91.5 Million Americans Use Buy Now, Pay Later — and This Fall It Finally Starts Moving Their Credit Scores. Here Are the 5 Myths That Could Quietly Cost You Points.
For years the pitch was seductive and simple: split a $200 purchase into four payments, no interest, and — best of all — nothing on your credit report. That last part is now expiring. As of 2026, Klarna reports to TransUnion and Equifax, Affirm feeds Experian and TransUnion, and FICO has released two new scoring models — FICO Score 10 BNPL and 10 T BNPL — that pull point-of-sale installment loans directly into your score for the first time in history. With 91.5 million Americans now using buy now, pay later and 41% of BNPL borrowers admitting they've paid late in the past year, the invisible debt is becoming very visible. But the rules are messier than the headlines suggest — one major provider still reports nothing, the models can raise your score as easily as lower it, and most of what people 'know' about BNPL and credit is already wrong. This is a myth-buster: five widely believed claims about BNPL and your credit, checked against what actually reports in 2026 and what to do about it.
