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Marcus by Goldman Sachs Personal Loans Review
If you’re looking for a personal loan at a competitive interest rate, you might consider Marcus by Goldman Sachs, the lending and personal banking division of Goldman Sachs. The company offers excellent perks like no fees and an interest-free deferment after 12 months of on-time payments. However, there are a few downsides, including the fact that the company doesn’t offer joint loans.
When comparing Marcus’s personal loans to the best personal loans on the market, we considered factors like rates, loan size, customer satisfaction, support, and fees with our SimpleScore Methodology.
Best for Customer Satisfaction – Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Marcus would have no problem winning a popularity contest — it earned the highest customer satisfaction ranking in a J.D. Power personal loans study.
Marcus by Goldman Sachs is reinventing loans by providing a transparent way to borrow money. Marcus loans don’t have any fees — not even late payment fees — so you know what you’re getting up-front. Marcus by Goldman Sachs reviews are positive, with high customer satisfaction, easy online application and extremely competitive rates, making it one of the best personal loan providers.
Marcus personal loans at a glance
| APR | 6.99%–19.99% |
| Eligibility requirements | Not specified |
| Fees | None |
| Best for | Borrowers who want quality customer service |
| Not for | Borrowers who want to borrow money jointly |
| Standout features | One-month deferment with no interest incurred after 12 on-time payments |
| Marcus customer service | 1-844-MARCUS1 Marcus by Goldman Sachs P.O. Box 45400Salt Lake City, UT 84145-0400 |
What we like about Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Competitive interest rates
Marcus personal loans have some of the lowest interest rates on the market. While many lenders have rates that exceed 10%, you can get a Marcus personal loan for a rates from 6.99%–19.99%, and can go lower with a 0.25% autopay discount. Keep in mind that the lowest rates are only available to those with excellent credit. If you have a bad credit score, you can expect to be stuck with a rate at the higher end of Marcus’s scale.
No origination, prepayment, or late fees
It’s hard to find a lender in the personal loan space that doesn’t charge any fees at all. First, Marcus doesn’t charge origination fees when you take out a loan. It doesn’t have prepayment penalties, meaning you can pay your loan off faster and save money on interest. Finally, Marcus doesn’t charge late fees. So if you forget to get your payment in on time, it won’t cost you more.
High-rated customer satisfaction
In the 2019 J.D. Power Personal Loans Study, Marcus received the highest ranking for overall customer satisfaction. J.D. Power rated companies based on interactions, billing and payment, loan offerings and terms, and application and approval process. Based on this rating, you can expect that Marcus loans will come with a positive borrowing experience and that you’ll be able to get a hold of customer service when needed.
[ More: Pros and Cons of Taking Out a Personal Loan ]
Things to consider
No joint loans
Marcus doesn’t offer joint loans. While this might not seem like a problem to some, it can be a huge problem for others. First, it means that married couples can’t apply for a loan together. It also means that if your credit score doesn’t qualify you to get a personal loan on your own, you can’t ask someone to cosign with you.
Low transparency
Marcus doesn’t make its personal loan eligibility requirements known on its website. Instead, you’ll have to fill out the pre-approval form to find out if you apply (though luckily, it only results in a soft inquiry on your credit report). Though the minimum credit score isn’t available, most lenders with low rates require good credit to qualify for a loan. And the best rates are only available to those with excellent credit scores.
Marcus personal loan borrower requirements
- 18 years of age
- Credit score and income requirements aren’t available on the company’s website
[ Next: How Personal Loans Work ]
Marcus personal loans vs. the competition
SoFi is one of the top lenders in the personal loan game. It offers high loan amounts at competitive interest rates.
While both SoFi and Marcus by Goldman Sachs don’t charge any fees (even late fees), SoFi offers higher loan amounts — up to $100,000 against Marcus’ $40,000. However, Marcus is a good option for debt consolidation while SoFi is best for financing home improvement or adoption. SoFi also has lower rates — 5.99% with autopay.
Read our full SoFi personal loan review.
LightStream offers the lowest personal loan rates of any company on the market, with generous loan amounts and repayment terms.
Marcus and LightStream (like SoFi, as well) both don’t charge any fees — late, origination, application or repayment. And while Marcus may fall slightly short compared to LightStream in terms of rates, loan amounts and terms, it beats out its competitors in terms of customer satisfaction, earning 5 out of 5 circles with J.D. Power.
Read our full LightStream personal loan review.
While it’s best known for its credit cards, Discover also offers personal loans with competitive rates and loan terms.
Discover and Marcus are neck-and-neck in terms of rates, loan amounts and terms, with the former offering loans up to $35,000 with rates starting at 6.99% and terms up to 84 months. Discover even offers direct payment on debt consolidation, similar to Marcus. Where Discover falls short is in fees. While many online lenders are trending toward no-fee lending, Discover is holding out with late payment fees charges.
