Since its founding in 2014, Best Egg has been a quality lender for unsecured personal loans. With an emphasis on speed and ease, Best Egg loans are a fine option for people with good credit looking to get a loan fast.
No matter if the loan is for debt consolidation, home improvements, or an emergency, Best Egg’s fixed rates, zero prepayment penalties, and fast approval times are some of the lender’s more attractive features applied — but nothing really special is offered beyond that. The APR vary between competitive and quite high depending on your financial situation. Thankfully getting a quote is easy and doesn’t hurt your credit. If a personal loan is right for you, then Best Egg’s quick, clean and easy-to-understand loans are worth a look.
Best Egg at a glance
| Lender | Minimum Loan | Maximum Loan | APY Range | Terms | Key Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Egg | $2,000 | $35,000 | 5.99% – 29.99% | 3 – 5 years | Fast funding |
What we like about it
The biggest perk with Best Egg is that its loan approval and funding are fast and relatively painless. Best Egg offers loans for debt consolidation, credit card refinancing, home improvement, and more. Some loans can take a single day to be approved and funded in the next three business days.
The other part that makes the approval process painless is that Best Egg uses a soft credit pull to determine your APR. Your credit score doesn’t take a hit when you want to figure out what rate you get. Only after you approve the loan terms does Best Egg pull a hard inquiry on your credit. For people shopping around to find the best rate possible this is great.
If you do accept a loan from Best Egg, you can be comforted by knowing that the lender chargers no prepayment penalties. Feel like paying off your loan early? Great, there’s no hindrance in doing so.
Overall using Best Egg is simple — and that’s good. The lender’s policies are clearly explained and easy to understand. Best Egg even has several guides throughout its site that clearly detail things from credit card refinancing to explaining how best to pay down debt. The way information is presented doesn’t impact the core lending aspect of Best Egg in any way, but it makes using the lender’s services more welcoming and enjoyable.
Check Your Personal Loan Rates
Answer a few questions to see which personal loans you pre-qualify for. The process is quick and easy, and it will not impact your credit score.
Things to consider
APR is often the most important deciding factor when picking a personal loan. While Best Egg’s low offering of 5.99% is certainly competitive, its APR cap of 29.99% is a drawback to consider when shopping with this lender.
In order to capitalize on the lowest rates, you must have a minimum credit score of 700. This is a good credit score, but because of how many financial factors go into determining the APR, getting the lowest rate will most likely require a higher credit score or a fairly significant income to help compensate.
If your score is hovering around 700, it’d be wise to compare the best personal loan rates around so you can find the right one for you.
You also need to be aware of Best Egg’s origination fees which range from 0.99% to 5.99%. It’s not an uncommon fee but many personal loan lenders don’t have one. Best Egg also has certain conditions attached to this fee as well. For example, 5-year loan terms have a minimum origination fee of 4.99%. If your loan amount is substantial, taking almost an extra 5% off the top can sting a little.
What you need to know
Getting started with a quote through Best Egg is straightforward. If you’ve ever filled out an online quote for something like insurance before, then the Best Egg questionnaire will feel familiar. The information required for a quote is:
- Contact Info (name, phone number, email, and address)
- Income and employment status
- If you’re a homeowner or renting
- Desired loan amount and purpose
- Your Social Security number
Best Egg does a soft pull on your credit to get a quote, which doesn’t hurt your FICO score. This is a worry-free way of giving you insight into where you fall on Best Egg’s 5.99% to 29.99% APR range. When you actually apply for the loan Best Egg does do a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries differ from soft pulls in that they do appear on your credit report.
Borrowers can request between $2,000 and $35,000 to help cover things like car maintenance, home repairs, and more. Best Egg also can help with credit card refinancing and debt consolidation.
Applying for a loan requires the same info as a quote with the addition of banking info and any requested supporting documents. This whole process can be done quickly online or by phone.
Approval and funding generally take between 1 and 3 days, but it can also happen within the same day depending on the circumstance.
Fees and penalties
Best Egg has origination fees that range from 0.99% to 5.99%. This is a one-time fee that’s taken off the top of your loan in order to cover loan processing.
So if you take out a $5,000 loan with a 1% origination fee ($50), the loan amount you will actually receive is $4,950. This doesn’t sound like much but you have to consider this fee along with the APR.
Additionally, Best Egg has a 4.99% minimum origination fee for loans that last 5 years. Avoiding higher fees means avoiding longer loan terms.
Best Egg also has a $15 late fee. It does offer a three-day grace period for making loan payments, but the loan is considered in default immediately after a payment is missed. The $15 fee will be applied if you make a payment after this grace period.
Collateral and criteria
All Best Egg loans are unsecured which means you don’t need to provide any collateral to get the loan. Everyone borrowing from Best Egg has to fulfill these requirements:
- Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
- Be at least 18 years of age
- Own a verifiable personal bank account
- Have verifiable income
- Have a valid email address
The company doesn’t specify a minimum credit score to get a loan but the best rates are reserved for people with good credit and a decent income.
For example, Best Egg’s policy states that with a FICO score of 700 you need a minimum individual income of $100,000 to get the best APR.
That’s not to say someone can’t get a decent APR while having a much smaller income, it just requires a smaller loan amount and a higher credit score. But what that also entails is that Best Egg loans are probably not suited for those looking for a bad credit loan.
The bottom line
For a quick and easy-to-understand personal loan, Best Egg has it down. It’s a trusted lender thanks to fixed rates, flexible payment policies, and a painless application process.
Because of the APR ranges, credit score minimums and origination fee policies, Best Egg loans are certainly geared towards people with good credit and steady incomes. Those looking to build credit or borrow more than $35,000 will most likely find better options elsewhere.
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