Best Personal Loans

If you have a high credit score, LightStream may be an excellent choice for a personal loan. It charges relatively low rates and no origination fees.

Lightstream offers loans from $5,000 to $100,000. You can take as long as 84 months (144 months for home improvement loans) to repay eligible loans of $25,000 or more, which may keep monthly payments low. However, the longer you stretch out a loan, the more interest you pay. If you have the cash flow, it may be best to pay down your debt quickly.

LightStream offers a unique loan experience guarantee, too: If you’re not completely satisfied with your borrowing experience, Lightstream will give you $100.

Read the full review: LightStream Personal Loans

Rocket Loans offers quick funding for personal loans. If you’re facing an unexpected expense like a broken water heater or a dog needing surgery, you don’t have much time to wait for loan approval and disbursal. With Rocket Loans, you could get up to $45,000 on the same day you apply.

Rocket Loans charges origination fees ranging from 1% to 6% of your loan, which the lender deducts from your balance before sending the loan proceeds to you. For example, suppose you were to borrow $10,000 to pay for home improvements. With a 6% origination fee, you’d owe $600. Rocket Loans would deduct that fee from the $10,000 you borrowed, so you’d actually receive $9,400 in your account.

You can potentially pay high interest rates with Rocket Loans, too. Depending on your credit score, income, and other criteria, the rate could be as low as 6.72% when you sign up for autopay, or as high as 29.99%.

Read the full review: Rocket Loans Personal Loans

Not everyone has excellent credit. With Upstart, you may be able to qualify for a loan with a credit score as low as 600. That score would put you in the “fair” range of a FICO score. For borrowers who are struggling to find a loan, Upstart might be a smart solution.

The company allows you to borrow from $1,000 to $50,000 with repayment terms of three or five years, though borrowing minimums vary by state. Upstart charges an origination fee for some borrowers, and you might pay as much as 8% of your funding amount. Typical rates range from 3.22% to 35.99% APR.

Read the full review: Upstart Personal Loans

Notes: Your loan amount will be determined based on your credit, income, and certain other information provided in your application. Not all applicants will qualify for the full amount.
If you accept your offer by 5 p.m. EST (not including weekends or holidays), you will receive your funds the next business day. Proceeds used to fund education-related expenses are subject to a three-business-day waiting period between acceptance and funding, in accordance with federal law.
The full range of available rates varies by state. The average five-year loan offered across all lenders using the Upstart platform will have an APR of 21.70% and 60 monthly payments of $24.84 per $1,000 borrowed. There is no down payment and no prepayment penalty. Average APR is calculated based on three-year rates offered in the last month. Your APR will be determined based on your credit, income, and certain other information provided in your application. Not all applicants will be approved.

SoFi offers fixed- and variable-rate personal loans from $5,000 to $100,000. Loan terms can be as long as seven years, and SoFi offers you a lower APR if you set up automatic payments (rates range from 6.99% to 22.23% with autopay). However, SoFi may be (relatively) slow to disburse your loan. Whereas other lenders offer same-day or next-day funding, SoFi usually disburses funds within a few days.

SoFi personal loans have a unique perk: unemployment protection. If you lose your job through no fault of your own, you can apply for loan forbearance. If approved, you can postpone making payments in three-month increments for up to 12 months total. While interest continues to accrue on the loan during that period, having the ability to postpone payments can give you the time you need to get back on your feet.

Read the full review: SoFi Personal Loans

Some lenders have fairly high minimums, requiring you to borrow several thousand dollars. If you need a smaller amount, it may be difficult to find a lender willing to work with you, and you may feel that you have to borrow more just to get the cash you need. 

With LendingClub, you can borrow as little as $1,000 to pay for almost anything you want—car repairs, debt consolidation, and more. If you have less-than-perfect credit and need to shop among lenders, LendingClub may be worth a look. However, it’s important to know that LendingClub does not currently offer loans to Iowa or U.S. territories residents. Money typically is available in two to four days, but it can take longer in some circumstances.

LendingClub charges an origination fee that ranges from 3% to 6% of your loan amount. That fee comes out of the total loan balance and reduces the amount that goes into your bank account, so be sure to borrow enough to cover the fee and still have enough for whatever you need the loan for. Rates range from 8.05% to 35.89% APR, and repayment terms up to 60 months are available. One of the perks the company offers is delay of payments with no additional interest charge in case you've been impacted by a natural disaster.

Read the full review: Lending Club Personal Loans

If you need a small cash injection to tide you over until your next payday, you may be tempted to use a payday loan or car title loan, but those types of debt can be extremely expensive and can put you into a dangerous debt spiral. 

Earnin might be a reasonable alternative. With Earnin, you can access funds based on hours you’ve worked at your job but haven’t yet been paid for. There are no fees, interest charges, or hidden costs, and you can cash out up to $100 per day. After your employer deposits funds into your account on payday, Earnin subtracts the amount you cashed out earlier.

You simply pay Earnin what you think is fair as a “tip”—it’s not required, and you could pay $0 if you wanted. Earnin asks you to pay what you can for the service to help cover the other borrowers who might be unable to pay anything. It’s a sort of community-driven fee system.

While Earnin can be helpful, you can only access small sums of money at a time. Setting up can be cumbersome and requires a check and a regular pay schedule with direct deposit. If you’re facing a bigger emergency—like an expensive car repair—you may need to find another source of money to pay for it.

Read the full review: Earnin Personal Loans