Discover Personal Loans

Discover offers unsecured personal loans for borrowers with excellent or good credit (scores above 689). Loans are available nationwide and can be used for almost any purpose.

Discover personal loans have no origination fee and a wide range of repayment terms, but the lender doesn’t offer rate discounts. If approved for a loan, Discover can deposit the funds in as little as one business day, and borrowers can manage loan payments from a mobile app.

Pros

• No origination fee.
• Fast funding.
• Direct payment to creditors with debt consolidation loans.
• Wide variety of repayment term options.
• Available nationwide.

Cons

• No rate discount.
• Late fee.
• No co-sign or joint loan option.

Discover personal loans at a glance

• Disclosure from DiscoverThis is not a commitment to lend from Discover Personal Loans. Your APR will be between 7.99% and 24.99% based on creditworthiness at time of application for loan terms of 36-84 months. For example, if you get approved for a $15,000 loan at 13.99% APR for a term of 72 months, you’ll pay just $309 per month. You must have a minimum individual or household annual income of $25,000, be over 18 years of age, and have a valid US SSN to be considered for a Discover personal loan. Loan approval is subject to confirmation that your income, debt-to-income ratio, credit history and application information meet all requirements. Our lowest rates are available to consumers with the best credit. Many factors are used to determine your rate, such as your credit history, application information and the term you select. State restrictions may apply. A Discover personal loan is intended for personal use and cannot be used to pay for post-secondary education, to pay off a secured loan, or to directly pay off a Discover credit card. If your application is approved, we will send funds after you accept the loan. Your bank or creditor may take more days to process the funds. Discover makes loans without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or familial status.

Where Discover personal loans stand out

No origination fee: Unlike several other lenders, Discover does not charge an origination fee. An origination fee typically ranges from 1% to 10% of the loan amount and is often taken from loan proceeds, lowering the amount sent to the borrower.

Fast approval and funding: Discover says it provides same-day decisions on loan applications and can send funds as early as the following business day.

Direct payment to creditors with debt consolidation loans: Discover is a good option for debt consolidation loans. The lender offers an online consolidation calculator that shows potential savings with a Discover personal loan. If approved, Discover will send loan funds directly to creditors within one business day. A Discover personal loan, however, cannot be used to pay off a Discover credit card.

Wide variety of repayment term options: Repayment terms for Discover personal loans range from three to seven years, which gives borrowers several loan term options. A shorter-term loan generally means less interest costs, while a longer-term loan typically means lower monthly payments.

Available nationwide: Discover loans are available in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories. Many competitors have restrictions on where they can offer personal loans.

Customer service and support: Discover has a team of U.S.-based loan specialists available seven days a week during extended business hours to answer questions. The lender also has a well-rated mobile app and provides customers with free online education and tools, including credit score access.

Where Discover personal loans fall short

No rate discount: Discover doesn’t offer a rate discount for setting up automatic payments or paying off other creditors directly. Other lenders can discount interest rates, usually by a fraction of a percentage point, for choosing these options.

Late fee: Discover may charge a $39 late fee for payments not received by the due date. Setting up automatic payments or calendar reminders can help borrowers avoid missing payment due dates.

No co-sign, joint or secured loan options: Discover offers unsecured personal loans only, which means you cannot add a co-borrower or co-signer or secure a loan with collateral. These options typically help borrowers get approved and receive a lower rate or larger loan amount.

Our expert take

“Discover personal loans check the most important boxes: they’re available nationwide, allow pre-qualification, come with flexible terms and they fund fast. Plus, borrowers will surely appreciate being able to talk to a U.S-based loan specialist seven days a week — a perk that’s surprisingly hard to find among lenders.

Some drawbacks to Discover are the lack of rate discounts and the fact that you can’t add a co-applicant. But since you can pre-qualify with a soft credit check anyway, there’s no harm in seeing what terms you get before looking elsewhere.”

— Jackie Veling, Lead Writer on Personal Loans

How to use Discover personal loans

You can use a Discover personal loan for:

• Home improvement projects.
• Debt consolidation.
• Emergencies.
• Medical and dental bills.
• Vacations.
• Weddings.
• Adoption.
• Fertility treatments.
• Funerals.
• Business expenses.
• Other large purchases.

Discover prohibits the use of its personal loans for:

• Post-secondary education expenses.
• Paying off a secured loan.
• Paying off a Discover credit card.

Discover personal loan customer reviews

According to J.D. Power, a marketing research firm, Discover is the second-best U.S. personal loans lender in terms of overall customer satisfaction. The lender received a score of 742 out of 1,000 on J.D. Power’s 2024 Consumer Lending Satisfaction Study, which accounted for the experience of over 4,000 personal loan customers.

