13 providers analyzed · 9 verified · 9 buyer-beware
Personal loans, verified
Rates pulled from lenders’ own pages, scored against public benchmarks — including the lenders we tell you to avoid.
Retrieved 2026-08-24 · Benchmark: 36% MLA cap (10 U.S.C. § 987 / 32 CFR 232)
- 9 lenders verified
- Criteria published
- 9‑lender buyer‑beware list included
Advertiser Disclosure
Credit Defense Hub may earn a commission when you follow some links below to a partner's site. Commissions never change a card's score, its ranking, or whether it lands on the buyer-beware list — see the full advertiser disclosure.
Top picks — verified, non-flagged providers
Of the 13 providers reviewed, only 4 clear both the fee and APR benchmarks below — these three show the most differentiated verified strength, and “Methodology & limitations” below explains why a fourth non-flagged provider, Happy Money, isn’t featured despite also passing both thresholds.
Best for large no-fee loans
SoFi
6.99%–35.49%
APR range
- Origination feeNone
- Loan amounts$5,000–$100,000
- Term24–84 months
Rate details and caveats
- Advertised APR range (6.99%-35.49% for a representative $30,000 loan) includes both a 0.25% AutoPay discount and a 0.25% Member Rate discount; without AutoPay and the deposit/subscription-based Member Rate discount, rates are higher.
- The published rate table explicitly reflects 'no origination fee' term options only; SoFi's site references an origination-fee alternative pricing path ('Direct Pay' / fee vs. no-fee tradeoffs) that was not fully itemized on the pages reviewed.
Best for zero fees of any kind
Discover Personal Loans
6.99%–24.99%
APR range
- Origination feeNone
- Loan amounts$2,500–$40,000
- Term36–84 months
Rate details and caveats
- Discover's own site footer now reads '© 2026 Discover, a division of Capital One, N.A., Member FDIC' -- Discover Personal Loans is now a Capital One brand, not an independent Discover Financial Services product.
- Requires a minimum individual or household annual income of $25,000 and a valid U.S. SSN; no numeric minimum credit score is published.
Best for long repayment terms
LightStream
6.49%–24.89%
APR range
- Origination feeNone
- Loan amountsNot published
- Term24–240 months
Rate details and caveats
- LightStream 'only approves good-to-excellent credit profiles' per its own site; no numeric minimum credit score is published.
- Advertised rates are quoted WITH the AutoPay discount; rates without AutoPay are 0.50 percentage points higher.
Rate not independently verified — see Methodology below.
Rates from the source
9 of 13 lenders’ APRs were pulled directly from the lender’s own rate page, not an ad feed.
Benchmarks set first
The 9-lender buyer-beware tier is decided by a fixed 36% MLA cap and a published origination-fee ceiling, set before this research began.
The worst list, published
Most loan-comparison sites only publish winners — ours names the 9 lenders whose own terms cross the line, fee schedule and all.
Buyer beware — not an offer
9 of 13 flaggedThis is a warning list, not a recommendation list — nothing below is an offer, an application link, or an endorsement of any kind.
Every provider below crossed a fixed APR or origination-fee benchmark, published before this research began — the numbers are theirs, the threshold is public. They’re listed here for one reason: recognition, not recommendation.
See “The criteria” below for the exact numbers behind every flag.
| Provider | Severity | Max APR | Max origination fee | Why flagged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upstart | High origination fee | 35.99% | 12% | Origination fee can run up to 12% of the loan amount, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling, even though Upstart's advertised max APR (35.99%) sits just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. |
| Upgrade | High origination fee | 35.99% | 9.99% | Origination fee can run up to 9.99% of the loan amount, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling; max advertised APR (35.99%) is just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. |
| Best Egg | High origination fee | 35.99% | 9.99% | Origination fee can run up to 9.99% of the loan amount, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling; max advertised APR (35.99%) is just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. |
| Avant | High origination fee | 35.99% | 9.99% | Administration fee can run up to 9.99% of the loan amount, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling, and the fee itself accrues interest as part of principal; max advertised APR (35.99%) is just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. |
| OneMain Financial | High origination fee | 35.99% | 10% | In states where OneMain charges a percentage-based origination fee, that fee can run up to 10% of the loan amount, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling; max advertised APR (35.99%) is just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. |
| Oportun | High origination fee | 35.95% | 10% | Administrative fee is a flat 10% of principal in both examples Oportun publishes, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling. Oportun's own self-imposed 'all-in' cap keeps total APR at or below 36% (its current live examples show 34.95%-35.95%), i.e. it sits right at, not above, the Military Lending Act benchmark used here. |
| LendingPoint | High origination fee | 35.99% | 10% | Origination fee can run up to 10% of the loan amount, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling; max advertised APR (35.99%) is just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. |
| NetCredit | Exceeds 36% MLA cap | 99.99% | 0% | Advertises personal loan APRs up to 99.99%, on its own published Rates & Terms disclosure -- 63.99 percentage points above the 36% Military Lending Act cap that applies to servicemembers, and nearly 2.8 times that benchmark. Even the low end of the advertised range (34.99%) sits just under the cap; the high end is nearly triple it. |
| Universal Credit | High origination fee | 35.99% | 9.99% | Secondary-sourced origination fee can run up to 9.99% of the loan amount, above the 0%-8% typical range used as this dataset's fee-burden ceiling; max reported APR (35.99%) is just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. This entire assessment rests on secondary sources because the lender's own site could not be crawled. |
The criteria
Two fixed, public benchmarks decide the buyer-beware tier above — nothing else. Both were set before this dataset was compiled and before any lender partnership existed; a provider’s tier is a function of its own published numbers against these lines, not of whether it becomes a partner later.
