7 Best Installment Loans of July 2023

If you need to take out a large installment loan, SoFi is one of your best options if you qualify. You’ll get an answer very quickly, and if approved, SoFi will generally be able to disburse your loan funds that same day. In addition to offering good rates on installment loans, SoFi also charges you zero fees, making it a very affordable option. 

That’s where most lenders stop, if they even offer this many loan perks. But SoFi also kicks it up a notch by having an entire separate member benefits program for all customers of its various loan products. Some of the perks are rather bland (free access to bougie lounges in a Los Angeles arena), but others are quite good, like having free one-on-one access to career counselors and certified financial advisors. 

PenFed is the highest-scoring credit union in our survey of installment loan lenders and it may be an attractive choice if you’re looking to do all your banking in one place with a community-focused institution. It offers a lot of consumer-friendly features, like how easy it is to open an account, high rates on savings accounts, and a wider range of loan options for people who don’t need to borrow several thousand dollars at once. 

That said, it is a credit union and it does come with the pesky requirement to keep $5 in a savings account to keep your membership active—but PenFed will actually provide the $5 if you’re approved for a loan. You also can’t apply with a co-signer for one of these loans, although you can apply with a co-borrower. Finally, it only offers next-day funding, rather than same-day—a small annoyance given that PenFed may have easy access to your bank account, if you’re a banking customer.

Upgrade will approve borrowers with a credit score as low as 560, which FICO categorizes as the lowest-level credit score tier (poor credit). As with other lenders, though, your borrowing costs ramp up significantly if you have bad credit, with much higher interest rates and fees. You’ll pay an origination fee of 1.85% to 9.99% with an Upgrade loan, and if you have bad credit you’ll likely get the higher end.

The saving grace is that Upgrade offers many more loan discounts compared to your average lender. Along with a standard autopay rate discount, you could also qualify for a 1% to 5% rate reduction if you use your installment loan to consolidate debt and have Upgrade pay off your creditors directly. You can also use your car as collateral for a secured loan to get a lower rate. Finally, Upgrade often offers a cash bonus if you sign up for a Rewards Checking account, and then a 20% rate discount if you use that checking account to make your payments. 

Aside from the uber-high origination fee (up to 12%), Upstart is one of the most consumer-friendly loan options out there due to the wide net it casts. It’s not too picky about credit requirements, and it may even accept some borrowers who don’t have a credit score at all as long as they meet other requirements. 

If you have good credit, the rates that Upstart offers are among the lowest you’ll find anywhere. But while Upstart accepts applicants with poor credit, it may charge very high rates and fees, even more so than many other lenders. However, funding is fast, and if you need it and you qualify, you can even take out a second loan through Upstart before you’re finished paying off your first loan.  

Sometimes you just can’t wait for a lender to take their sweet time in getting back to you. Luckily, many installment loan lenders are fast. Rocket Loans is one of the fastest, as its name suggests. If you’re approved for a loan on a business day, it can send out your funds that same day—you just need to sign the loan promissory note by 1 p.m. ET (keep in mind it can still take a few days for funds to show up in your account, though, depending on your bank’s policies).

It’s a better option for people who have good credit, however, since you can’t rely on help from a co-borrower or co-signer for this loan. Rocket Loans doesn’t specify what kind of credit you need in order to get approved. But given the super-high upper ranges of the interest rate and origination fee (1% to 8%), it may be a very pricey loan if you have fair or bad credit. 

Best Egg offers unsecured personal loans, but it really differentiates itself from competitors with its secured loan offering for homeowners. (Indeed, if you have bad credit, you’re sort of pushed in that direction anyway since Best Egg doesn’t allow you to apply with a co-signer or co-borrower.) Rather than a blanket lien on your whole home, Best Egg uses a UCC-1 lien on specific fixed parts, like cabinetry. This makes your loan application much faster to process but can lead to difficulties in selling your home if you haven’t paid off the loan yet.

If you can overlook some downsides, like a poor score on J.D. Power’s 2022 survey of customer satisfaction among personal loan lenders and origination fees which can be quite high (0.99% to 8.99%), it may be a good option for you. Business owners beware, though: You won’t be able to use the funds for business expenses, like launching a small home-based side gig. 

If you have good credit and you need to borrow a large amount of money, LightStream is one of your best options. If you qualify, you can borrow up to $100,000 and take 10 years to pay it off. LightStream is very affordable compared to other lenders, too, with lower interest rates and zero fees for anything, even paying late. It’ll even beat the interest rate of any similar competing offer you get from another lender by 0.10%. 

Keep in mind if you will be borrowing a lot of cash for a large purchase like a car or a big addition to your home, a secured loan can sometimes be a better option since it offers even cheaper rates yet. LightStream doesn’t offer secured loans, but it is one of the best unsecured installment loan lenders.