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Best Wedding Loans in 2020
While the cost of a wedding can vary wildly from couple to couple, in 2019 the average cost of a wedding was $33,900. Many couples have trouble affording an event with such a hefty price tag, especially young couples without substantial money for a wedding. If you’re strapped for cash when planning a wedding, wedding loans can be a viable alternative to credit card debt or other forms of borrowing. Whether you’ve dreamed of a lavish wedding, or just need a little help footing the bill on your big day, you may be interested in pursuing personal loans for your wedding.
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Why trust The Simple Dollar
Here at the Simple Dollar, we strive to cover the breadth of personal finance while also getting into the in-depth elements you need most. We’ve researched the major providers of the best wedding loans and personal loans for your wedding to bring you some nuanced suggestions specific to your situation.
[Read: Best Debt Consolidation Loans for 2020]
The best wedding loans of 2020
- LightStream – Best for low APRs
- SoFi – Best for good credit
- Marcus – Best for resources and support
- Lending Club – Best peer-to-peer lender
- Upstart – Best for fair credit
Wedding loans at a glance
| Lender | APR | Term | Loan Amounts | SimpleScore |
| Lightstream | 2.49%–19.99% w/AutoPay | 24–84 months | $5,000–$100,000 | 4.8/5 |
| SoFi | 5.99%–19.63% w/AutoPay | 24–84 months | $5,000–$100,000 | 4.6/5 |
| Marcus | 6.99%–19.99% | 36–72 months | $5,000–$40,000 | 5/5 |
| Lending Club | 8.05%–35.89% | 36–60 months | $1,000–$50,000 | 3.2/5 |
| Upstart | 6.95%–35.99% | 36 or 60 months | $1,000–$50,000 | 3.4/5 |
*Rates accurate as of July 2021 and exclude autopay discounts with the exception of Lightstream and Sofi.
Best for low APRs – LightStream
Forget your future spouse — you’ll fall in love with LightStream wedding loans instead.
If you’re looking for an affordable, flexible wedding loan, LightStream has a lot of points in its favor. With low starting rates and no additional fees, LightStream is one of the better deals available. It also allows couples to submit joint applications and has flexible term lengths ranging from two to seven years. Because this lender requires a minimum credit score of 660, it may not be the best choice for couples with poor credit histories. Lightstream also requires several years of credit history to qualify.
Best for good credit – SoFi
If you’re going to go in debt for your big day, you might as well choose a lender that will be there for you in sickness and health, when it comes to your finances.
For borrowers with good credit, SoFi offers competitive rates and an easy online application process. While SoFi may be better known for its student loan refinancing options, it also has a robust personal loan program that can be used to finance large expenses like weddings. SoFi requires a relatively high credit score of at least 680, although many borrowers have even higher scores. If you do manage to qualify, however, SoFi offers competitive rates, an easy application process and other perks, like pausing repayment if you lose your job.
Best for resources and support – Marcus by Goldman Sachs
With a nice on-time-payment incentive and excellent resources and support, Marcus has some good features with a straightforward process.
Marcus offers loans with no fees, fixed interest rates and a robust customer support system. An arm of financial giant Goldman Sachs, Marcus is an online-only platform that offers personal loans for your wedding to cover a variety of expenses. Marcus offers loans of up to $40,000 with no fees and a simple application process. If you’re not sure whether or not you qualify, you can complete the quick and easy application without affecting your credit score. Marcus also offers robust customer support and an extensive library of resources for borrowers interested in growing their financial knowledge. After making 12 consecutive monthly payments, Marcus allows borrowers to defer payment for one month without accruing additional fees or interest. It also offers a discount for borrowers who set up autopay. Marcus doesn’t allow cosigners, which may not be ideal for younger couples without a solid credit history.
Best peer-to-peer lender – LendingClub
Your guest list may be long, but so can the number of investors funding your wedding loan with LendingClub
LendingClub offers peer-to-peer lending for loans of up to $40,000, with a quick and easy application process and a joint loan option. LendingClub helped popularize peer-to-peer lending and offers personal loans for expenses including weddings. Unlike some other lenders, Lending Club allows joint applications, so couples can apply jointly for a loan to finance their wedding. Lending Club does charge origination and late fees and rates may not be as competitive as some other lenders. It also requires higher income-to-debt ratios, so low-income couples may not qualify.
Best for fair credit – Upstart
Upstart is a viable option for a wedding loan so couples can jumpstart the merging of their finances.
For borrowers with fair credit, Upstart offers fast, flexible personal loans for your wedding with decent rates. Its minimum credit score is 620, and its minimum annual income is $12,000. Founded by Google employees, Upstart prides itself on providing loans to borrowers with short credit histories. It has fairly low rates and an online application process that takes only a few minutes. It also doesn’t charge a prepayment penalty, so borrowers are free to pay off their loans at any time. Because Upstart considers your education, areas of study and job history in addition to your credit score, it’s able to offer competitive rates to promising candidates. It does charge origination and late fees and doesn’t allow cosigners.
