Credible Personal Loans Review

Credible Personal Loans Overview

• Lender type: Marketplace

• Loan types: Unsecured and secured

• Loan amounts: $1,000 to $250,000

• Loan terms: 1 to 10 years (most average between 2 and 7 years)

• APR range: APR: 5.74% - 35.99%

• Best for: People who want to easily solicit and compare personal loan offers

Credible is known for its strong reputation, customer service, and ability to match users with various lenders in one place. It performs well across categories with a few notable caveats. For instance, decisive borrowers might be put off by follow-up calls and emails from lenders after requesting rates through the marketplace.

Let’s take a closer look at how Credible performs against our categories.

Reputation

Founded in 2012, Credible’s marketplace originally focused on student loan refinancing but expanded to include personal loans in 2015. While Credible's headquarters are in Durham, North Carolina, it works with lenders to provide financial products and services in 48 states.

Although J.D. Power doesn’t rank Credible, it has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, based on 9,000 reviews—higher than the industry average of 3.55. Credible is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with an A+ rating, but has a customer star rating of only 1.2. However, this is based on only five reviews.

Credible claims that since 2012, it’s helped over 22 million people compare pre-qualified rates and offers. It also shares that consumers have closed over $19 billion in student and personal loans.

Accessibility and Flexibility

Accessibility

Credible partners with over 20 personal loan lenders to provide pre-qualified offers to borrowers across the credit spectrum — a robust offering, compared to other online comparison marketplaces.

To get offers through Credible, you’ll need to provide basic information such as your state of residence, income, and credit profile. During prequalification, most lenders use this, and other information obtained through a soft credit pull, to estimate your eligibility. Lenders typically consider:

• State availability: Credible works with lenders to provide personal loans in all states except Hawaii and New York.

• Credit score: Each lender has specific requirements, but Credible suggests a minimum credit score of 580, with better approval odds the higher your score.

• Income: Most lenders ask that you make at least $12,000 to $25,000 annually.

• Debt-to-income ratio: This varies by lender, but Credible advises that ratios above 40% are a red flag.

Without meeting these basic qualifications, it may be difficult to obtain a loan (or even offers) through Credible and its partners.

Expert take: Credible’s “prequalification process allows borrowers to compare personalized offers without impacting their credit score, making it especially valuable for those who want to explore options safely before committing.” — Nina Abazyan, banking professional and personal lending specialist

Flexibility

Credible works with multiple lenders to ensure flexibility, with varying loan types (secured and unsecured), amounts, and terms available through its marketplace.

Most loan offers range from $1,000 to $50,000, with terms of 2 to 7 years, depending on your financial profile. As with most marketplaces, exact amounts and terms vary by lender and borrower. Some lenders may offer higher amounts (up to $250,000) and repayment terms of over 10 years.

Different terms can make it easier to afford a monthly payment, but they can also affect the total amount paid over time, as this chart illustrates.

Cost

• APR range: APR: 5.74% - 35.99%

• Origination fees: 0% to 10% of the loan amount

• Prepayment penalty: May vary by lender, though uncommon

• Late fees: Varies by lender

• Other notable charges? Non-sufficient funds (NSF) and return payment fees may apply.

Costs vary across providers on the Credible marketplace. Credible doesn’t charge origination fees or prepayment/late payment penalties; these are set by individual lenders. However, Credible displays any potential origination fees for each loan. Fees, interest rates, and loan terms depend on your financial and credit profile.

Because Credible aggregates offers from lenders, discounts such as autopay rate reductions may be available, but these also vary and aren’t guaranteed across options. However, Credible does have a unique Personal Loan Best Rate Guarantee: If you find a lower interest rate based on the same information you submitted through Credible, you get a $200 gift card (terms and conditions apply).

Worth noting: While Credible’s marketplace is robust, it doesn’t include all personal loan lenders, so borrowers with excellent credit might miss out on a top-shelf offer if they limit their loan search.

User Experience

We found the Credible marketplace easy to navigate as a potential customer. The fully online application was straightforward during pre-qualification, asking basic questions such as our yearly income, address, housing costs, and the last four digits of our Social Security number.

Filling out our application took less than three minutes. After another minute or so, we received potential offers, which you can filter by APR, monthly payment, term, and other factors.

Credible, interestingly, tells you which of its partners didn’t offer pre-qualified rates, which is helpful if you’re not ready to apply and decide later to shop around. (You’ll have an idea of which ones not to attempt.)

Also helpful: If your quotes are high, Credible provides suggestions to lower them and recommends other tools to improve your finances, such as high-yield savings accounts.

Once you select an offer, you’re transferred to that lender’s website to complete your application.