As of August 2024, Discover’s mobile app has 4.5 stars across 290,000 reviews on Google Play and 4.9 stars across 4.4 million reviews on the Apple App Store.

Do you qualify for a Discover personal loan?

Discover says it reviews credit history, recent credit activities and credit inquiries when evaluating an application. Loan applicants must be 18 years old with a valid Social Security number.

Discover’s borrowing requirements

• Minimum credit score: 660.
• Minimum annual household income: $25,000. Income can come from employment, retirement, alimony, child support, Social Security payments and disability benefits. 
• Must provide a valid U.S. address and email address.

• Discover’s average borrower snapshot

Before you apply

• Check your credit. You can get your free credit report on NerdWallet or at AnnualCreditReport.com. Doing so will help you spot and fix any errors before you apply.

• Calculate your monthly payments. Use a personal loan calculator to determine what APR and repayment term you’d need to get a loan with affordable monthly payments.

• Make a plan to repay the loan. Review your budget to see how the loan’s monthly payments impact your cash flow. If you have to cut other expenses in order to repay the loan, it’s better to know that before you borrow.
• Gather your documents. Most lenders require proof of income, which can be a W-2 or paystub, as well as proof of address and a Social Security number. Having these documents handy can speed the application process.

How to apply for a Discover personal loan

Here are the steps to apply for a Discover loan.

1. Pre-qualify with Discover over the phone or online. You’ll be asked how much you want to borrow, the loan term and what the funds are for, and some personal information like your name, address, income and employment. There’s no hard credit pull at this stage.
2. Preview loan offers and accept the one that fits your budget. Once you find a loan offer that works for you, you’ll submit a formal personal loan application. This could require verification with documents like W-2s, pay stubs and tax documents. Discover will do a hard credit check when you apply, so your credit score could temporarily dip. After applying, a loan specialist from Discover may contact you to confirm the information you provided.
3. Make a plan to repay the loan. Discover reports payments to all three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), so on-time payments will help build your credit score, but missed payments will hurt it. Setting up automatic payments and keeping an eye on your budget are two ways to manage your loan payments.

Compare Discover with other lenders

Personal loan lenders offer different rates, loan amounts and special features, so it pays to weigh other options. The best personal loan is usually the one with the lowest APR.

Like Discover, SoFi and LendingPoint have fast funding and a wide variety of repayment term options.

SoFi

LendingPoint

How we rate Discover personal loans

NerdWallet writers rate lenders against a rubric that changes each year based on how personal loan products evolve. Here’s what we prioritized this year:

• Category definitionsAffordability (25%)An affordable loan has low rates and fees compared to other similar loans and may offer rate discounts.Customer experience (20%)A good customer experience includes allowing borrowers to choose and change their repayment date, a fully online application process, a mobile app to manage the loan and a customer service team with wide availability.Underwriting and eligibility (20%)The lender reviews borrowers’ credit reports and credit history and tries to understand their ability to repay a loan. It offers loans in most states and doesn’t restrict eligibility by requiring a pre-existing relationship.Application process (20%)Borrowers can pre-qualify to check their potential rate, loan amount, repayment term and APR without affecting their credit score. They can easily find answers to questions about the personal loan on the lender’s website. The application process is fast enough to allow funding within a couple of days or less.Loan flexibility (15%)A flexible loan is one that offers a wide range of loan amounts and repayment term options. It includes common features like additional loan types and direct payment to creditors on debt consolidation loans.DiscretionaryA lender’s star rating can be reduced if the lender is sued by a state or federal regulator for unfair consumer practices or has been accused by a reputable source of suspicious business practices.

Ready to apply? Use the button below to head to Discover’s website to pre-qualify.

Get rate on Discover’s website

Find the Best Personal Loan

Methodology

NerdWallet’s review process evaluates and rates personal loan products from more than 35 financial technology companies and financial institutions. We collect over 50 data points and cross-check company websites, earnings reports and other public documents to confirm product details. We may also go through a lender’s pre-qualification flow and follow up with company representatives. NerdWallet writers and editors conduct a full fact check and update annually, but also make updates throughout the year as necessary.

Our star ratings award points to lenders that offer consumer-friendly features, including: soft credit checks to pre-qualify, competitive interest rates and no fees, transparency of rates and terms, flexible payment options, fast funding times, accessible customer service, reporting of payments to credit bureaus and financial education. Our ratings award fewer points to lenders with practices that may make a loan difficult to repay on time, such as charging high annual percentage rates (above 36%), underwriting that does not adequately assess consumers’ ability to repay and lack of credit-building help. We also consider regulatory actions filed by agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We weigh these factors based on our assessment of which are the most important to consumers and how meaningfully they impact consumers’ experiences.