What is the SP AFF* charge?

It can be confusing when you see these charges on a bank statement, so don’t panic. Here is an explanation in simple words:

SP: This is a broad category that includes charges from various third-party companies.

AFF: It stands for Affirm, a premium finance service.

An asterisk (*) after “AFF” indicates further transaction-specific details, such as a reference number, which is a unique identifier for each affirmative purchase associated with the charge. Merchant Information: This may include a short abbreviation of the merchant where you funded your transaction with confirmation.

What is Affirm, and how does it work?

Affirm is a fintech company that provides financial services for BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) programs. This program enables customers to split the cost of the product into convenient monthly installments. We also refer to this as Point of Sale Installment Plan. According to a 2021 Strawhacker survey, 39% of users used this service.

It was founded in 2012 by CEO Max Levchin, who later turned it into PayPal. It traded on NASDAQ in January 2021 with a market share of $10.06 billion. Its purpose is to help people buy the things they want.