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SoFi Personal Loans Review
If you need a personal loan and SoFi is on your short list of lenders to consider, keep reading to learn more about their loan products, how they work, and eligibility requirements.
SoFi is a digital lender founded in 2011. While the company is probably better known for its student loans and student loan refinancing options, they also offer several other types of loans, including personal loans and mortgages. SoFi offers some of the lowest starting rates in the business — a feat they claim is possible due to their lack of overhead and selective application process.
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SoFi Personal Loans: Key Takeaways
- Borrow up to $100,000
- No origination fee, prepayment fees, or late fees
- Easy prequalification process
- Repayment terms from 24 to 84 months
- Unemployment protection
SoFi Personal Loans Review
If you want to borrow money and secure the lowest interest rate possible, it makes sense to compare rates and fees across several different lenders. In addition to their low starting rates for consumers with excellent credit, SoFi personal loans stand out due to their lack of an origination fee, prepayment fees, or fees for making a late payment.
Also note that SoFi offers a special deal for borrowers who lose their job through no fault of their own. In special cases, SoFi allows consumers to apply for forbearance, or a temporary pause on loan payments, for three months at a time. Interest still accrues while forbearance is in place, but you have the option to make interest-only payments during that time.
If you need to borrow a large amount of money, SoFi is one of the online personal loan companies that will let you borrow up to $100,000. You also get up to 84 months to repay your loan, which is a lengthier timeline than certain loan company rivals like Earnest.
To qualify for a personal loan from SoFi, you need to meet basic eligibility requirements. It starts with being a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident, or a visa holder. If you’re a permanent resident or visa holder, you have to have at least two years until your status expires unless you have filed for an extension.
You must also be at least 18 years old and have sufficient income or an offer of employment that starts within the next 90 days. Your financial situation, employment and income history, and debt-to-income ratio will also be considered. Finally, you need a good credit score — 680 at the bare minimum — to qualify.
While SoFi offers personal loans that can be used for a variety of purposes, important life situations they market their loans for include:
- Credit card and debt consolidation
- Home improvements
- Relocation assistance
- Medical procedures
- Auto refinancing
Where SoFi Comes Up Short
While SoFi is a reputable lender that offers high-quality loans for a variety of purposes, it’s not perfect. One of the problems with SoFi is simply the complex web of state rules that dictate who can borrow and how much.
These rules and terms can make the loan you want impossible to qualify for in certain states and situations. If you live in Pennsylvania and only want to borrow $10,000, for example, you’re out of luck. The same is true if you live in Kentucky, Arizona, Massachusetts, or New Hampshire.
And because SoFi is so choosy when it comes to which applicants to approve, it may also be difficult to qualify for a SoFi personal loan — as mentioned, you’ll need a credit score of at least 680. Finally, it’s important to note that the lowest interest rates (as well as advertised rates) go to those who have excellent credit and sign up for auto-pay.
SoFi Personal Loans Are Best for:
- Consumers with excellent credit who can qualify for the lowest rates
- Borrowers who live in states without loan amount or interest rate requirements
- Anyone who wants to take out a personal loan with no fees
- People who love the idea of unemployment insurance and forbearance if they lose their job
How We Rate SoFi Personal Loans
At The Simple Dollar, we aim to provide a general overview of a lender’s products and services through a standard rating process. After a thorough research and discovery period, here’s how SoFi stacks up:
How to Apply for a Personal Loan with SoFi
One of the biggest benefits of considering SoFi is the fact that they let you get prequalified for a loan and loan amount without a hard inquiry on your credit report. With just a soft pull, you can get a sense of whether you may qualify for a personal loan and how much you could borrow if so. Still, it’s important to remember that prequalification doesn’t guarantee you’ll receive final approval.
Once you enter basic information to see if you’re prequalified, you can proceed through the formal loan application process with the following information:
- How much you want to borrow
- Ideal repayment term
- Full name
- Address
- Social Security number
- Income and employment information
If you’re approved for a personal loan from SoFi, it’s possible to find out if you’re approved or denied within a day’s time. Once you are approved and your full application has been processed, it’s also possible to get your funds deposited in your bank account within a few days.
Too long, didn’t read?
While SoFi may be better known for its student loan refinancing options, you can also consider this lender for a personal loan or home mortgage. Among personal loan companies, SoFi stands out for its lack of fees, its low interest rates, and the unemployment protection it offers if you lose your job through no fault of your own.
Before you apply for a personal loan, however, make sure to compare interest rates, reviews, and fees to find the best deal.
Editorial Note: Compensation does not influence our recommendations. However, we may earn a commission on sales from the companies featured in this post. To view a list of partners, click here. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by our advertisers. Reasonable efforts are made to present accurate info, however all information is presented without warranty. Consult our advertiser’s page for terms & conditions.
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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.
