Affirm Personal Loans Review

Our take on Affirm

Affirm is a BNPL app that offers short- and long-term financing for retail purchases, including no-interest options with no fees. You can find Affirm as a payment option with many retailers or download the Affirm app to take advantage of special promotions. But Affirm isn’t the best option for long-term funding needs, since Affirm’s payment plans are less flexible and offer lower loan amounts than a traditional personal loan.

Affirm features

What is Affirm best for?

• Small purchases you can pay off quickly: Affirm offers 0% APR financing on short-term, BNPL plans for eligible customers. One example is 4 interest-free bi-weekly payments with the first payment due at checkout. This Pay in 4 option may give you more time to pay than the grace period on a credit card, which is typically 21 to 25 days, but it’s only an option for purchases between $50 and $250. 
• 0% APR promotions: Eligible customers may be able to access 0% APR payment plans with terms up to 24 months at select retailers. Affirm ran a “0% Days” promotion in 2025 but also makes offers available on an ongoing basis in the Affirm app or through the Affirm card.

What is Affirm not best for?

• Long-term personal loans: Affirm offers term lengths up to 48 months, while other personal loan lenders offer repayment terms up to 72 months or more. 
• Non-retail purchases: You can use Affirm personal loans at many retail stores, including non-partner merchants and brick-and-mortar stores with the Affirm Card. But if you need to finance a used car, consolidate credit debt, or cover other cash-only expenses, a traditional personal loan lender will be a better fit. 
• Larger loans: Affirm's maximum loan amount is $20,000. The cart limit is $30,000, and the customer would need to provide the remaining $10,000 as a down payment. If you need a loan for a large expense, like a home improvement project, wedding, or business startup, you’ll need to look for a larger installment loan or home equity loan — some lenders offer personal loans up to $100,000 or more. 
• Payment flexibility: Affirm’s Pay-in-4 plan may give you extra time to pay without incurring interest, but you can’t change your payment date or extend the plan if your financial situation changes. Other BNPL providers, like Afterpay, offer more flexibility. Affirm doesn’t charge late fees, but the lender may report late payments to the credit bureaus after 30 days.

Pros and cons

Details on the pros

• Interest-free payment options: Depending on the retailer and your eligibility, you may have a range of interest-free payment options. These include 4 interest-free bi-weekly payments, 2 interest-free payments every 15 days, one deferred interest-free payment 30 days after the date of purchase, or equal, interest-free monthly payments over the course of a 0% APR promo (up to 24 months). 
• Quick application with no hard credit check: You can check your eligibility at a partner merchant or in the Affirm app. If you sign up at checkout, you’ll automatically find out if you’re eligible for a plan with no effect on your credit score. However, if you accept one of the long-term plans, Affirm may run a hard credit check. A hard inquiry could lower your credit score by up to 10 points for as long as 1 year.
• Works at many retailers: Affirm partners with hundreds of thousands of merchants worldwide, and you can also apply for a loan online or in the mobile app and get a virtual card to use online or in-store at non-partners. You can also use Affirm with Google Pay or Apple Pay. 
• Credit card payments allowed for some interest-free plans: Affirm allows you to use a credit card for auto-payments on some plans, like its Pay-in-4 plan, which offers the flexibility to carry the balance longer on your credit card with interest as a last resort. However, you can't use a credit card on Affirm plans that charge interest, and some credit card issuers won’t permit use on any repayment plan. 
• No fees: Affirm doesn’t charge any fees, including origination fees, late payment fees, or prepayment penalties. 
• Automatic payment reminders: Affirm sends you an email reminder 3 days before payments are due. You can also turn on SMS notifications and set up AutoPay. These safeguards can help ensure you don’t miss payments or overdraw your account. 

