Best Egg Personal Loans Review 2024

Vault’s Viewpoint on Best Egg Personal Loans

Best Egg is an online lender offering secured and unsecured personal loans to borrowers with fair credit. These loans can be used for nearly any purpose, including debt consolidation, home improvement projects, moving expenses or a vacation. If you’re interested in consolidating your debt or refinancing your credit cards, Best Egg will send the funds directly to your creditors. 

Best Egg makes it easy to apply for a loan and the process takes place entirely online. The company does a soft pull on your credit, so applying won’t damage your credit score. Best Egg considers factors beyond your credit score alone and also looks at your income and debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. 

Best Egg also provides fast funding on its personal loans. Borrowers can receive the funds in as little as 24 hours, and the borrowing limits and repayment terms are comparable to what other lenders offer.

Unfortunately, Best Egg may charge a hefty origination fee, which is something you can avoid with other lenders. If you choose longer loan terms, you’ll pay a higher origination fee. Unlike other lenders, Best Egg doesn’t offer a discount for setting up autopay.

About Best Egg Personal Loans

Best Egg offers secured and unsecured personal loans to borrowers with a minimum credit score of 640. Choosing a secured loan can help you save on interest charges and extend your loan terms up to seven years. You can choose to secure the loan with either your home’s fixtures or the equity in your vehicle. 

Many lenders require you to use your entire home to secure a loan, but Best Egg lets you use features in your home like cabinets and fixtures. If you choose a home-secured loan, you could earn an average rate discount of 20%. You can also secure the loan using your car’s equity, and borrow up to 250% of the value. But you must have a clean title to qualify for the loan.  

After you qualify for the loan, the origination fee is automatically deducted from the principal amount. For example, let’s say you take out a $30,000 loan and pay an origination fee of $1,800, or 6%. That means you’ll actually receive $28,200 in loan proceeds, but will still owe the original $30,000.  

Another area Best Egg stands out is its direct loan payment option. If you take out a debt consolidation loan, Best Egg will send payments to your creditors on your behalf. As an added benefit, you’ll receive a 0.5% discount for using this service. 

The company also provides free financial health tools to everyone. Best Egg Financial Health is an app that monitors your credit score and sends you notifications anytime there’s a change to your report. You’ll also be able to monitor your DTI ratio, and the credit simulator will offer tips on how to improve your score. This free tool can be useful to anyone looking for more insight into how they’re doing financially.

Who Should Get a Personal Loan With Best Egg?

Best Egg personal loans are best for borrowers with fair-to-good credit scores and a reliable source of income. The company considers alternative criteria when evaluating you for a loan, so it’s easier to qualify for the funding you need. And borrowers with equity in their car or home can save money by applying for a secured personal loan. 

Best Egg may also be a good choice if you’re looking to consolidate debt, assuming you qualify for lower interest rates than what you’re currently paying. If you qualify for a debt consolidation loan, the company will have the funds sent directly to up to 10 different creditors.

Who Should Consider an Alternative Personal Loan To Best Egg?

Borrowers with excellent credit scores and high annual incomes may want to look elsewhere for a personal loan. You’ll most likely score lower interest rates and avoid the origination fee by choosing another lender like Discover or LightStream. 

Borrowers with poor credit also aren’t a great choice for Best Egg due to the minimum credit requirements. If you have poor credit and do manage to qualify for a Best Egg personal loan, just make sure you can afford the interest rates and origination fees.

Also, anyone who lives in Iowa, Vermont, West Virginia, the District of Columbia will need to look elsewhere for a loan since Best Egg isn’t available in these states.

Getting a Personal Loan Through Best Egg

If you feel like Best Egg is the best company to get you the funding you need when you need it, you’ll have to meet some basic criteria to qualify. Fortunately, Best Egg makes it easy to apply for a loan and get approved online from the comfort of your home, so you won’t have to visit a loan office or speak with a lender in person.

How To Qualify for a Line of Credit With Best Egg

Here’s a rundown of what you’ll need to qualify for a Best Egg loan in an amount that ranges from $2,000 to $50,000.

