Buy now, pay later provider Affirm has now reached two million debit cards, the company's chief operating officer said last week, for a roughly 43% increase since January.
The cards — which are issued by Evolve Bank and Trust — are a way to drive user engagement and allow the company to make money through interchange fees, Michael Linford said in a June 5 fireside chat at the William Blair 45th Annual Growth Stock Conference in Chicago.
"It's an important part of our long-term strategy," Linford said. "We acquire users at the point of sale and we're compensated."
San Francisco-based Affirm introduced the debit cards in 2021. In April of 2023, the company disclosed that 300,000 people had signed up for the cards. And in January a spokesperson said Affirm had 1.4 million cardholders.
The increase comes in spite of a few hiccups. Affirm Chief Financial Officer Robert O’Hare said in December that cards were being unexpectedly declined and the company was trying to address the problem. Although a company spokesperson would not comment on the extent of the issue.
Card users can use the Affirm card like a debit card, or they can use it to access the company's buy now, pay later services.
"The point of the card is to deliver Affirm's installment loan capabilities to more places," Linford said during the conference. "You can use it offline. You can use it on merchants that we're not integrated with."
A growing number of payment companies are embracing debit cards and credit cards. Digital payments players PayPal and Klarna, for example, both have relied on physical cards to drive an increase consumer payments volume.
