Last verified: August 4, 2026. Every figure on this page was read directly from each lender’s own rate disclosure on that date — not copied from another comparison site. Financessentials accepts no payment, commission, or affiliate revenue from any lender listed here. No lender can pay to be included or ranked higher. Rates change without notice; confirm current terms with the lender before applying.
Most “best personal loans” lists are ordered by who pays the publisher the most, and most of them copy their numbers from each other. When we checked all six lenders below against their own published disclosures, we found that several widely repeated figures were simply wrong. Those corrections are in this article, along with the arithmetic that shows what each option actually costs.
How we selected these lenders
We started from lenders originating unsecured personal loans directly to US consumers in all or nearly all states, then applied four filters:
- Currently accepting new applications. Sounds obvious. It isn’t — see the market changes section below.
- Publishes a complete APR range and fee schedule on its own website. If a lender won’t state its maximum APR before you apply, we left it out.
- Offers prequalification through a soft credit pull, so you can see a rate without a hard inquiry.
- Maximum APR at or below 36%. Consumer advocacy groups and the Military Lending Act both treat 36% as the threshold above which credit becomes predatory.
We excluded lead-generation marketplaces that resell your application to third parties, and we excluded secured and payday products entirely. What we cannot tell you is which lender will approve you — that depends on your credit file, income, and state of residence.
First, the benchmark: what counts as a normal rate?
Before comparing lenders you need a reference point. The Federal Reserve’s G.19 Consumer Credit release tracks the average finance rate on 24-month personal loans at commercial banks. As of the April 2026 release that average stood at 11.86%, up from 11.57% a year earlier.
That single number is the most useful thing on this page. Offered 10%? You’re doing better than average. Offered 24%? You aren’t, and you should shop harder before signing.
A caveat worth understanding. You’ll see wildly different “average rate by credit score” figures across the web, and they aren’t all wrong — they measure different things. Tables built from advertised starting rates show around 7% for excellent credit. Tables built from actually originated loans show closer to 14% for the same band, because the advertised floor goes to a small slice of applicants.
How small? LightStream is the only lender here that publishes the answer, and it’s worth knowing: 29.46% of approved applicants who applied for the lowest rate actually qualified for it, based on the lender’s own data for January to March 2026. Roughly seven in ten people who go in expecting the headline rate don’t get it.
Six lenders compared
| Lender | APR range | Loan amounts | Origination fee | Terms available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upstart | 6.20% – 35.99% | $1,000 – $75,000 | Yes (7.25% in lender’s own example) | 3 or 5 years only |
| SoFi | From 6.99% with all discounts | $5,000 – $100,000 | None required | Varies |
| Discover (Capital One) | 6.99% – 24.99% | $2,500 – $40,000 | None | 36 – 84 months |
| Best Egg | 6.99% – 35.99% | $2,000 – $50,000 | 0.99% – 9.99% | 36 – 60 months |
| LightStream (Truist) | 7.24% – 25.39% | $5,000 – $100,000 | None | 24 – 240 months |
| Upgrade | 7.74% – 35.99% | $1,000 – $50,000 | Yes (5% in lender’s own example) | Varies |
What we found when we checked the numbers ourselves
We built the table above by opening each lender’s own disclosure page rather than copying another comparison site. Three widely republished figures turned out to be wrong:
LightStream is not offering 6.49%. That figure appears across dozens of comparison pages. LightStream’s own rate disclosure on August 4, 2026 gives a payment example at 7.24% APR and states a maximum of 25.39%. Both ends of the commonly quoted range are off.
Best Egg’s origination fee tops out at 9.99%, not 8.99%. Best Egg’s own footnote states 0.99%–9.99%, and adds a detail we haven’t seen reproduced anywhere: on loan terms of four years or longer, the fee is at least 4.99%. If you were planning a five-year Best Egg loan, your minimum fee is five times higher than the advertised floor.
Upstart’s floor is 6.20%, not 6.70%. A small difference, but it points at the real problem: these numbers are copied between sites and go stale. It’s why we date every figure on this page and re-check monthly.
LightStream — lowest ceiling, longest terms, least forgiving
Good for: strong credit and low total cost. No origination fee, no prepayment penalty, no late fee. Its 25.39% ceiling is the second lowest here, and terms stretch to 240 months on some loan types — by far the longest on this list.
Two things to know: the advertised rate assumes AutoPay; paying by invoice costs 0.50 percentage points more. And as noted above, fewer than three in ten applicants seeking the lowest rate actually receive it.
Skip it if: your credit is thin or you need less than $5,000.
SoFi — the floor requires stacking three discounts
Good for: large loans up to $100,000 with no required fees, same-day funding when the agreement is signed by 5:30 PM ET on a business day, and unemployment protection that can pause payments if you lose your job.