What is a wedding loan?
Wedding loans are personal loans that can be used to fund wedding expenses such as venue rentals, catering, equipment costs and more. For couples who don’t have enough money saved to cover all wedding-related expenses themselves, wedding loans can help them to afford the many costs that come along with celebrating a wedding.
How to get a wedding loan
Borrowers interested in wedding loans can apply online and, in some cases, can receive funds deposited into their accounts within only a few business days.
[Read: How to Get a Personal Loan With Fair Credit]
- Check your credit score and improve it. Pull your credit score from one of the three credit reporting bureaus, using AnnualCreditReport.com. Through this site, you’ll be able to see an accurate snapshot of your credit score. If it’s below 680, you could improve it by disputing inaccuracies, paying down debts or credit card balances or even using a small personal loan to report on-time payments. Knowing your credit score will also help you determine which lenders you’re eligible for.
- Shop around for the best wedding loan rates. This is one of the most important steps in how to get a wedding loan. Compare lenders that do not perform hard credit checks to get a quote online. Most lenders will send the quote to your email in minutes, and you can compare rates and amounts that best work for you and your significant other.
- Determine the amount you need. There’s no reason to take out more than you need — you’ll end up paying more in interest over time. Carefully calculate how much you actually need to take out in a loan and request that amount from the best wedding loan provider you find.
- Apply for the loan. Once you have everything in order, apply for the loan using your income statements, personal information, bank account information and in most cases, your Social Security number. Once approved, the lender will likely deposit your funds within one to three business days.
[Read: Is a Personal Loan My Best Option?]
Wedding loans vs. credit cards
Some couples choose to place wedding debt on credit cards, since qualifying for a high enough credit limit is surprisingly easy. In particular, if you start a new credit card for the purpose of using it for wedding debt, you can get a good low introductory interest rate or travel rewards and cash back.
[Related: Best 0% Interest Credit Cards of 2020 ]
Overall, though, this strategy requires an aggressive plan to pay back the debt, since the long-term rates are much higher on credit cards than on personal loans for your wedding. Unless you anticipate paying your debt back before the introductory offer ends, a wedding loan will cost you less in the long run.
How to pay for a wedding without a wedding loan
The wedding planning process should begin with considering two elements at the same time. First, explore average budgets for your level of formality, amount of guests, location, and time of year of a wedding. Second, consider the economic resources at your disposal, including family contributions.
[ Read: Best Installment Loans for Bad Credit ]
Once you have an idea of how much savings you and your family members can bring to the wedding and you have priced out an approximate budget, the deficit between these numbers is how much money for your wedding that you actually need.
You aren’t required to apply for a wedding loan, of course; the other option is to begin scaling back the budget through cost-cutting measures. Planning a frugal wedding doesn’t mean it can’t be fancy. Chic DIY weddings can be just as much fun as lavish celebrations and you’ll be able to get creative with things like flowers, invitations, decorations and more. Here’s how those numbers can add up.
How to get a wedding loan with bad credit
Weddings are often planned well in advance, so if you believe you’ll need a wedding loan, you can begin working to repair bad credit right now. For instance, Experian offers Experian Boost wherein you connect your credit score to your utility bills and telecommunications payments. By making these payments reliably, you gain credit. Other methods for repairing credit involve paying debt payments on time, lowering your balance on credit cards and looking over your credit report in order to dispute inaccurate information.
While some companies allow you to apply jointly for a wedding loan, if you or your partner have poor credit, you might consider applying for the loan only in the name of the person with better credit.
If your credit will not rise to the number that many personal loan providers prefer, Upstart tends to offer loans to people with lower credit or less established credit than some of the other providers.
[ Read more: Best Bad Credit Personal Loans in 2020 ]
Wedding loans FAQs
You can get a wedding loan through an online lender, traditional bank or credit union. However, we recommend that you exhaust all other funding options before turning to loans or credit cards to pay for your wedding.
Yes. Many personal wedding loans have no fees for early repayment. If your loan has an early repayment fee, it still may be beneficial to pay it down and have the loan out of the way.
It depends. Some personal loans have a minimum of $5,000, so look for providers like Lending Club and UpStart, who have lower minimums of $1,000.
Too long, didn’t read?
Although funding your big day with a wedding loan seems like a reasonable enough option, consider only the best wedding loans providers before looking for alternatives to wedding loans. While it will be nice to have a lavish wedding, consider all options for funding. Wedding loan providers like LightStream, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, and others are able to provide the money for your wedding.
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.
