Upstart Personal Loans

Upstart is an online lending platform that connects borrowers with banks and credit unions to fund personal loans. It differentiates itself from other online lenders with its underwriting model that uses artificial intelligence and nontraditional data — like college education and work experience — to qualify borrowers.

Upstart gives borrowers access to money fast with its instant loan approvals and next-day funding; however, it doesn’t offer joint or co-signed loans.

Pros

• Accepts borrowers with bad credit or thin credit histories.
• Has a low income requirement.
• Fast approval and funding.
• Allows secured loans.
• Option to change your payment date.

Cons

• Origination fee.
• No rate discounts.
• No joint or co-signed loans.
• No direct payment to creditors on debt-consolidation loans.

Upstart personal loans at a glance

• Disclosure from UpstartThe full range of available rates varies by state. A representative example of payment terms for a Personal Loan is as follows: a borrower receives a loan of $10,000 for a term of 60 months, with an interest rate of 21.58% and a 9.84% origination fee of $984, for an APR of 26.82%. In this example, the borrower will receive $9016 and will make 60 monthly payments of $275. APR is calculated based on 5-year rates offered in December 2023. There is no downpayment and no prepayment penalty. Your APR will be determined based on your credit, income, and certain other information provided in your loan application. Not all applicants will be approved. Most borrowers are instantly approved. The majority of unsecured loan borrowers on the Upstart marketplace are able to receive an instant decision upon submitting a completed application, without providing additional supporting documents, however final approval is conditioned upon passing the hard credit inquiry. Loan processing may be subject to longer wait times if additional documentation is required for review. If you accept your loan by 5pm EST (not including weekends or holidays), your funds will be sent on the next business day.

Where Upstart personal loans stand out

Alternative data use: Many personal loan lenders review primarily credit and income information to make an application decision, but Upstart includes details like college education and work history in borrower evaluations. The lending platform says its nontraditional underwriting model helps approve more applicants than lenders that review credit and finances only.

Accepts borrowers with bad credit or thin credit histories: Upstart accepts borrowers from across the credit spectrum and also considers applicants with thin credit histories or no credit score. To the extent an applicant has a credit score, Upstart accepts scores as low as 300, meaning the lender effectively doesn’t have a minimum credit score requirement.

Low income requirement: Upstart requires that borrowers take in a minimum of $12,000 per year. Income can come from a variety of sources including regular wages, self-employment, retirement benefits, Social Security payments, disability benefits, alimony or child support.

Fast approval and funding: Upstart says most borrowers receive an instant approval decision after applying. Once approved, the company says it funds loans as fast as one business day. Few of Upstart’s competitors boast instant approval.

Allows secured loans: Bad-credit borrowers may increase their chances of qualifying for a personal loan or getting a lower rate by securing the loan with collateral. Upstart allows borrowers to use a vehicle they own as collateral for a secured loan.

Option to change your payment date: While borrowers cannot pick their initial due dates, they can change the date one time every 12 months during repayment, as long as the new payment date is within 15 days of the original due date and the loan meets certain criteria.

Where Upstart personal loans fall short

Origination fee: Some lenders that use Upstart’s online lending platform charge an origination fee, which is common with personal loans and included in the loan’s annual percentage rate. However, Upstart’s maximum origination fee of 12% is comparatively high. Borrowers can choose to have the fee taken from the loan before funding, reducing the loan amount, or added to the loan amount and repaid as part of the loan. For example, a 12% origination fee on a $10,000 loan would either reduce the loan amount to $8,800 or increase it to $11,200.

No rate discounts: Unlike other lenders, Upstart doesn’t offer a rate discount for setting up autopayments. Other lenders typically discount interest rates 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points to incentivize borrowers to set up autopayments.

No joint or co-signed loans: Upstart offers unsecured and secured loans only. Adding a co-signer or co-borrower to an application can help borrowers who may not otherwise qualify get a personal loan or a lower rate.

No direct payment to creditors on debt consolidation loans: When you consolidate debt with Upstart, there’s no option to have your loan funds sent directly to your other creditors. This is a common offering among the best debt consolidation lenders, because having your lender pay off your credit cards and other debts simplifies the process.

