Buy Now, Pay Later Loans Are Starting to Hit Your Credit Score in 2026
For years, splitting a purchase into four interest-free payments through a buy now, pay later app carried essentially no consequences for a credit score, regardless of whether every installment was paid on time or not. That’s changing. A new generation of credit scoring models built specifically to read BNPL activity has begun rolling out, and the providers behind the most popular apps are taking very different approaches to whether they report to the credit bureaus at all.
The shift matters because of how widespread the habit has become. Nearly half of Americans say they’ve used a buy now, pay later service, and a Federal Reserve survey found that close to two-thirds of consumers had been offered the option within a single year. What was once a niche checkout feature has become a mainstream form of consumer credit, and mainstream credit tends to eventually show up on a credit report.
A new scoring model built for BNPL
The credit scoring company FICO announced new models in 2025 specifically designed to read buy now, pay later loans the way they actually function: short-term installment loans, typically split into four payments over about six weeks, that many consumers open several of in quick succession. Standard credit scoring formulas had no consistent way to interpret that pattern before these models existed, which is part of why BNPL activity stayed largely invisible to credit scores regardless of payment behavior.
With the new models in place, lenders can now request a version of a consumer’s score that factors in BNPL activity alongside one that doesn’t, and choose which to use when evaluating an applicant’s creditworthiness.
Not every provider reports the same way
Here’s the part that catches many users off guard: using a BNPL app doesn’t automatically mean the loan shows up anywhere on a credit report. Reporting practices vary significantly by company.
One major provider, Affirm, began sharing repayment data with two of the three nationwide credit bureaus in 2025, meaning its loans can now factor into the newer BNPL-aware scoring models. Klarna and Afterpay, two of the other most widely used services, work differently. As of now, neither reports payment data to the major credit bureaus. Afterpay has said publicly that it won’t begin reporting until it has evidence that doing so will help its customers’ scores more than it hurts them.
That inconsistency means the exact same type of purchase, split into four payments, can be entirely invisible to a lender on one app while fully visible on another, depending solely on which company processed it. Equifax has separately created a formal process for accepting BNPL account information into traditional credit files, giving lenders and BNPL providers a standardized way to report this data going forward, though adoption across the industry remains uneven.
Late payments are becoming more common
The stakes of this shift are rising alongside a less encouraging trend: BNPL users are increasingly falling behind on payments. According to one major 2026 industry survey, 47 percent of BNPL users say they’ve paid late on one of these loans within the past year, up six percentage points from the year before and up 13 points from two years earlier. The same survey found more users are turning to BNPL specifically to cover groceries, more are juggling three or more BNPL loans simultaneously, and more than half say they wouldn’t be able to make ends meet without the option.
There is a small silver lining for borrowers who do fall behind. A separate survey found that BNPL lenders are highly likely to waive a late fee if a borrower simply asks, suggesting the companies have some flexibility built in for occasional missed payments, at least for now.
Outright default rates on BNPL loans remain relatively low, generally cited around 2 percent, even as the share of users reporting at least one missed payment climbs into the 33 to 41 percent range across various surveys. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond have noted that, given BNPL’s current scale and observed default rates, its overall impact on financial stability appears limited so far, though they caution that spillover effects into other forms of consumer credit remain a possibility worth monitoring.
Congressional and regulatory attention
Lawmakers have taken notice of the reporting gap. In a formal letter sent to Equifax earlier this year, members of the Senate Banking Committee pressed the credit bureau on how it planned to handle BNPL data, noting that several major BNPL companies had told congressional staff they weren’t currently sharing repayment information with credit reporting agencies at all, even as BNPL usage grows among consumers who describe themselves as struggling with affordability.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published consumer-facing guidance clarifying that some BNPL products do involve hard credit inquiries and do report payment history, while others don’t, and it recommends reading the details of any BNPL offer carefully before applying or accepting a loan. Broader questions about how BNPL should be regulated, including whether it should fall under the same federal lending disclosure rules that apply to credit cards, remain unresolved and continue to be debated in Washington.
What this means for BNPL users
The practical takeaway is that assumptions many consumers have relied on for years no longer hold universally. A survey found that roughly 40 percent of BNPL users cite the fact that it doesn’t affect their credit score as one of the product’s top benefits, and nearly half say they wouldn’t change their usage habits even if that changed. Given the uneven rollout of credit reporting across providers, that assumption is becoming riskier to rely on, particularly for anyone using multiple BNPL apps simultaneously, since a missed payment on a reporting provider could now show up where it previously wouldn’t have.
Anyone actively using these services can check which providers they’re working with are currently reporting to credit bureaus, treat BNPL installments with the same seriousness as any other credit obligation, and avoid stacking multiple concurrent BNPL loans without a clear plan for how each payment fits into their monthly budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does using buy now, pay later always show up on my credit report? No. It depends entirely on the provider. Some, like Affirm, currently report to credit bureaus. Others, including Klarna and Afterpay, do not report to the three nationwide bureaus as of now.
Can a missed BNPL payment hurt my credit score? It can, but only if the provider you used reports payment data to the credit bureaus and your score is being evaluated using a BNPL-aware scoring model. If your provider doesn’t report, a missed payment may still trigger late fees but won’t directly affect your traditional credit score.
Will paying BNPL loans on time help build my credit? Potentially, if your provider reports positive payment history. Since reporting practices vary, on-time payments with a non-reporting provider won’t show up as a credit-building activity the way an on-time credit card or loan payment would.
Are BNPL loans regulated the same way as credit cards? Not currently. Whether BNPL products should fall under the same federal consumer lending protections that apply to credit cards remains an active policy debate, and enforcement approaches have shifted in recent years.
How many BNPL loans is too many to have open at once? There’s no official limit, but survey data shows carrying three or more open BNPL loans at the same time is associated with a higher likelihood of missed payments. Keeping track of every due date across multiple apps is one of the most common ways users end up paying late.
The bottom line
Buy now, pay later is no longer the credit-score blind spot it once was, even if the transition remains uneven and provider-specific. With late payments trending upward and scoring models now built to read this kind of borrowing, treating BNPL installments with the same discipline as any other credit obligation is quickly becoming less optional and more necessary, regardless of whether a particular provider currently reports to the bureaus.