Amazon brings Affirm instalment finance to UK shoppers

Amazon.co.uk has begun rolling out instalment finance from Affirm, adding new credit options at checkout across millions of products on the UK marketplace. Amazon and Affirm announced the partnership on 23 September 2026, with access reaching eligible customers progressively over the following weeks rather than all at once.

The launch gives UK shoppers two distinct ways to spread the cost of a purchase: a three-month option with no interest, and a longer loan that charges interest and can run for up to four years. Both are consumer credit, and Amazon is not the lender. Affirm U.K. Limited provides the finance; Amazon EU S.à r.l. acts as the credit broker that introduces customers to it.

The change lands two months after third-party deferred payment credit, the regulatory term for lending of this kind, came under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) oversight for the first time, on 15 July 2026. That timing matters for anyone signing up: qualifying agreements written under the new products fall within a regime that requires lenders to check affordability, explain terms clearly, support customers who fall behind, and answer to the Financial Ombudsman Service if something goes wrong.

Two products, one important difference

Amazon's payment guide and the companies' launch material describe a shared checkout flow: shoppers select Affirm and receive an instant eligibility decision. The two underlying products, however, work very differently.

Payments on either plan can be made manually or set up as automatic debits from a bank account or debit card. Affirm's launch material states customers can make extra payments or clear the balance early without an early-repayment charge.

Neither company has published a representative example showing the total amount a customer would repay on the 22% plan. That figure depends on how much is borrowed and over what term, and would appear in the credit agreement itself before a customer signs it. Neither company has said which term lengths apply to which basket sizes.

Who qualifies, and what's excluded

To apply, a customer must be a UK resident aged at least 18 with a bank account or debit card. The launch announcement adds that a down payment "may be required," without saying when or how much.

There is a discrepancy in the minimum-basket rule. The joint Amazon-Affirm announcement of 23 September 2026 says both options are available on baskets "of at least £50." Amazon's own payment guide, however, describes purchases that must be "above £50." The two statements point in different directions for the one case that matters: a basket totalling exactly £50. Neither company has clarified which wording governs, so a shopper at that boundary should check the eligibility decision Affirm gives at checkout rather than assume either description is definitive.

Financing extends across millions of products and most Amazon.co.uk categories, though the companies have not given an exact count or said when the rollout will be complete for all eligible customers. Named exclusions are gift cards, groceries, out-of-stock products, and certain digital content, including music, videos, Kindle books, apps and game downloads. The announcement frames this as a list of examples rather than a complete one, so other categories may also fall outside the offer.

Credit checks, and what a missed payment can do

Approval is not automatic. Affirm runs a credit check as part of its eligibility assessment, and its UK merchant material describes the initial check as a soft one: it does not affect the applicant's credit rating and is not visible to other lenders. That detail comes from Affirm's own financing FAQ rather than the Amazon launch announcement, but the two are consistent; the launch material also refers to a credit-check disclosure at the point of applying.

Taking out the credit is a different matter. Once a customer accepts an Affirm plan, Affirm's material says the purchase itself, the payment history, how much credit is used and how long the credit has run may all affect the customer's credit rating. The launch announcement puts this more broadly, warning that missed payments may affect a customer's financial status. Credit reference agencies collect this kind of repayment history and lenders use it in future decisions, according to the FCA.

Affirm states that neither option carries late or hidden fees, and a missed payment does not by itself trigger a charge. That is not the same as saying a missed payment has no consequence. The risk Affirm discloses is to the borrower's credit history, not just to their wallet: falling behind can still affect how lenders view the customer in future, independent of any fee.

Broker, lender, and the new deferred payment credit rules

Amazon EU S.à r.l. is acting as a credit broker, introducing customers to Affirm rather than lending the money itself. Affirm U.K. Limited is the lender and says it is authorised and regulated by the FCA for regulated consumer-credit activities, under firm reference number 756087. Amazon EU S.à r.l. states it is FCA-authorised under Financial Services Register number 746485.

That authorisation sits inside a wider change in UK rules. Deferred payment credit, commonly known as buy now, pay later, became FCA-regulated for qualifying third-party lending on 15 July 2026, following FCA final rules published on 11 February 2026. Before that date, this type of qualifying third-party deferred payment credit sat outside the FCA's consumer-credit regime. Now, a lender offering it must run proportionate affordability checks, give customers clear information about the agreement, support those who fall into financial difficulty, and allow eligible complaints to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The FCA has previously estimated the scale of this market: in the 12 months to May 2024, around 20% of UK consumers, equivalent to 10.9 million adults, used deferred payment credit, and the market had grown to more than £13bn in 2024, up from £0.06bn in 2017.

Section 75: conditional, not automatic

Amazon and Affirm say that items costing more than £100, bought using either new option, receive the additional protection of Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. That is broadly consistent with current guidance, but the company statement leaves out several conditions that determine whether it actually applies.

Section 75 makes a creditor jointly and severally liable with the supplier if the supplier misrepresents the goods or breaches the contract, provided a qualifying debtor-creditor-supplier relationship exists. According to the Financial Ombudsman Service's current guidance, the relevant test is the cash price of the individual item, or a qualifying set of items, not the value of an entire basket of unrelated purchases, and that price must be more than £100 and no more than £30,000. MoneyHelper separately confirms that most third-party buy now, pay later agreements taken out on or after 15 July 2026 qualify for this protection, tying it to the same date the wider regulatory regime began.

The text of the 1974 Act itself, as originally enacted, shows older monetary limits: more than £30 and no more than £10,000. Those figures have since been amended and are not the current law; the £100-to-£30,000 range described by the Financial Ombudsman Service and MoneyHelper reflects the position that applies today. Section 75 is not general purchase insurance and does not cover every dispute. It responds specifically to a supplier's breach of contract or misrepresentation, within the conditions above.

What's still unclear

Several practical details were not covered in the material Amazon and Affirm have published. It's not clear which term lengths Affirm offers at different basket sizes, or how large a purchase needs to be to reach the full 48-month term. No worked repayment example, showing the total cost of borrowing at 22% representative APR over a given term, was published alongside the launch. The companies have not said when the rollout will reach all eligible UK customers, nor whether Amazon's existing Instalments by Barclays option will continue unchanged, be restricted, or be phased out. The launch material also does not describe what happens operationally after a missed payment, beyond the assurance that no late fee applies.

Anyone considering either plan should read the credit agreement Affirm presents at checkout before accepting it, since it will set out the actual term, rate and total repayable for that specific purchase. For the underlying rules on deferred payment credit, the FCA's regulatory pages carry the current requirements; eligible complaints that a lender has not met them can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service.