• Consistent income: Best Egg says you’ll have to have verifiable income to qualify for its personal loans, which you can show through a traditional job or self-employment. You may need to submit documentation to prove your income as well, including pay stubs or tax returns.
• Fair or good credit: A credit score of at least 640 is required to get approved for a Best Egg loan. This credit score puts you in FICO’s “fair credit” range.
• Reasonable debt-to-income ratio: This lender also considers other debts you have, including your debt-to-income ratio (DTI). Best Egg says they prefer borrowers with a DTI of 30% or below.
• Valid address and identity: You also need to prove your identity. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident in the U.S. and of legal age to accept a loan in your state. You must also have a verifiable personal checking account in your state, a valid email address and a physical address that does not have a P.O. Box.

Important: Best Egg loans are not available to applicants in Iowa, Vermont, West Virginia, the District of Columbia or U.S. Territories.

How To Apply for a Line of Credit With Best Egg

If you’re ready to apply for funding with Best Egg, the following steps can get you to the finish line.

1. Check your rate with no obligation. Best Egg lets you get preapproved without a hard inquiry on your credit report. To do this, you’ll need to share your email address, requested loan amount, reason for the loan, full name, date of birth, address, phone number, income, housing status and mortgage or rent payment amount.
2. Move forward with the online application. If you get preapproved and like the preliminary information you see, you can move forward with a full loan application with Best Egg. The lender will ask you for additional information during the application process, including your Social Security number (SSN) and employment details.
3. Choose your loan offer. Once you submit your application and get approved for a loan, Best Egg will show you different repayment options and loan terms. This is also when you’ll see a hard inquiry added to your credit reports. At this point, you can select a monthly payment and repayment term that fits your budget and your goals.
4. Verify your identity and details. Best Egg says you may need to submit additional information to prove your credit score, identity or income. This could be something like pay stubs or tax returns, but you won’t know until you get to this step of the process.
5. Get funded. Finally, Best Egg says you can get funded in one to three business days, but that most of its customers get their money the next business day after they apply.

How Does Best Egg Stack Up to Competitors?

If you’re having second thoughts about Best Egg or think you could qualify for a loan with better rates and terms, check out these other lenders.

Best Egg vs. Discover

If you have good-to-excellent credit and a high income and need to borrow anywhere from $2,500 to $40,000, you’ll want to consider Discover loans as well. This lender offers loans to individuals with credit scores as low as 660 but with no origination fees and interest rates from 7.99% to 24.99% based on creditworthiness.

Discover also lets applicants repay its loans over 36 to 84 months, which paves the way to more affordable loan payments with longer repayment terms. That said, Discover does require applicants to have a minimum income of $25,000 to apply and says its best rates are for people with “the best credit.”

Best Egg vs. LightStream

LightStream is another online lender that offers personal loans with competitive rates and terms and no origination fees. Interest rates on its loan products go up to 25.99%, and repayment terms vary based on the purpose of the loan (between 24 and 144 months). For example, home improvement loans can be paid off over up to 144 months, whereas debt consolidation loans are typically only offered with terms of up to 84 months.

Note that the best rates from LightStream require AutoPay. This lender is also pickier about its approval requirements than most, and it clearly states that it only accepts applicants with good-to-excellent credit profiles. According to LightStream, other characteristics of borrowers that get approved include having several years of credit history, some liquid savings, a reasonable amount of other debt and a strong payment history.

Best Egg vs. Upstart

If you have imperfect credit but are financially strong otherwise, you may want to check out Upstart. This company says it considers more than your credit score for approvals and may also look at your education level or your job to get you a better rate. In fact, Upstart lists a minimum credit score of 300 to get approved.

Personal loans from Upstart range from $1,000 to $50,000, so they’re a good option for lower loan amounts. Fixed interest rates can range from 7.8% to 35.99%, and loan terms are either for 36 or 60 months. What’s the catch? Upstart charges loan origination fees that equal 0% to 12% of the loan amount upfront.