Read our full Discover personal loan review.
Marcus by Goldman Sachs debt consolidation loan
Marcus allows borrowers to use their personal loans for debt consolidation. With this type of loan, customers can take multiple debts and consolidate them into just one loan with a single interest payment and, most likely, a lower interest rate. Because Marcus doesn’t charge origination fees, customers can consolidate credit card debt without the upfront costs that typically come with balance transfers.
Can I refinance a personal loan with Marcus?
In addition to consolidating other forms of debt, borrowers can use Marcus’s personal loans to refinance existing personal loans. Doing so may help them to lower their interest rates or extend the life of their loan.
[ Read: Secured Personal Loans vs. Unsecured Personal Loans ]
Cheaper alternatives to Marcus personal loans
Marcus by Goldman Sachs offers competitive interest rates with no origination, prepayment or late fees. As a result, Marcus’s personal loans are more affordable than most. That being said, you may be able to find a personal loan for even better rates. Both SoFi and LightStream offer lower interest rates on personal loans with no fees.
Marcus by Goldman Sachs in the news
- In January 2020, Goldman Sachs launched a mobile app for Marcus, it’s online banking division. Before the start of the year, customers could only access their accounts or engage in transactions through the bank’s website.
- At the start of the pandemic, Goldman Sachs made a public decision to suspend company layoffs. The company ended this policy in November 2020, and the company began laying off a small number of employees.
- Goldman Sachs’ consumer banking division grew in the third quarter of 2020. The company reported an increase of $4 billion in deposits, while revenue and earnings per share both increased significantly.
Personal loan FAQ
Marcus doesn’t disclose its credit score requirements on its website, but most lenders with the lowest personal loan interest rates require borrowers to have good credit scores.
Marcus doesn’t charge prepayment penalties on its personal loans, meaning you can pay it off early and save money on interest without paying any fees.
Verification for personal loans takes a few days, after which time you’ll finalize your loan and receive the money in your bank account.
Too long, didn’t read?
Marcus offers some of the best perks for personal loan borrowers. The company has competitive interest rates with no fees whatsoever. And after you make 12 consecutive on-time payments, you get a one-month deferment with no interest incurred. Unfortunately, Marcus doesn’t disclose its credit score requirements, so you may need to fill out a pre-approval form to find out if you qualify.
We welcome your feedback on this article and would love to hear about your experience with the personal loans we recommend. Contact us at inquiries@thesimpledollar.com with comments or questions.
Keep Reading
Methodology
The SimpleScore is a proprietary scoring metric we use to objectively compare products and services at The Simple Dollar.
For every review, our editorial team:
- Identifies five measurable aspects to compare across each brand
- Determines the rating criteria for each aspect score
- Averages the five aspect scores to produce a single SimpleScore
Here’s a breakdown of the five aspect scores and their rating criteria for our review of the best personal loans of 2020.
Why do some brands have different SimpleScores on different pages?
To ensure the SimpleScore is as helpful and accurate as possible, we developed unique criteria for every category we compare at The Simple Dollar. Since most brands offer a variety of financial solutions, their products and services will score differently depending on what we’re scoring on a given page.
However, it’s also possible for the same product from the same brand to have multiple SimpleScores. For instance, if we compare NetCredit’s personal loans according to our criteria for the best personal loans, it scores a 2.3 out of 5. But when we compare NetCredit according to the criteria for the best bad credit personal loans, it scores considerably higher, since the criteria for the latter review are more lenient (lenders who serve borrowers with bad credit will always offer higher rates, so we needed to adjust our category methodology to account for different industry standards).
Questions about our methodology?
Email Hayley Armstrong at hayley@thesimpledollar.com.
Rates
We looked at the maximum APR for each lender — the lower their maximum rate, the higher their score.
Loan Size
We awarded higher scores to lenders with more generous loan sizes.
Customer Satisfaction
We leveraged the J.D. Power 2019 Personal Loan Satisfaction Study℠ to see how customers rated their experience with each lender. (If a lender wasn’t included in J.D. Power’s study, we skipped this aspect and averaged the four remaining aspect scores.)
Support
We awarded higher scores to lenders with the most channels for customer support.
Fees
We looked at the three most common fees — origination, late payment, and pre-payment — and penalized lenders for each fee charged.
Reviewed by
Courtney Mihocik
Loans EditorCourtney Mihocik is an editor at The Simple Dollar who specializes in personal loans, student loans, auto loans, and debt consolidation loans. She is a former writer and contributing editor to Interest.com, PersonalLoans.org, and elsewhere.
