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Why I'll never use Affirm again

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Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#131

Post by tehwebguy »

antihero wrote: post #105
L_Rahman wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0% APR over 12 months for a big ticket purchase like a mattress in an inflationary environment and a bull market can easily equal an additional 5-7% discount on 2000 dollars. Admittedly this is not how most people are using Affirm, but it's definitely been useful to me in that way.

If you pay your balance in full each month every card is 0% forever, at least in the U.K.

At this moment in the US at least Bank of America, Discover, Chase, Citi & Capital One have publicly available offers for cards with 15 - 18 months of zero interest. All but the Chase (Slate) & Citi (Diamond) offer rewards of 1% back or better.

It is very common to get a credit limit in the range of $10-20k on these cards, one could easily put all expenses on a 0% interest card, make minimum payments and put the amount of the statement balance in a high yield savings account until the promotional interest ends.

In total one would get negative interest in the amount of the rewards (say 1.25% average) plus the 15+ month yield on the cash stored away.

Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#132

Post by [deleted] »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #17

I've never understood the appeal of using a product like Affirm, especially if you already have a credit card. Credit cards already give you a 30-day grace period before purchases start accruing interest. Using Affirm to extend that to 42 days seems inconsequential. It seems like their target customer are people bad with credit, which would make them predatory.

[deleted]

Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#134

Post by victorvosk »

"I'm fortunate to be in a financial position where damage to my credit score wouldn't be the end of the world.."

Then why did you bother using a pay later scheme for a few hundred dollars on some sketch retailer?

This is like the person that chose to walk down a dark alley in a large unfamiliar city and can't believe they got mugged.

Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#135

Post by _jal »

simulate-me wrote: post #76
morpheuskafka wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We should have systems in place where people are guaranteed to have their issues remedied. That's basically what a lawsuit is--you sue someone and if they don't respond, you generally win by default, but if they do, you have the burden of proving your facts.

You don't just have to prove your facts. You also need to be acquainted with the current law and literally centuries of case-law. The burden is immense for an individual.

Small claims court isn't that demanding.

Another aspect of that is that if you opted out of arbitration is that small claims is a huge hassle for large companies. They will usually deal with you rather than fly some lawyer in.

If you didn't, well, arbitrators are paid by your opponent, and their decision score cards reflect that.

Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#136

Post by ugh123 »

simulate-me wrote: post #13
aynyc wrote: post #4

My next steps are to file a complaint with the NY State Attorney General's office. This is a right approach. I wish more people know about this.

Filing a complaint is nice, but you’re basically at the mercy of the AG to care enough to do something.

verses... what?

Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#137

Post by [deleted] »

victorvosk wrote: post #134

"I'm fortunate to be in a financial position where damage to my credit score wouldn't be the end of the world.." Then why did you bother using a pay later scheme for a few hundred dollars on some sketch retailer? This is like the person that chose to walk down a dark alley in a large unfamiliar city and can't believe they got mugged.

[deleted]

Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#138

Post by faeriechangling »

victorvosk wrote: post #134

"I'm fortunate to be in a financial position where damage to my credit score wouldn't be the end of the world.." Then why did you bother using a pay later scheme for a few hundred dollars on some sketch retailer? This is like the person that chose to walk down a dark alley in a large unfamiliar city and can't believe they got mugged.

The incentive seems pretty obvious to me. You can take the money you save, put it into an ultraconservative investment vehicle, and effectively end up paying less money overall for the same purchase. Most people who finance through these providers do not run into any problems.

To put it another way, if you don't take advantage of 0% APR financing, you are effectively paying a surcharge to not have to deal with the additional complexity/risk of investing/financing/dealing with credit agencies. It's not clear to me at all you are getting your money's worth as a result of paying that higher price.

Fractional reserve banking is slanted to benefit people who take out debt and companies like Affirm allow somebody who may not be in the market for a Home or a Car to leverage their creditworthiness. Not using your available credit is not much different than keeping your cash under your bed instead of in an investment vehicle. People are just responding to the incentives created by central bankers and do bizarre yet rational things like take out loans for things they can afford out of pocket.

Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again

#140

Post by kelnos »

cityofdelusion wrote: post #112

Is it normal to do a chargeback against a loan provider? I was under the impression that it’s more for “services rendered” type of situations — which the lender fulfilled by providing the loan. I would expect there to be pure chaos if I did that to any of my lenders. I’ve just never heard of this sort of situation so I’m curious as to what the financial wisdom is.

I would think that the better thing -- in an ideal world -- would be to contact Affirm and tell them to withhold payment from the merchant, since the merchant had not provided the goods. That way you'd still be in Affirm's good graces.

But considering how this particular situation went as-is, I doubt Affirm would handle that request in any useful manner. Then again, I feel like this was a bit of an unusual situation that Affirm's customer service people were not well-equipped to handle (most people probably don't send chargebacks to Affirm), but perhaps Affirm does have a playbook for cases where a customer pays for something that isn't delivered.

So I'd agree that Affirm might not be the most appropriate target for a chargeback in this instance, but there might not be other options to get the merchant to send the goods. OP should have at least contacted Affirm before issuing the chargeback, though, since that's something of a nuclear option.

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