Details on the cons

• Late payments may affect your credit score: In 2025, Affirm began reporting payment activity to the credit bureaus Experian and TransUnion. BNPL payment plans may affect your credit score in the near future, as FICO has developed new credit scoring models incorporating BNPL data. BNPL plans could affect your credit positively or negatively. Not all BNPL providers report your payments — for example, Afterpay currently doesn’t.
• Point-of-sale purchases only: Affirm plans can only be used for purchases at retail stores. In other words, you can’t get a cash loan from Affirm to use as you see fit, such as to pay multiple service providers or consolidate debt. 
• No option to change your due date: Once you pick your payment plan, you can’t change your due date or adjust the terms of your loan. 
• Maximum repayment term of 48 months: Affirm offers repayment term lengths up to four years, which is shorter than most personal loan providers. 
• Maximum loan amount of $20,000: The most you can borrow from Affirm is $20,000, so the lender isn’t ideal for larger expenses, like buying a car or remodeling your house.

How to qualify for an Affirm personal loan

To be eligible for a loan from Affirm, you must:

• Be the age of majority in your state or U.S. territory
• Have a Social Security number
• Own a phone number registered to the U.S. or U.S. territories that receives SMS 

Affirm doesn’t disclose a specific minimum credit score, and approval criteria vary by store and are subject to change. When considering your loan application, Affirm may consider factors like:

• Your credit score 
• Your credit utilization
• Your income and debt
• Recent bankruptcies

If you've used Affirm before, the criteria may also include:

• How long you’ve had an Affirm account
• Your Affirm payment history
• Your outstanding Affirm payment plans

Affirm personal loan purposes

Affirm is a BNPL provider that offers point-of-sale personal loans, so you can only use the funds for retail purchases. Affirm pays the retailer directly. You can use Affirm for eligible purchases at participating stores in the U.S., U.S. Territories, Canada, or the U.K. 

Affirm prohibits you from using an Affirm loan to purchase certain products, goods, and services, including:

• Illegal items and activities
• Weapons
• Narcotics and drug paraphernalia
• Cryptocurrency
• Money transfer services
• Cash advances, loans, and credit card payments

Affirm fees and penalties

Affirm doesn’t charge any fees or penalties, including late fees and prepayment penalties. Bear in mind that Affirm may report late payments to credit bureaus after a 30-day grace period.

Affirm company details and history

Affirm is a BNPL financing provider founded in 2012 in San Francisco, California. Originally called Expedite, the company changed its name to Affirm in 2013. It began as an integrated checkout financing provider at partner merchants and expanded to offering universally accepted virtual cards in 2016. 

The company launched a marketplace app in 2019 and an FDIC-insured, interest-bearing savings account in 2020 with banking partner Cross River Bank. Affirm also offers the Affirm Card debit card, which customers can use to pay in full or initiate Affirm payment plans at checkout by making a request in the Affirm app. 

Contact information

• By phone: You can reach Affirm customer service at 855-423-3729 between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. ET, 7 days a week. If the wait time is longer than 4 minutes, you’ll have the option to request a callback. 
• Online: You can fill out an online form by selecting your issue and clicking “I still need help” if the help articles don’t answer your question. 
• Live chat: Support is available in the Affirm app from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET on weekdays. 

Methodology

Credible evaluated 32 lenders across 1,216 data points to choose the best lender overall plus top picks for different borrowers and use cases. Across lenders, we collected data on customer experience and service options, minimum and maximum fixed interest rates, minimum and maximum loan amounts, funding times, loan terms, fees, discounts, third-party reviews, and more.

We assigned a numerical value to each attribute based on how that feature compared with the same feature for every other lender in the set. Attributes were grouped into categories, scores were compiled, and categories were weighted according to their relative importance — for instance, rates and fees were weighted highest since loan cost is among the most important factors in determining loan value.

• Rates and fees: 18.75%
• Eligibility and options for bad and no credit: 17.5%
• Availability: 12.5%
• Loan amounts and terms: 10%
• Customer satisfaction: 10%
• Customer service: 10%
• Efficiency and fund delivery: 10%
• Discounts: 7.5%
• Credible proprietary data: 3.75%

We also considered each of our partner lenders' statistics over a 12-month period — including average funding times, average credit scores for approved applicants, and average rates. Learn more about how Credible rates lenders by exploring our full personal loans lender rating methodology.