Exposed: Affirm

Affirm is one of the largest Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) companies in the United States, processing billions of dollars in consumer loans through point-of-sale financing available at over 300,000 merchants including Amazon, Walmart, Shopify stores, and Peloton. The company builds detailed consumer financial profiles by analyzing purchase behavior, payment history, income indicators, spending patterns, and credit risk factors to make real-time lending decisions. Unlike traditional credit cards that report to credit bureaus in aggregate, Affirm has granular visibility into exactly what consumers buy, from which merchants, at what price points, and how reliably they make payments. This itemized purchase data creates a uniquely detailed picture of consumer spending habits and financial health. Affirm uses machine learning models trained on this behavioral data to assess creditworthiness, but the opaque nature of algorithmic lending decisions raises concerns about discriminatory outcomes and financial surveillance. The company partners with Cross River Bank and Celtic Bank to originate loans, creating a complex regulatory structure where data flows between multiple entities. Consumer advocacy groups have raised concerns that BNPL products encourage overspending by fragmenting costs and that the detailed purchase data collected enables a new form of financial surveillance that traditional lenders could never achieve.