Does Affirm Affect Your Credit Score? Soft Pulls & Reporting

Last updated 07/16/2026 by

Andrew Latham

Edited by

Andrew Latham

Summary:

Affirm can affect your credit score, because it now reports its loans to two major credit bureaus, though simply applying for it does not hurt your score. What matters is how you pay, not that you use it.

Applying: A soft check means no ding for using Affirm at checkout.
Reporting: Affirm now reports its loans, including Pay in 4.
On-time payments: Paying on time keeps your credit file clean.
Missed payments: A late payment can be reported and lower your score.

Buy now, pay later feels separate from your credit, so it is fair to wonder whether Affirm quietly helps or hurts.

The answer changed recently. Affirm used to stay mostly off your credit report, but as of 2025 it reports far more, which makes how you pay matter more than it used to.

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Does Affirm affect your credit score?

Applying for Affirm does not hurt your score, because Affirm runs only a soft credit check to approve you at checkout.

What can affect your score is how you repay. As of 2025, Affirm reports its loans, including Pay in 4, to Experian and TransUnion, so a missed payment can show up and pull your score down.

What you do	Effect on your credit
Apply and check out with Affirm	Soft check, no impact on your score
Pay in 4, paid on time	Reported to Experian and TransUnion since 2025
Monthly financing, paid on time	Reported as an installment loan
Miss a payment by 30+ days	Reported and can lower your score
Any Affirm activity at Equifax	Not reported; Affirm skips Equifax

How Affirm reports to the credit bureaus

The big shift is that Affirm now reports Pay in 4, not just its longer loans. The trade line goes to Experian starting April 2025 and TransUnion starting May 2025.

Affirm does not report to Equifax, so its loans will not appear on all three of your reports.

There is a nuance worth understanding. Even where Affirm activity appears on your file, most of it is not yet fully weighted in traditional FICO and VantageScore numbers, so a paid-on-time Affirm loan may not move your score much yet.

When Affirm can hurt your score

The clearest risk is a missed payment. A payment more than 30 days late on a reported loan can be sent to the bureaus and drop your score, sometimes by 50 to 100 points.

An unpaid balance can also be sent to collections, which is a separate and more damaging mark. A soft inquiry at signup never hurts, but the repayment that follows is what carries the risk.

Because the loan now reports, treat Affirm like any other loan rather than a casual checkout option.

Pro Tip: Treat Affirm Pay in 4 like a loan now that it reports.

Since 2025, even Pay in 4 lands on your Experian and TransUnion files, so a single missed installment can hurt you the way a late loan payment would. Autopay on the due date is the simplest way to keep it a non-event.

Key takeaways

Applying for Affirm uses a soft check and does not hurt your score.
Since 2025, Affirm reports its loans, including Pay in 4, to Experian and TransUnion.
Affirm does not report to Equifax.
Most Affirm activity is not yet fully weighted in traditional FICO or VantageScore numbers.
A missed payment can be reported and drop your score by 50 to 100 points.

Frequently asked questions

Does using Affirm build your credit?

It can help build your file now that Affirm reports to Experian and TransUnion, but the effect on your actual score is limited, since most BNPL activity is not yet fully scored. It does not report to Equifax at all.

Does Affirm do a hard credit check?

No. Affirm uses a soft credit check to approve you, so applying does not create a hard inquiry or lower your score.

Will a missed Affirm payment hurt my credit?

Yes. Because Affirm now reports its loans, a payment more than 30 days late can be sent to the bureaus and lower your score, and an unpaid balance can go to collections.