Read the fine print: SoFi advertises rates “as low as 6.99% with discounts“. Those discounts are three separate 0.25% reductions that must be stacked — AutoPay, a member rate discount requiring a SoFi Plus subscription or qualifying deposits, and a Direct Pay discount requiring at least half the proceeds to go straight to your existing creditors. Miss any one and your rate rises. The member discount also has to be maintained every 31 days or it’s removed.
SoFi also offers the option to pay an origination fee in exchange for a lower interest rate. That trade only pays off if you keep the loan for most of its term.
Discover — the narrowest range, and the cleanest terms
Good for: mid-size borrowing with genuinely no fees of any kind, terms from 36 to 84 months on every loan amount, and a 30-day money-back guarantee — return the funds within 30 days and you owe no interest. Its 24.99% ceiling is the lowest here, which matters more than a headline floor you probably won’t get.
Requirements: minimum individual or household income of $25,000 per year, age 18 or over, valid US Social Security number.
Skip it if: you need a co-applicant — Discover doesn’t accept them — or you need more than $40,000. Note also that a Discover personal loan cannot be used to pay down any Capital One account, including Discover and Capital One credit cards, since the 2025 acquisition.
Best Egg — accessible, but read the fee schedule twice
Good for: borrowers who don’t qualify with LightStream or Discover. About half of Best Egg customers receive funds the next day.
The catches, all from Best Egg’s own disclosures: the origination fee runs to 9.99%, and on terms of four years or longer it is at least 4.99%. Terms are capped at 60 months. The product isn’t available at all in Iowa, Vermont, West Virginia, Washington DC, or US territories, and minimum loan amounts are higher in Massachusetts ($6,500), Ohio ($5,001) and Georgia ($3,001). Best Egg is also not itself a bank — loans are made by Cross River Bank or Column N.A.
Upgrade — the only one here that takes joint applications
Good for: borrowers who need a co-applicant. Upgrade accepts joint applications, which Discover does not, and applying with someone else can improve the rate you’re offered. Loans start at $1,000, useful if you need a small amount.
Skip it if: you’d qualify at a no-fee lender. Upgrade’s own worked example carries a 5% origination fee.
Upstart — the one that will look past your score
Good for: thin or short credit files. Upstart underwrites using education, employment history and income alongside credit data. If you’ve been declined elsewhere for lack of history rather than bad history, this is the most likely approval here.
Skip it if: you’d qualify comfortably elsewhere, or you want a term other than exactly three or five years — those are the only two Upstart offers. Its own example carries a $725 fee on a $10,000 loan.
Why the payment and the APR disagree — using the lenders’ own examples
This confuses almost everyone, and the two fee-charging lenders here publish examples that explain it perfectly. Your monthly payment is calculated from the interest rate on the full amount borrowed. The APR is higher, because it also accounts for the origination fee that was deducted before you ever saw the money.
Upgrade’s published example: a $10,000 loan over 36 months at a 13.94% interest rate with a 5% origination fee. You receive $9,500. Your payment is $341.48 — which is exactly what 13.94% on $10,000 over 36 months produces. But because you only received $9,500, the true cost is 17.59% APR. We reproduced both figures independently and they reconcile to the cent.
Upstart’s published example: a $10,000 loan over 60 months with a $725 fee. You receive $9,275 and pay $252 per month — consistent with an interest rate near 17.6% on the full $10,000 — for a stated 21.23% APR. Again, the arithmetic checks out.
The practical rule: a low monthly payment tells you nothing about whether a loan is cheap. Compare APRs, and compare total repaid.
What these rates actually cost
Here is the same loan — $10,000 over 36 months — priced across the range you might realistically be offered by the lenders above.
| APR | Monthly payment | Total repaid | Total interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.99% (best available floor) | $308.73 | $11,114.11 | $1,114.11 |
| 7.24% (LightStream example) | $309.87 | $11,155.30 | $1,155.30 |
| 11.86% (Federal Reserve average) | $331.47 | $11,933.09 | $1,933.09 |
| 17.59% (Upgrade example, fee included) | $359.47 | $12,940.94 | $2,940.94 |
| 21.23% (Upstart example, fee included) | $377.93 | $13,605.57 | $3,605.57 |
| 25.39% (LightStream ceiling) | $399.66 | $14,387.90 | $4,387.90 |
| 35.99% (subprime ceiling) | $457.98 | $16,487.32 | $6,487.32 |
The gap between the top and bottom row is $5,373 on the same $10,000. That is what your credit profile is worth in cash on a single mid-size loan — and why spending a few months improving your score before borrowing is often the highest-return financial move available to you.
The origination fee, in numbers
An origination fee is deducted from your proceeds, but you repay — and pay interest on — the full amount. Borrow $10,000 at 11.86% over 36 months and the fee changes what you actually take home:
| Origination fee | Cash you receive | Total you repay | Real cost of borrowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% (LightStream, Discover, SoFi) | $10,000 | $11,933.09 | $1,933.09 |
| 3% | $9,700 | $11,933.09 | $2,233.09 |
| 5% (Upgrade example) | $9,500 | $11,933.09 | $2,433.09 |
| 9.99% (Best Egg maximum) | $9,001 | $11,933.09 | $2,932.09 |
A 9.99% fee adds nearly $1,000 to a loan whose interest rate never changed. And if you need $10,000 in hand from a lender charging that fee, you must borrow about $11,110 — and pay interest on the larger balance too.