Our expert take:

“Upstart is one of the more cutting-edge personal loan lenders, using artificial intelligence and machine learning to underwrite borrowers and looking beyond an applicant’s credit score to determine whether they qualify. Consumer advocates, researchers and lenders don’t always agree on whether this type of underwriting is best for consumers, but having no hard credit requirement definitely makes Upstart stand out.

It’s worth your time to pre-qualify with Upstart if you have a less-than-perfect credit score or a thin credit file. If approved, you’ll get some of the fastest funding available and have access to seven-day customer service support.”

— Annie Millerbernd, Personal Loans Assistant Assigning Editor

How to use Upstart personal loans

You can use an Upstart personal loan for:

• Debt consolidation.
• Home improvement projects.
• Emergency expenses.
• Medical and dental bills.
• Vacations.
• Weddings.
• Funerals.
• Business expenses.
• Vehicle financing.
• Moving expenses.
• Taxes.
• Other large expenses.

Upstart prohibits the use of its personal loans for:

• Education expenses.

What to know about Upstart and fair lending

In December 2020, Upstart, along with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Student Borrower Protection Center, agreed to have civil rights law firm Relman Colfax monitor Upstart’s underwriting model and publish findings and recommendations for improvement. In its fourth and final report in March 2024, the firm recommended an alternative model for assessing disparities in Upstart’s approval rate of Black applicants. In response, Upstart adopted its own model that it says is less discriminatory.

Upstart personal loan customer reviews

As of July 2024, Upstart has 4.9 stars on Trustpilot, a website that collects consumer reviews. Customers mention the company’s quick and easy application process. The lender received 666 out of 1,000 points on J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Consumer Lending Satisfaction Study, slightly below the average score of 702. Upstart’s mobile app received 4 stars across 25 reviews on the Apple App Store. There is no Android version of the app.

Do you qualify for an Upstart personal loan?

Upstart’s nontraditional approach to underwriting means there are few credit-related requirements to get a personal loan. Upstart says those with all types of credit profiles and income levels may qualify.

To be eligible for an Upstart personal loan, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident living in the U.S.
• Be at least 18 years old in most states (applicants from Alabama or Nebraska must be at least 19).
• Have a valid email address and Social Security number.
• Have a full-time or part-time job, a full-time job offer starting within six months or another source of regular income.
• Have a personal bank account at a U.S. financial institution with a routing number.
• Have no bankruptcies in the last 12 months.
• Have no current delinquent accounts on your credit reports.
• Have fewer than six hard inquiries on your credit report in the last six months, excluding student, auto and mortgage loans.

Here are the basic requirements to qualify for an Upstart loan. (Meeting these requirements doesn’t guarantee approval.)

• Minimum credit score: None. Applicants with insufficient credit history to produce a FICO score may be accepted.
• Minimum annual income: $12,000. Accepted sources of income include employment, alimony, retirement, child support, Social Security payments, disability benefits and self-employment.

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 an Upstart personal loan

Here are the steps to apply for an Upstart loan.

1. Pre-qualify on Upstart’s website. You’ll be asked how much you want to borrow as well as some personal and financial information, such as your name, birthdate, email address and income details. Upstart will conduct a soft credit inquiry which won’t impact your credit score. If you meet the lender’s requirements, you’ll receive multiple loan offers that let you preview potential loan amounts, rates, repayment terms and monthly payment amounts.
2. Compare loan offers and complete an application. Compare Upstart personal loan offers with pre-qualified offers from other lenders to find the best deal. If you accept a loan from Upstart, you’ll submit a formal personal loan application. Most applicants receive instant decisions, though some may need to provide W-2s, pay stubs or tax documents to verify the information they’ve submitted. This could increase the application processing time. Upstart will do a hard credit pull of your Experian, Equifax or TransUnion credit report when you apply, which will cause your credit score to go down a few points.
3. Receive loan proceeds. Upstart says it can fund loans within one business day if the borrower accepts the loan before 5 p.m. EST on a weekday. Loans accepted after hours, on weekends or on holidays will take an additional business day to fund.
4. Stay on top of your loan payments. Upstart reports payment 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 Upstart to 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 Upstart, Upgrade and LendingPoint offer loans to borrowers with less than good credit, and they provide fast funding.

Upgrade

LendingPoint

How we rate Upstart 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? Click the button below and head to Upstart’s website to pre-qualify.

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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.