opening another loan now. Lol

I totally understand how it works. I’m opening another SSL before this one closes out in April. Think I clearly explained this above. If not my apologies.