Still, the very best personal loan options differ from person to person. For your convenience, we’ll summarize WalletHub’s best personal loan picks below.
Best Personal Loans Comparison
Lender | APR Range | Loan Amounts | Payoff Period |
PenFed | 7.99% - 17.99% | $500 - $50,000 | 12 - 60 months |
Discover | 7.49% - 24.99% | $2,500 - $40,000 | 36, 48, 60, 72 or 84 months |
LightStream | 7.49% - 25.99% | $5,000 - $100,000 | 24 - 144 months |
Achieve Personal Loans | 8.99% - 35.99% | $5,000 - $50,000 | 24 - 60 months |
U.S. Bank | 8.74% - 24.99% | $1,000 - $50,000 | 12 - 84 months |
SoFi | 8.99% - 29.99% Fixed APR with all discounts | $5,000 - $100,000 | 24 - 84 months |
Best Egg | 8.99% - 35.99% | $2,000 - $50,000 | Up to 60 months |
Avant | 9.95% - 35.99% | $2,000 - $35,000 | 24 - 60 months |
Happy Money | 11.72% - 17.99% | $5,000 - $40,000 | 24 - 60 months |
WalletHub’s editors’ picks are a good starting point, but you might also want to take advantage of WalletHub’s personal loan comparison tool to narrow down the options based on your credit, desired loan amount, location and more.
Tips for Getting the Best Personal Loan
- Learn the signs of a good loan. The best personal loans overall have no origination fees, and they offer large dollar amounts, along with a wide range of payoff timelines.
- Know the limits of your credit score. People with good credit or better (scores of 700+) can qualify for decent rates on most personal loans. In addition, personal loans with no origination fees tend to require a score of at least 660 for approval. But there are options with origination fees for people with lower scores.
- Look for low APRs. A low APR is one of the most sought-after features of a personal loan. The lower the APR, the less interest you’ll have to pay. Lenders typically express their APRs as a range, but you can get a good idea of the lenders that have the best rates by looking at their minimums and maximums.
- Watch out for fees. Keep in mind that the lowest APRs don’t always mean the best loans. Some lenders make up for their low APRs by charging origination fees to process the loans.
- Don’t apply for too big of a loan. The larger the loan amount, the higher your income will need to be in order to afford payments on it, and the better your credit will need to be to qualify.
- Consider online lenders if you have bad credit. Online lenders are more likely to accept applicants with bad credit (a credit score below 640) than traditional banks, and credit unions might also be more lenient in some cases. Just watch out for predatory payday lenders and auto title lenders that charge extremely high interest rates and fees.
- Avoid fees. People with bad credit shouldn’t count on getting the lower end of the lender’s APR range, but they should try to borrow from lenders with few fees, if possible.
- Seek direct payments when consolidating debt. The best personal loans for consolidating debt have low interest rates (at least lower than your existing rates) and will directly pay off your old creditors with the loan money, so you don’t have to do it yourself.
Best Personal Loan Companies in 2024
Lender | Best For | States Serviced | User Rating on WalletHub |
Best Egg | Fair credit | 47 + D.C. | 4.8 |
Achieve Personal Loans | Bad credit | 34 + D.C. | 4.5 |
Avant | Easiest approval | 50 + D.C. | 4.0 |
Discover | Long payoff periods | 50 + D.C. | 4.0 |
U.S. Bank | Large loans with fair credit | 50 + D.C. | 3.9 |
PenFed | Debt consolidation | 50 + D.C. | 3.8 |
Happy Money | Credit card consolidation | 46 + D.C. | 3.5 |
SoFi | Large loans | 50 + D.C. | 3.0 |
LightStream | Low Personal Loan Rates | 50 + D.C. | 2.7 |
Methodology for Selecting the Best Personal Loans
To identify the best personal loans, WalletHub’s editors compared nearly two dozen of the largest providers on the market based on a combination of metrics in 6 major categories: loan requirements, APR, fees, the application process, loan amounts and transparency. Metrics with higher priority, such as APRs, were assigned higher weights than others, depending on the category of loan being evaluated.
In addition to the best overall personal loans, which usually require credit scores of 660+, WalletHub selected the best personal loans for people with lower credit scores. We also considered special categories like debt consolidation and long-term loans.