What changed in this market — and why old advice misleads you
Marcus by Goldman Sachs no longer offers personal loans. Goldman stopped accepting new applications in January 2023 and exited the business after heavy losses in its consumer division, selling roughly half the portfolio to funds managed by Rithm Capital and Värde Partners. Existing loans are still serviced and Marcus savings products continue, but you cannot apply for a new Marcus personal loan. If you find a 2026 “best loans” list still recommending Marcus, that list has not been checked.
Discover is now part of Capital One. The acquisition completed in May 2025, and Discover’s own site now identifies it as a division of Capital One, N.A. Discover-branded personal loans continue; Discover’s home equity product was discontinued in June 2025. Capital One does not offer personal loans under its own brand.
Shopping without damaging your credit
Every lender here offers prequalification through a soft credit pull, which does not affect your score. Prequalify with three or four, compare the actual offers rather than the advertised ranges, and only then apply formally.
When you do apply, submit all applications within a short window. Major credit scoring models treat multiple hard inquiries for the same loan type as a single event when they fall inside a rate-shopping window — 14 days under older FICO models, up to 45 days under newer ones. Staying inside 14 days is the safe choice, since you rarely know which model a lender uses.
Warning signs of a predatory or fraudulent offer
An upfront fee before funding. Legitimate lenders deduct fees from your loan proceeds. Anyone asking you to wire money before you receive funds is running an advance-fee scam.
Guaranteed approval without a credit check. No regulated lender can promise approval before assessing your file.
Unsolicited contact. Legitimate lenders don’t cold-call or text you about a pre-approved offer you never requested.
Pressure to sign immediately. A real loan offer survives you reading it overnight.
No state licence or physical address. Verify licensing with your state regulator and check complaint history in the CFPB’s public Consumer Complaint Database before applying.
Questions readers ask us
Which lender has the lowest rates right now?
Upstart advertises the lowest floor at 6.20%, with SoFi, Discover and Best Egg at 6.99%. But floors go to a small minority of applicants, and the ceiling usually matters more: Discover caps at 24.99% and LightStream at 25.39%, while Upstart, Upgrade and Best Egg run to 35.99%. If you aren’t certain you’ll qualify for the best tier, compare ceilings, not floors.
Which of these has no fees at all?
LightStream and Discover charge no origination fee, no prepayment penalty and no late fee. SoFi requires no origination fee but offers an optional one in exchange for a lower rate.
Can I still get a Marcus personal loan?
No. Goldman Sachs stopped accepting new applications in January 2023 and has not resumed. Existing loans continue to be serviced.
Which lenders accept a co-applicant?
Upgrade accepts joint applications. Discover does not accept co-signers or joint applicants.
Does checking my rate hurt my credit score?
Prequalification uses a soft inquiry and has no effect. Only a formal application triggers a hard inquiry, which typically costs a few points and fades within a year.
The bottom line
Anchor yourself to the Federal Reserve average of 11.86% and judge every offer against it. If your credit is strong, a genuinely no-fee lender — LightStream or Discover — will usually beat a fee-charging one regardless of the advertised rate, and their lower ceilings protect you if you don’t qualify for the best tier. If your credit is fair or your file is thin, Upstart and Upgrade are the likelier approvals, but go in knowing the origination fee is the price of that approval.
Above all, prequalify with several lenders before applying anywhere. It costs nothing, it doesn’t touch your score, and on a $10,000 loan the spread between best and worst offer routinely exceeds $5,000.
Sources
- Rate, fee and term data read directly from the published disclosures of LightStream, SoFi, Discover, Best Egg, Upgrade and Upstart on August 4, 2026.
- Federal Reserve, G.19 Consumer Credit release — official average finance rates on personal loans at commercial banks.
- FRED, Finance Rate on Personal Loans at Commercial Banks, 24-Month Loan — the full historical series.
- CFPB, What should I know about getting a personal loan?
- American Banker, Goldman to exit personal loans — reporting on the Marcus withdrawal.
How we maintain this page
We re-open every lender’s own disclosure page at least once a month, re-check each rate, fee, term and eligibility requirement, and update the “last verified” date at the top. All payment and interest figures on this page are calculated with the standard amortization formula and cross-checked against the lenders’ own published payment examples. If you find a figure that no longer matches what a lender advertises, tell us through our contact page and we’ll verify and correct it.
This article is general information about how personal loans are priced in the United States. It is not financial advice and does not account for your circumstances. Before taking on debt, consider speaking with a licensed financial advisor or a nonprofit credit counsellor accredited by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.
