Predatory loans from Silicon Valley.. It's evil at scale!!!
Why I'll never use Affirm again
181–190 of 298 posts
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#182I'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.
IDK. My credit is great and anytime I'm offered 0% interest over 12-24 months for purchases $1k+ I take it. I much prefer having cash in hand. I don't buy very much stuff in general, but that's a different conversation.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#183This is kind of OP's fault, right? I don't think it was appropriate to initiate a charge back on a payment to affirm since they provided their service to OP, that is they already paid for whatever OP was buying. I have a feeling that timing between OP opening the chargeback and the shipping of the item was actually coincidental. I'd think if you paid affirm and the merchant hadn't shipped the item, then your recourse…
What? How are you going to charge back against someone you didn't actually deal with financially?
Your arguement is that Affirm should be able to clip the ticket and hold no responsibility for their client fufilling their duties?
The charge back goes to who you paid for a service, if they need to pass it on, it's for them to do.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bingo. That's why I've done payment plans as well. Not because I couldn't just buy the thing, but because spreading the payments out over 12 months means more investment capital.
> because spreading the payments out over 12 months means more investment capital This is essentially borrowing money to invest. It doesn't matter if the investment makes money or loses money the lender will expect payment. This strategy can make a lot of money, but it's also ruined many people. One key thing to watch while implementing this strategy is your debt to assets ratio. Also understand that during a market…
Over the past few years, borrowing money at 0%APR to put into the stock market has been very profitable.
A lot of people are probably getting used to that idea, and if/when the market turns its going to be messy.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#185Is 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.
They're often very ill-equipped to deal with it and honestly it can hurt OR help you.
My car loan processor accidentally double charged my $5k loan payoff (and it didn't bounce). Customer support told me the only way to get back my money quickly would be to report fraud through my bank on the 2nd charge, which I did and the 2nd charge was returned within 2 business days. Then several weeks later I get snail-mail confirmation that my loan had been paid off and a certificate indicating this, along with a check for $5k from the lender. I called their customer support but they told me they are sorry but unfortunately since the account was already marked as paid out and those funds disbursed, I would "have" to keep it, so I gladly cashed the $5k check thereby getting my final $5k payoff of my vehicle for free thanks to the lender's mistakes.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#186Predatory loans from Silicon Valley.. It's evil at scale!!!
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Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#187This is kind of OP's fault, right? I don't think it was appropriate to initiate a charge back on a payment to affirm since they provided their service to OP, that is they already paid for whatever OP was buying. I have a feeling that timing between OP opening the chargeback and the shipping of the item was actually coincidental. I'd think if you paid affirm and the merchant hadn't shipped the item, then your recourse…
I agree it does read like the OP triggered the entire issue with payments using a chargeback originating from Chase, regardless of the support/platform issues with Affirm. I don't believe charging back the loan provider had any outcome to getting their product/service. Affirm was the wrong target.
I have done a charge back against PayPal and I stand by it.
Basically, the vendor said it shipped me the product but never did. However, it gave PayPal a tracking number which was for something delivered to my town. I waited several months for the vendor to make things right.
I asked PayPal and the person said there is nothing it can do. I did a charge back and the bank gave me my money back.
So no, screw the vendors and screw the payment processors. I don't owe them anything. It is their responsibility to do things right or get a charge back.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#188There's a misconception that when you initiate a chargeback through your credit card, then you're good, you have your money and the merchant just has to eat it. But the chargeback doesn't erase your debt with the merchant, so they are free to collect that debt by other means, including sending it to a debt collector. Adding a third party like Affirm makes this messier - Affirm (presumably) fulfilled their service, th…
I've had a scungy online only travel agent try to pull this on me before.
Their email to me saying they would be materially disadvantaged and blah blah blah got met with a response telling them to fuck off, stop emailing me and that I was reporting them to my bank for merchant fraud (which I did).
Problem solved. It's all fun and games until they risk losing their ability to process credit cards.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#189Is 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.
They're often very ill-equipped to deal with it and honestly it can hurt OR help you. My car loan processor accidentally double charged my $5k loan payoff (and it didn't bounce). Customer support told me the only way to get back my money quickly would be to report fraud through my bank on the 2nd charge, which I did and the 2nd charge was returned within 2 business days. Then several weeks later I get snail-mail conf…
This is like the mattress startup equivalent where if you try to return a mattress within their very generous trial period, you're often told to "keep it" and your purchase price is refunded.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to add to this, it sounds like OP didn't contact Affirm until after they already started the charge back. I definitely don't think it is appropriate to do a charge back before contacting the vendor that got the payment, which is Affirm.
My credit card won't even let me initiate a chargeback until I've contacted the retailer.
OP contacted the retailer according to the story. Affirm is not a retailer.