LendingClub Personal Loan Review
- Offers joint applications:
pros and cons
requirements
How to get a loan with
Because
How compares to other personal loan companies
Even if you believe
| LendingTree’s rating | 3.4/5 | 3/5 | 3.4/5 |
| Minimum credit score | |||
| APRs | |||
| Loan amount | |||
| Repayment term | months | months | months |
| Origination fee | |||
| Funding timeline | Get money as soon as 24 hours | Get money as soon as one business day | Get money as soon as the next day |
| Bottom line | LendingClub offers competitive rates and long loan terms if you need to stretch out your payments. But if you have bad credit, you won’t qualify with LendingClub — try applying with bad-credit lenders like Avant. | Avant offers loans for bad credit at reasonable rates, but keep in mind you may need to pay a high upfront origination fee on your loan. | Best Egg offers low starting rates, has a fast funding timeline and lets you borrow up to $50,000 — but it charges upfront fees on every loan. |
How we rated
We evaluate personal loan lenders on more than just interest rates. Our goal is to show how accessible, affordable, transparent and supportive each lender really is.
Our categories
Every lender is scored out of 5 stars, with 5 stars being the highest rating. LendingTree loan experts determine this score using dozens of underlying data points across four weighted categories covering the full borrowing journey.
We assess how easy it is for people to qualify and apply. This includes state availability, soft-credit prequalification, membership requirements, funding speed and whether borrowers with less-than-excellent credit can get a loan.
We evaluate how affordable the loans are based on minimum and maximum APRs, loan fees and rate discounts. Lenders with unclear or potentially predatory costs receive lower scores.
We consider repayment term flexibility, loan amount ranges and whether options like secured loans, joint loans or direct-to-creditor payments are offered — plus whether the lender clearly communicates these options.
We evaluate borrower experience after funding: customer service access, hardship or forbearance programs, payment flexibility and digital tools like mobile apps or credit monitoring.
Our process
We gather data directly from lenders through their websites, disclosures and direct communication with company representatives. Our editorial team verifies and updates information regularly. We value transparency and award less favorable scores when lenders obscure or omit details.
In some cases, our editors may apply a small adjustment (no more than 4% of the overall score) to account for factors not captured by the methodology. This could include J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys, recent regulatory actions or features that stand out in ways our rubric doesn’t measure directly.
Our editorial team applies the same scoring model and standards to every lender. Lenders cannot pay to influence our ratings.
Frequently asked questions
LendingClub is a legitimate loan company that offers loans ranging from $1,000 to $40,000. It also offers flexible loan terms and APRs that don’t currently go above 35.99%, which fits within what is considered to be responsible lending practices by policy advocates.
LendingClub has a minimum credit score requirement of 600 but also considers other factors when reviewing your personal loan application.
The lender will also look at your credit history and debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, which is how much debt you have compared to your income. Try to keep your DTI ratio below 35% for the best odds of approval.
Checking to see whether you prequalify for a LendingClub personal loan won’t hurt your credit, but if you officially apply, you’ll have to go through a hard credit inquiry. This can cause your credit score to drop slightly and will stay on your credit report for up to two years.
Any trustworthy lender will do a hard credit inquiry at some point in the application process.
After you’re approved for a personal loan, it may take a few days to receive your funds.
Typically, it can take anywhere from one to five business days to receive your money from a lender, but many other lenders also offer quick funding.
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