A few lenders dropped us directly into their application. In that sense, Credible acts as a middleman by gathering all the information, rates, and quotes in one place. These are pre-qualified offers, however. Your rates and terms could change once you formally apply.

Plus, after requesting rates, we received multiple follow-up calls and emails from partner lenders. So if you have good credit, prefer a single-platform process, or dislike excessive marketing communications, you want to try a direct lender.

Unlike its competitors, Credible doesn’t have a mobile app. However, its website is mobile-optimized for easy access on phones. After creating an account, you can log in to its online portal to view a free credit score, explore other financial products, and more.

Expert take: “Marketplaces like LendingTree and Credible can help borrowers quickly compare multiple lenders, although the actual funding speed depends on the selected provider.” — Nina Abazyan, banking professional and personal lending specialist.

Customer Service and Support

Contacting Credible

Credible offers several ways to reach its customer service department:

• Phone: Agents are available Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET by calling 866-540-6005. During testing, our wait time was less than five minutes, which is standard for the industry.

• Online Chat: You can also message an agent via Credible’s website during those hours. After providing our information, we were connected within two minutes. The agent, Jennifer, seemed knowledgeable and offered to stay on the chat to help with the application, a refreshing change from marketplaces that rely on AI chatbots.

• Email: If you only need a brief response, you can email support@credible.com. While the website doesn’t mention hours of availability, we received an email within the same day when we asked questions about origination fees.

• By mail: Credible accepts mail at 6601 Northpark Boulevard, Ste. C #6037, Charlotte, NC 28216.

Customer Testimonials

Overall, Credible personal loan reviews reflect high customer satisfaction. A user on Reddit stated: “Credible's rates were basically the same as going direct, but saved me from filling out like 5 separate applications.”

Customers found the process intuitive and proactively informative, with one commenter on Quora saying, “It seemed like they were reading my mind, giving me a breakdown of what actually works (with very little effort on my part).”

One drawback mentioned was that the rates Credible shows you during the prequalification phase may differ from the rates a lender actually offers you. A Reddit user mentioned, “The rates can be misleading since they're based on best-case scenarios.” Another Reddit user smartly pointed out that you may be able to get a better rate with a lender who doesn’t partner with Credible.

Credible’s customer service team actively replies to negative reviews on sites such as Trustpilot and the Credible personal loan BBB reviews page, which not all lenders do.

Final Take: Who Is Credible Best for?

Credible is best for people with a credit score of 580 or higher who want to compare multiple pre-qualified personal loan offers side-by-side. This marketplace offers a quick, easy comparison-shopping process and customer service to help you secure a loan that works for you. But it is just that — a marketplace — so if you prefer to go directly to the source or have good enough to qualify for a top offer from a non-Credible partner, you might want to adjust your search. Either way, make sure you understand Credible’s pre-qualification process and how your loan might change once you’re left the marketplace.

Physical Address

101 Green Street Level 2

San Francisco, CA

94111

Editorial Disclosure

This content is not provided by Credible or any of the providers on the Credible website. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed here are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Credible.

Close with a better rate than you prequalify for on Credible and get a $200 gift card. Terms Apply.

Rates for personal loans provided by lenders on the Credible platform range between 5.74% - 35.99% APR with terms from 12 to 120 months. Credible also works with network Partners like MoneyLion and AmONE, who offer loan and other products with different rates and terms than described here. Rates presented include lender discounts for enrolling in autopay and loyalty programs, where applicable. Actual rates may be different from the rates advertised and/or shown and will be based on the lender’s eligibility criteria, which include factors such as credit score, loan amount, loan term, credit usage and history, and vary based on loan purpose. The lowest rates available typically require excellent credit, and for some lenders, may be reserved for specific loan purposes and/or shorter loan terms. The origination fee charged by the lenders on our platform ranges from 0% to 12%. Each lender has their own qualification criteria with respect to their autopay and loyalty discounts (e.g., some lenders require the borrower to elect autopay prior to loan funding in order to qualify for the autopay discount). All rates are determined by the lender and must be agreed upon between the borrower and the borrower’s chosen lender.

For a loan of $10,000 with a three year repayment period, an interest rate of 7.99%, a $350 origination fee and an APR of 10.43%, the borrower will receive $9,650 at the time of loan funding and will make 36 monthly payments of $313.32, assuming your lender deducts the origination fee from the offered loan amount. Assuming all on-time payments, and full performance of all terms and conditions of the loan contract and any discount programs enrolled in included in the APR/interest rate throughout the life of the loan, the borrower will pay a total of $11,279.43.

As of March 3, 2022, none of the lenders on our platform require a down payment nor do they charge any prepayment penalties.