Consumer complaint received 2026-06-02 00:00:00
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan — 
Company: Affirm Holdings, Inc
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year>, I attempted to purchase airline tickets from XXXX XXXX XXXX using an Affirm virtual card. The transaction failed during checkout. No reservation was created and no airline tickets were issued. I contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX and received written confirmation that : * No ticket was issued. * No reservation exists. * XXXX did not complete or capture any funds for the transaction. * There is no settled transaction on XXXX 's end to reverse. * The pending authorizations were not finalized because the transaction was never completed. I then contacted Affirm regarding the loan referenced. During multiple conversations with Affirm representatives and a supervisor, Affirm confirmed : * There are two pending authorizations associated with the attempted purchase in the amounts of {$810.00} and {$790.00}. * No merchant capture has occurred. * XXXX has not completed the transaction. * The loan remains in " merchant processing '' status. * If no funds are captured by XX/XX/year>, the loan will automatically cancel. * My down payment will be refunded within XXXX business days after the loan is canceled. I specifically asked Affirm to explain why my down payment is being retained when : * No reservation exists. * No ticket was issued. * No goods or services were received. * XXXX did not capture any funds. * Affirm acknowledges that no merchant capture occurred. Affirm initially indicated that the merchant was responsible for releasing the authorization. However, after I provided XXXX 's written statement confirming that there was no completed transaction and no funds were captured, Affirm clarified that the reason the loan remains open is Affirm 's internal policy. Affirm stated : " Once an Affirm card loan is approved, but the merchant can't process any order and confirmed no funds were ever captured, we're unable to manually cancel these loans, and Affirm has a policy of waiting until the cutoff date for the loan to drop off automatically. '' I also requested the contractual or policy basis for retaining my down payment until XX/XX/year>. Affirm was unable to identify a specific provision authorizing retention of the down payment under these circumstances and instead referred generally to its Terms of Service. Affirm documented my concerns under XXXX XXXX XXXX. My concern is that Affirm acknowledges : * No completed transaction occurred. * No merchant captured funds. * No goods or services were received. * The loan should ultimately be canceled. Despite this, Affirm is retaining my down payment until at least XX/XX/year> solely because of an internal processing policy that does not allow manual cancellation of failed transactions. I respectfully request that the CFPB review whether it is appropriate for a consumer financial services company to retain a consumer 's down payment for approximately 30 days after a failed transaction when both the merchant and the lender agree that no completed transaction occurred.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation