SoFi Personal Loan Review

(July 2024)

SoFi Personal Loan Review

In This Article

Our Verdict

SoFi personal loan products come handy when you require urgent funds between $5,000 and $100,000. Being an online lender, it offers you competitive rates and extended repayment terms from 24 months to 84 months. Access SoFi personal loans in any states across the country. One cool thing is that you pay no origination fee or any hidden fees. You need a credit score of 650+ in order to get the lender’s personal loan products, though.

Check below for more information about the lender:

SoFi

Corporate Headquarters

234 1st Street San Francisco, CA 94105

Tel: 866-357-6342

www.sofi.com

Pros

  • Pre-qualification check
  • Quick funding
  • Large loan amounts with competitive rates and terms
  • Interest rate discount reward for autopay
  • No origination or prepayment fees required
  • Co-signer option available

Cons

  • Charges a higher minimum rate of 8.99%
  • Requires a tougher qualification standards, including a good credit score of 680+.

Who This Product Is Best For

Consider SoFi personal loans if you:

  • Have a good credit score of 680 and above.
  • Maintain a decent and consistent monthly revenue.
  • Require funding up to $100,000.

Who This Product Isn't Right For

Walk away from SoFi personal loan offers if you:

  • Need post-secondary education funding.
  • Want funding more than $100,000.
  • Prefer the services of traditional banks with physical branches across the country.

What This Product Offers

  • Credit card consolidation. Pay off your credit card debts and make one lower interest rate repayment every month with SoFi personal loan products.
  • Relocation funding. Get the lender’s personal loan in order to fund your relocation expenses.
  • Home improvements. Need to upgrade your home and require money? Hurry and apply for a SoFi personal loan.
  • Medical bills. Clear your medical procedure bills with a personal loan from SoFi.

Product Details

Credit card consolidation

If you’re always late on your credit card payments—which will definitely hurt your credit score—or tired of servicing multiple high-interest debts, apply for anything oscillating from $5,000 to $100,000 from SoFi in order to consolidate those debts.

You get the loan with rates between 8.99% and 23.43% (depending on the amount you require and the repayment term you choose—usually between 24 to 84 months).

Relocation funding

Thinking how to fund your relocation expenses, right? Don’t worry too much! Consider SoFi personal loan for relocation. Get anything from $5,000 to $100,000. However, your minimum loan amount starts at $10,001 if you live in any of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Arizona, and even more ($15,001) if your state of residence is Kentucky. The interest rate remains anything from 8.99% to 23.43%, and check the repayment term that’s mostly convenient for you.

Home improvements

Want to remodel your kitchen, do HVAC replacement, complete general home repairs and renovations? Consider SoFi as your lending partner. Once you have your repayment plan, proof of monthly income, and good credit score in place, you’re good to go. Decide how much you require up to $100,000 and apply online.

Medical bills

Pay for your emergency medical procedure with SoFi personal loan. Or you can consolidate your existing medical debt with the lender’s product. Medical procedures that warrants this product include but not limited to surgery, dental work, or general medical issues. The loan amount caps at $100,000 and you can apply if you’re 18+ with a proof of consistent monthly revenue.

Where This Product Stands Out

  • Extended repayment term. Choose between 24 and 84 months to repay the amount you borrow from SoFi—this affects the overall interest you pay on the loan, though. For example, you pay lesser interest overall but make a higher monthly installment payment with a shorter term.
  • Attractive discounts. Opt for auto pay in order to get a discount of 0.25%. Also, you get an extra 0.25% discount on interest if you apply for a consolation loan and request SoFi to make payment directly to your creditors.
  • Co-borrower loans. To get a higher loan amount with the best rate and term, get a co-signer who has a reputable FICO score. Don’t forget that SoFi holds you and your co-applicant responsible for repaying the amount you get.
  • Unemployment protection benefit. Assume you lose your job after your loan has started, you can apply for the lender’s unemployment protection. Thanks to the unemployment protection which allows you to readjust your repayment term. Your interest still accrues, anyway, but opportunity of paying your interest without increasing your principal is one cool thing about the unemployment protection.
  • Easy loan management via app. Download the lender’s mobile app in order to check the best rate, pay existing loan or submit a fresh application.

Where This Product Falls Short

  • Loan starts a $5, 000 and even more in some geographical locations. Unlike other lenders, SoFi’s personal loan products starts at $5,000. You get $10,001 as the minimum loan amount if you live in any of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Arizona. If you reside in Kentucky, the baseline goes up to $15,001.
  • Secured loan not available. Think of another lender if you want to use collateral in order to make up for bad credit by getting a secured loan. SoFi personal loan products are all unsecured loans.

How to Qualify for This Product

Understand SoFi’s requirements so that you can know the qualification standards.

  • Be 18 years and above at the time of application.
  • Reside in the U.S. and be a citizen.
  • Have a job with decent and consistent monthly revenue that shows you can repay the amount your require. Alternatively, apply if you have an employment offer that will commence anything from the time of loan application until the next 90 days.
  • Maintain a good to excellent credit score. The lender doesn’t specify the exact credit score, but having anything from 680 is not a bad idea.

How to Apply for This Product

To apply for SoFi’s personal loan,

  • Pre-qualify. Allow the lender to initiate a soft check on your credit history in order to determine the amount you qualify for and the best possible rate you can get. A soft enquiry won’t harm your credit score. Provide your name, state, email, employment, monthly revenue, and loan purpose at this stage.
  • Check the lender’s loan offers. Upon conducting a soft enquiry, SoFi lists its offers for you to choose the one that best suits your need.
  • Accept the loan offer. Submit your loan application for the product that best meets your needs. Provide other relevant documents, including bank statement, proof of income, among others. At this stage, the lender conducts a hard enquiry on your credit history.
  • Repay the loan. Craft out a repayment plan for yourself in order to make on-time payments. Sign up for autopay so that you can get a 0.25% discount on interest.

Alternative to This Product

LendingClub

LendingClub is a good option when you require a lower personal loan minimum amount, say $1,000, for example. However, it products max out at $40,000 with interest rates higher than SoFi . Consider LendingClub is best for debt consolidation and offers you convenient repayment terms.

LightStream

LightStream flaunts its high loan amounts, wide repayment term without origination or any other fees. Yet, when it comes to benefits such as pre-qualification and unemployment protection, SoFi takes the lead. Consider this lender for your home improvements financing.

Customer Reviews

SoFi scores excellent with 4.6 over 5-star rating based on 5,005 customer reviews on Trust Pilot. Customers comments the lender’s service and easy application process. SoFi bags 1.24/5-star rating based on 147 customer reviews on Better Business Bureau, BBB.

Methodology

We reviewed SoFi personal loans based on 20 data points in the categories of loan details, loan costs, eligibility and accessibility, customer experience and the application process. We rated SoFi personal loans based on the weighting assigned to each category:

Loan cost: 35%

Loan details: 25%

Customer experience: 20%

Eligibility and accessibility: 10%

Application process: 10%

Within each major category, we also considered several characteristics, including available loan amounts, repayment terms and applicable fees. We also looked at minimum credit score and time in business requirements and the geographic availability of the lender.

Finally, we evaluated SoFi customer support tools, borrower perks and features that simplify the borrowing process—like online applications, prequalification options and mobile apps.

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