Benchmark 1 — the 36% MLA APR cap
10 U.S.C. Section 987 (Military Lending Act); 32 CFR Part 232 (Department of Defense implementing regulation, the 'Military Annual Percentage Rate' / MAPR cap of 36% on covered consumer credit extended to active-duty servicemembers, their spouses, and covered dependents)
The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) has advocated a 36% all-in APR cap as a general consumer-lending rate ceiling, reinforcing 36% as a recognized (not site-invented) line for evaluating installment loan cost.
Benchmark 2 — the 0%-8% typical origination-fee ceiling
A provider whose maximum advertised origination (or administration) fee runs above this typical range is flagged for fee burden, independent of where its APR falls.
Methodology & limitations
9 of 13 providers are marked verified: their headline APR range was read directly from the lender’s own live rate page. The 4 providers below are marked unverified for a specific, stated reason — not because their numbers are wrong, but because this review could not confirm them on an official page:
LightStream — rate not independently verified
Fee/structure/term facts were read directly from LightStream's own page; the specific APR min/max numbers could not be read directly (dynamic placeholder) and are secondary-sourced, so the provider is marked unverified overall.
Oportun — rate not independently verified
Fee (10% administrative fee) and the sub-36% ceiling are confirmed directly from official sources; a clean official min-max APR range was not found, so the provider is marked unverified for the aprRange field specifically.
Universal Credit — rate not independently verified
Official site (universalcredit.com) could not be loaded/crawled by this review's tools; every figure in this row comes from convergent secondary aggregator reporting, not a direct read of the lender's own page.
Happy Money — rate not independently verified
Minimum APR and loan-amount range read directly from two official pages; maximum APR, origination fee, minimum credit score, and term range could not be confirmed on an official page and rely on conflicting secondary reports.
A lender we deliberately left out
Goldman Sachs ended new Marcus personal loan originations in January 2023 as part of its exit from consumer lending; as of this August 2026 pull, Marcus is not accepting new personal loan applications and only services existing loans (roughly half of the legacy portfolio was sold to Rithm Capital and Varde Partners). Marcus continues to operate as a savings/CD brand only. Excluded because it cannot currently be recommended as a place to get a NEW personal loan.
On the buyer-beware tier: NetCredit is the only provider there flagged for its advertised APR (up to 99.99%, well above the 36% cap) while charging no origination, late, or prepayment fee at all. The other eight are flagged purely for origination or administration fees running above the typical ceiling, while their advertised maximum APRs (mostly 35.99%) sit just under the cap — Oportun’s self-imposed 36% “all-in” policy in particular keeps its APR right at, not over, the cap; its fee is the sole reason it appears there.
Retrieval date: 2026-08-24. Terms change constantly — APRs, fees, and loan-amount ranges shown here can move without notice; always confirm current terms on the lender’s own official page before applying. Corrections: via our contact page — corrections are recorded, not silently overwritten.
Download the dataset
Frequently asked questions
What is a good APR for a personal loan?
There is no single "good" APR — it depends on your credit profile — but this review's verified corpus shows the lowest advertised starting rates are 6.2%–6.99% (Upstart, SoFi, Discover, Best Egg), reserved for the most creditworthy applicants. Advertised maximums for most prime and near-prime lenders here cluster at 35.99%, just under the 36% Military Lending Act cap. Treat any "starting at" rate as a best case, not a promise for your specific application.
Why is 36% the line?
36% is the Military Annual Percentage Rate (MAPR) cap the Military Lending Act sets for active-duty servicemembers, their spouses, and covered dependents (10 U.S.C. Section 987 (Military Lending Act); 32 CFR Part 232 (Department of Defense implementing regulation, the 'Military Annual Percentage Rate' / MAPR cap of 36% on covered consumer credit extended to active-duty servicemembers, their spouses, and covered dependents)). The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) has advocated a 36% all-in APR cap as a general consumer-lending rate ceiling, reinforcing 36% as a recognized (not site-invented) line for evaluating installment loan cost. A provider sitting under 36% is not an endorsement of affordability — it only means that specific number does not cross this specific, federally codified line.
Do lenders pay this site?
Not today. Every provider on this page — including the three top picks — has an active: false entry in our public affiliate registry, so links go to the lender’s own official page with no tracking and no commission. If a partnership begins later, a visible "(partner link)" marker and the advertiser disclosure will say so immediately. Partnership status is never an input to which tier a provider lands in: tier placement is computed from the published fee and APR numbers on this page.
Go deeper
- See auto loan providersVerified new/used APRs plus a 3-lender buyer-beware tier built from real enforcement records.
- Back to the loans hubCompare the personal-loan and auto-loan research side by side.
- Best & worst credit cardsThe same verified-vs-buyer-beware treatment, applied to our credit card corpus.
Educational information — many borrowers compare at least two offers
Educational information — not advice
This page provides general educational information about credit, debt, and consumer protections. It is not legal advice, financial advice, or credit repair services, and reading it does not create any professional relationship. Laws, procedures, deadlines, and dollar amounts vary by state and change over time.
For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed attorney or qualified financial professional. See our full disclaimer.