How Long Does Affirm Stay on Your Credit Report?

A paid Affirm loan can stay on your credit report for up to ten years after the account closes, while late payments, charge-offs, and collections tied to an Affirm account drop off after seven years. That is the short answer to how long Affirm stays on your credit report, and the details below explain when each clock starts and which Affirm products get reported at all.

Paid-Off Affirm Loans: Up to Ten Years

An Affirm loan you paid on time and in full remains on your credit report for up to ten years from the date the account was closed. For an installment loan, that closure date is typically the day the final payment posts and the lender reports a zero balance.¹ During those ten years the account keeps contributing to your credit history length and payment record.²

If the account had a late payment at some point but you brought it current and paid it off, the late payment mark falls off after seven years while the rest of the account information can remain for the full ten.³

Late Payments, Charge-Offs, and Collections: Seven Years

Negative Affirm entries have to come off after seven years. The Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibits credit bureaus from including collection accounts or other adverse items more than seven years old.⁴

For collections and charge-offs, the actual reporting window is seven years plus 180 days from the date you first fell behind. That 180-day buffer accounts for the lag between a missed payment and when the creditor formally reports the delinquency or sends the account to collections.⁴ In practice, a collection stemming from a missed Affirm payment could appear on your report for roughly seven and a half years from the first missed payment.

When the Clock Starts

The starting point is the first missed payment in the series of missed payments that led to the delinquency, provided you never brought the account current again after that point. If you missed a payment in March, made partial payments over the next few months, and never fully caught up, the clock started in March. Partial payments along the way do not move the date forward.⁵

The Clock Does Not Reset

Making a partial payment on a delinquent Affirm account, or having the debt sold to a new collector, does not restart the seven-year clock. The reporting period is anchored to the original date you first fell behind. Lenders are required to have written policies preventing re-aging, which is artificially changing that original delinquency date to a later one. If a debt buyer purchases your old Affirm balance, the new collection entry still traces back to the same original delinquency date.⁵

Hard Inquiries From Affirm Applications: Two Years

Checking your eligibility with Affirm typically triggers a soft credit check that does not appear on your report or affect your score. Going forward with an approved loan may record a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries remain on your report for up to two years, though their effect on your score fades well before that, and you cannot dispute a legitimate one to have it removed early.⁶

Whether Your Affirm Loan Appears at All

Not every Affirm loan shows up, so the timing rules only matter if the loan was reported in the first place. Affirm expanded its reporting in 2025. Beginning April 1, 2025, it started reporting all pay-over-time products, including Pay in 4, to Experian.⁷ Beginning May 1, 2025, the same expanded reporting extended to TransUnion.⁸

Plans opened before those cutoff dates followed narrower rules: they were reported only to Experian, and only if they were longer-term monthly installment loans. Pay in 4 plans and some 0% APR promotional loans issued before the cutoffs were generally not reported at all. Affirm does not currently report to Equifax, so nothing from Affirm will show up on an Equifax report today.⁹

Disputing an Affirm Entry That Should Have Fallen Off

If an Affirm entry stays on your report past the seven-year or ten-year limit, you can file a dispute directly with the credit bureau reporting it. Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax all accept disputes online, by phone, or by mail. If you mail your dispute, use certified mail with a return receipt so you have proof the bureau received it.¹⁰

Include copies of supporting documents such as the original loan agreement, the final payment confirmation, or account statements showing the date you first fell behind. The bureau has 30 days to investigate. That period can be extended by up to 15 additional days if you submit new information during the initial 30-day window, but not if the bureau finds the information inaccurate or unverifiable during that time.¹¹ If the lender cannot verify that the entry is still within its legal reporting window, the bureau must update or delete it.¹²

If a bureau does not correct the outdated entry, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will forward it to the company and require a response.¹³

1
Experian. How Long Do Closed Accounts Stay on Your Credit Report
2
Experian. How Long Can Negative Items Stay on Your Credit Report – Section: How Long Positive Items Remain on Your Credit Report
3
Experian. How Long Do Closed Accounts Stay on Your Credit Report
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
5
Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Reports: What Information Furnishers Need to Know
6
Experian. How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report
7
Affirm Holdings, Inc. Affirm Expands Credit Reporting With Experian to Include All Pay-Over-Time Products
8
Affirm Holdings, Inc. Affirm Expands Credit Reporting to TransUnion on All Pay-Over-Time Products
9
Affirm Help Center. Affirm Credit Reporting Policy
10
Federal Trade Commission. Disputing Errors on Your Credit Reports
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
12
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Do I Dispute an Error on My Credit Report
13
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint About a Financial Product or Service