Affirm Prohibited Business Categories: A Merchant Guide

A prohibited business category is simply a line item in Affirm's published Prohibited Businesses Policy. It is not a judgment about your specific company, and it is not something a third-party guide can accurately reproduce for you.

The reason to go to the source is practical. Published policies get revised, categories get reworded, and a summary written months ago may no longer match what the provider shows today. So the defensible move is to open Affirm's own policy page, find the category language that applies to your line of work, and record the date you read it.

Why a guide cannot list the categories for you

Any reliable statement about whether consulting, coaching, agency, or healthcare work is prohibited, restricted, or allowed has to trace back to Affirm's own words. When a category list is not in front of us from that published source, the responsible answer is to point you to it rather than invent cells. A polished sentence does not substitute for a sourced one.

A category is a starting point for review, not the outcome. Even where your type of work is clearly supported in a published policy, the provider still evaluates your specific business. The reverse is also true: a category you worry about is not a final answer until the provider reviews the actual application.

This matters for service businesses because coaching, mentorship, consulting, and done-for-you agency work can look very different from one company to the next. Two agencies with similar websites can present differently once underwriting looks at their offer, delivery, and history.

Who owns the decision

Eligibility and approval belong to Affirm, under its own underwriting. PayFull has no authority, control, or influence over any provider's decisions and does not underwrite. What a merchant controls is its own checkout, its own merchant account, and the agreement it signs with the provider — not the decision itself. Describe your category to yourself as a flag to check, then let the provider's review be the review.

Merchant category codes are assigned by the acquirer or the platform processing your transactions, not chosen freely by the merchant. Because of that, the same consulting, coaching, or agency business can end up coded differently depending on which processor or platform sits behind its checkout.

This is general payments mechanics, not an Affirm-specific rule, and it carries no provider decision with it. But it explains a common source of confusion: a merchant reads a category in a published policy, assumes it maps cleanly to their business, and never checks how their transactions are actually coded in their setup.

A practical check

• Find how your current processor or platform codes your business.
• Compare that classification against the category language in Affirm's published policy.
• Note that moving platforms or acquirers can change the code, which can change the classification.

None of this changes who decides. It only changes how your business may be presented for that decision.

The most useful habit is to treat Affirm's policy as a living document. Go to the published source, read the category language that applies to you, and keep a note of when you read it. If someone later asks why you believed your category was supported or restricted, that dated reading is your evidence.

For regulated service work — anything health-adjacent, for instance — pay special attention to whether the policy describes a category as supported only with additional requirements. That nuance is easy to miss and important to carry accurately.

Keep provider terms separate from your own setup

Affirm's branded program details, ticket ranges, and terms live on PayFull's own product page for the provider rather than in this guide; see the related links below. This page stays on eligibility by category, so for the mechanics of how financing reaches your checkout, use the integration guide instead of re-deriving it here.

Financing structure is easier to picture with concrete numbers. The arithmetic below is purely illustrative and is not an offer, a quote, or a statement of any provider's terms.

For example. Suppose a coaching package is priced at $6,000. Imagine the buyer pays a deposit of $1,200 at checkout, leaving a remaining balance of $4,800. That balance is then split into 4 installments of $1,200, charged at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and 120 days after checkout. The deposit of $1,200 plus the remaining balance of $4,800 equals the $6,000 package price, and the 4 installments of $1,200 add up to the $4,800 balance.

That is the whole shape of a plan: a price, an optional deposit, a remaining balance, and a schedule. PayFull helps high-ticket businesses offer buy now, pay later in their own checkout, while the provider decides each application on its own terms.

All financing is subject to credit approval. Ranges and structures vary by applicant, and availability of any given provider depends on your industry, ticket size, and underwriting outcome. PayFull is not a lender or a bank; financing is originated by the provider's lending partners.

For coaching, mentorship, and agency businesses, the appeal of financing is letting a client spread a high-ticket payment while you work inside your own checkout and your own provider agreements. PayFull helps high-ticket businesses offer buy now, pay later and other financing within that structure.

What stays with the provider stays with the provider. Applications, availability, and terms are the provider's decisions, and those decisions can change. What stays with you is your checkout, your merchant account, and the contractual relationship you hold directly with the provider.

Reading this alongside the branded pages

If you want the provider's specific program details, read PayFull's product page for that provider. If you want the mechanics of how financing reaches your checkout, read the integration guide. This page deliberately stays on the eligibility-by-category question so those other pages can carry the detail they are built for.