Buy now pay later and your credit report

Key points

• Since 10 June 2025, buy now pay later in Australia has been regulated credit. Providers need an Australian credit licence, have to be members of AFCA, have to comply with responsible lending obligations (in a modified form for some low cost credit contracts), and have to consider hardship requests.
• Being regulated credit isn't the same as being on your credit report. Whether an Afterpay or Zip account is reported, and what gets reported, is down to the provider and the product.
• Where a provider does report, the events that can be recorded are an application, the account and its credit limit, repayment history, and a default. Your provider's credit reporting policy says what it collects, and your own credit report shows what's actually there.
• Separately from credit reporting, buy now pay later instalments are commitments a lender counts when it works out what you can afford, so several plans running at once may affect what a lender thinks you can afford at the time you apply.

If you've used Afterpay or Zip, the question of whether it turns up on your credit report used to get a vague answer. Buy now pay later changed status in June 2025 and is regulated credit now, which means there's more that can be said about what providers have to do. What hasn't changed is that the reporting itself is decided provider by provider, so the answer for your accounts isn't the same as the answer for buy now pay later generally. So here we go through what the law requires, what can end up on your credit report, and how to find out where your own accounts stand.

Is buy now pay later regulated credit now?

Yes – from 10 June 2025, buy now pay later products in Australia are regulated credit under the National Credit Act and the National Credit Code (buy now pay later contracts that meet the definition of a "low cost credit contract" can elect to comply with a modified version of the responsible lending obligations rather than the full ones).

For a provider, that means holding an Australian credit licence, being a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, complying with responsible lending obligations, and considering a hardship request if you tell them you're having trouble making repayments. Hardship works the same way it already does for credit cards and personal loans, so if a repayment is going to be difficult, you can ask the provider about it and they have to consider what you've asked for.

Since the same date, you've had access to free, independent dispute resolution through AFCA for a buy now pay later complaint. If you can't sort something out with the provider directly, there's somewhere to take it that costs you nothing.

Does it appear on your credit report?

It depends on the provider (and sometimes on the product, because one provider can report one product and not another).

Being regulated credit and being reported to the credit bureaus are two separate things. Credit reporting is something a provider participates in, which is why there's no single rule anyone can give you that covers every buy now pay later account.

Where a provider does report, the events that can be recorded are the same ones any credit account produces. Applying can involve a credit enquiry. When an account opens, it can be recorded along with its credit limit and the date it started. Repayment history information can be recorded month by month while you're repaying. And a missed payment that stays unpaid can eventually end in a default listing, once the required notices have been sent. How that process runs is its own subject.

Regulation changed what buy now pay later providers have to do. It didn't put every account on every credit report – whether yours is there comes down to your provider.

Two places tell you where your own accounts stand. The first is your provider's credit reporting policy, which sets out what that provider collects and who it discloses it to (it's usually in the app, or at the bottom of the provider's website). The second is your own credit report, which shows what is actually on there, whether that's an enquiry from an application you'd forgotten about, an account with a limit beside it, or nothing at all.

Looking at your own credit report or credit score isn't an application for credit and doesn't affect your score, so you can check as often as you like. Before applying, it helps to understand what checking does and doesn't do.

Pro tip: Signing up to WeMoney gives you the key information from your credit file for free, instantly. WeMoney only ever does soft checks, so checking does no damage to your credit file and there are no hard checks a lender can see.

What lenders can see when you apply

Separately from credit reporting, there's what a lender does when you apply, and that's usually the part you feel first. A provider assessing an application has to work out whether you can afford the repayments, and that assessment looks at your income, your expenses and the commitments you already have. Buy now pay later instalments are commitments like any other, so if you have several plans running when you apply, they form part of what the lender is working from, and they may affect what it thinks you can comfortably afford at the time you apply.

That assessment covers the commitments you have on the day you apply. Plans that have finished aren't commitments any more, and each lender applies its own criteria to what's left, so two lenders can look at the same accounts and reach different conclusions. What credit providers look at when they assess an application has its own place to be worked through properly.

If your buy now pay later balances sit alongside credit cards or a personal loan, whether all of it can be combined into a single repayment is a different question, and it's worth answering on its own terms rather than as part of this one.

Before Black Friday

November is when most of this gets tested. Before you add another plan in the sales, the useful thing to know is how many plans you already have running and what they add up to across the next two pay cycles, because instalments started in November are often still being repaid in January, alongside the costs that arrive with the new year.

Helen's Afterpay started with Christmas presents, and the repayments carried on long after the presents had been opened. That's a common way for a plan to outlast the thing it paid for. When the instalments have taken over payday, sorting out the schedule is its own piece of work.

Once your accounts are connected, the WeMoney app shows your buy now pay later plans beside your other accounts, so you can see every active plan and what's scheduled in one place instead of opening four apps to count them. Whether a provider reports your account is still a question for that provider, however what you've already committed to is something you can see for yourself in a few minutes.

Sources

• ASIC: Buy now pay later credit contracts – credit licensing
• Moneysmart: Buy now pay later services
• AFCA: Supporting 2025 buy now pay later reforms

This article provides general information only. It does not take your personal circumstances into account and is not financial, credit or legal advice. Consider your own situation and seek advice from a suitably qualified professional if you need it.