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> Are they pushing more charges to the retailer and less interest charges to the consumer?

This is my understanding of how the “no-interest” BNPL offers work. You can buy a Peloton bike and finance it through Affirm for 0% interest. The only way that scheme works for Affirm is if Peloton pays a kickback to Affirm for handling the financing.

I just read through their latest 10Q and it confirmed what I assumed:

“From merchants, we earn a fee when we help them convert a sale and facilitate a transaction. While merchant fees depend on the individual arrangement between us and each merchant and vary based on the terms of the product offering, we generally earn larger merchant fees on 0% APR financing products. For the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, 0% APR financing represented 43% and 46%, respectively, of total GMV facilitated through our platform.”

They also buy and service some of the loans they make.

https://investors.affirm.com/static-files/c2bbca98-f909-4961...




Ideally you could just wait until you saved money to buy your smart bike.

The issue here is at least with a credit card I'm motivated to pay off the debt ASAP, and shop on total price vs what the payments are.

Super smart bike for 99$ a month sounds better than Smart bike for 2500$.

I recall as a teenager I went to a Rent a Center and they pitched a 50$ a week laptop. For like 24 weeks. Absolutely idiotic, I saved 400$ and brought one cash.

This type of thing preys upon the fiscally illiterate. You should NEVER use this junk. Keep one or two credit cards and pay them off ASAP.




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