4 ms·

The lead is generous. Affirm is charging you for a loan you've already paid and threatening you with late payment. This should be criminal.

trillic 5y ago
Extortion?
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  Indeed. I would just pay it again. 25% of $271 is cheaper than a credit score hit. You can simultaneously dispute with the Attorney General office.
  - cl0ckt0wer 5y ago
    And that's how they make money on 0% interest loans.
    - warent 5y ago
      A buggy edge case on a tiny borrowed amount does not equate a business model of a multi-million dollar corporation. I've borrowed a total of almost $10,000 thru Affirm over the years and never had problems.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - vxNsr 5y ago
        Can I ask why? I don’t really understand what financially competent person is using affirm. Generally when it comes to buying small nonessentials, if you can’t afford to pay for it now, the prevailing wisdom is don’t find a way to buy it, just do without. I’m also curious to hear what the experience is like when you need to return something that was bought with affirm? Do they cancel the loan quickly? It appears their cs dept is under trained and doesn’t have the tools necessary to do a good job.
    - loeg 5y ago
      No, it really isn't. The seller pays them a ~6% fee that isn't passed on to the consumer; that's how they make money.
  - tomp 5y ago
    You should probably read patio11's article on fighting credit agencies instead. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...
    - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
      Not sure why the down votes. You can simultaneously dispute with the Attorney General office while paying Affirm's demands, in the hopes of later getting one of the payments refunded.
      - ameliaquining 5y ago
        The claim in the linked article is that paying the demanded sum will harm the payor's prospects in a subsequent dispute, because the law assumes that any payment of a debt constitutes an admission on the part of the payor that the debt was legitimately owed.
    - ilrwbwrkhv 5y ago
      This was a fascinating read.
  - bena 5y ago
    This isn't the worst advice if he has the money to float it. I recently had a non-renewal on my homeowner's insurance so I had to get new homeowner's insurance. Through a whole bunch of stuff, I wound up effectively sending three payments to two separate insurance companies. I had to float about $7000 - $8000 for a bit. The insurance agent I had found seemed to be a bit inept, so I wasn't confident they had everything set up properly. Because when I called my mortgage company, they had no clue I was changing insurance companies. They had already submitted payment to the old insurance. I eventually found out how to pay the insurance on my own and just did that. And how to update my insurance information online. Then my escrow paid the new insurance company. So now I had three payments to two companies. And I had to pay into my escrow to cover the double payment. I was prepared to fight both of these companies to get them to cut checks back to me, but just as I was steeling myself for a day of talking to hapless customer service agents, the refund check from the wrong insurance came in. Then a week later, the refund check from the second payment to the correct insurance came in. But yeah. I wanted to make sure I didn't have a lapse in coverage and then had to cover my escrow shortage. I technically could have waited for everything to sort out, but I didn't want to find out what would happen if things hadn't landed right.
    - drdec 5y ago
      Just FYI, but depending on your situation, you do not need to pay for homeowner's insurance (or real estate taxes) via escrow. You can handle it all yourself so you'll only have yourself to blame if the payments get screwed up.
      - bena 5y ago
        Eh. I don't mind having it handled through escrow. When it's all set up, it works well enough. It's just getting it to change was a potential issue.

trillic 5y ago

Extortion?

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
Indeed. I would just pay it again. 25% of $271 is cheaper than a credit score hit. You can simultaneously dispute with the Attorney General office.
- cl0ckt0wer 5y ago
  And that's how they make money on 0% interest loans.
  - warent 5y ago
    A buggy edge case on a tiny borrowed amount does not equate a business model of a multi-million dollar corporation. I've borrowed a total of almost $10,000 thru Affirm over the years and never had problems.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - vxNsr 5y ago
      Can I ask why? I don’t really understand what financially competent person is using affirm. Generally when it comes to buying small nonessentials, if you can’t afford to pay for it now, the prevailing wisdom is don’t find a way to buy it, just do without. I’m also curious to hear what the experience is like when you need to return something that was bought with affirm? Do they cancel the loan quickly? It appears their cs dept is under trained and doesn’t have the tools necessary to do a good job.
  - loeg 5y ago
    No, it really isn't. The seller pays them a ~6% fee that isn't passed on to the consumer; that's how they make money.
- tomp 5y ago
  You should probably read patio11's article on fighting credit agencies instead. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    Not sure why the down votes. You can simultaneously dispute with the Attorney General office while paying Affirm's demands, in the hopes of later getting one of the payments refunded.
    - ameliaquining 5y ago
      The claim in the linked article is that paying the demanded sum will harm the payor's prospects in a subsequent dispute, because the law assumes that any payment of a debt constitutes an admission on the part of the payor that the debt was legitimately owed.
  - ilrwbwrkhv 5y ago
    This was a fascinating read.
- bena 5y ago
  This isn't the worst advice if he has the money to float it. I recently had a non-renewal on my homeowner's insurance so I had to get new homeowner's insurance. Through a whole bunch of stuff, I wound up effectively sending three payments to two separate insurance companies. I had to float about $7000 - $8000 for a bit. The insurance agent I had found seemed to be a bit inept, so I wasn't confident they had everything set up properly. Because when I called my mortgage company, they had no clue I was changing insurance companies. They had already submitted payment to the old insurance. I eventually found out how to pay the insurance on my own and just did that. And how to update my insurance information online. Then my escrow paid the new insurance company. So now I had three payments to two companies. And I had to pay into my escrow to cover the double payment. I was prepared to fight both of these companies to get them to cut checks back to me, but just as I was steeling myself for a day of talking to hapless customer service agents, the refund check from the wrong insurance came in. Then a week later, the refund check from the second payment to the correct insurance came in. But yeah. I wanted to make sure I didn't have a lapse in coverage and then had to cover my escrow shortage. I technically could have waited for everything to sort out, but I didn't want to find out what would happen if things hadn't landed right.
  - drdec 5y ago
    Just FYI, but depending on your situation, you do not need to pay for homeowner's insurance (or real estate taxes) via escrow. You can handle it all yourself so you'll only have yourself to blame if the payments get screwed up.
    - bena 5y ago
      Eh. I don't mind having it handled through escrow. When it's all set up, it works well enough. It's just getting it to change was a potential issue.