Affirm might have high-ish interest rates (it varies, some of mine have been 0%, some have been 11%), but the terms are so short that interest paid isn't obscene. I use it once a year to buy something then pay it off, it counts as an installment loan and payoff every time you do it, good for your credit.

Some Junkie Cosmonaut: spiralscratch: Izunbacol: I thought the deal with those things is they were zero interest. Otherwise people would just use credit cards.

Yeah, they're usually 0%. Until you miss a payment and penalties/interest kick in, or fail to realize the monthly minimum won't pay it off before the short 0% term expires and you end up owing a shiat-ton of back-interest.

Predatory lending being predatory?  No me digas!  Loan sharks work the same way, you can borrow it and pay it off quick?  Hey no problem.  Anything at all goes sideways?   Nothing but problems.  They endure the people that pay it off on time in order to suck in the people that are either unlucky or will fark it up

It's more like getting a personal loan from a bank, it's not a credit account, it's a micro-loan without the hard inquiry. Just as an example, I had a $900 purchase last year that I used it for, and I paid through the year. The total interest I paid was $80 over those 12 months. That's pretty good, especially considering their loans are typically 6-12 months in length.