What are the best personal loans for students with bad credit?

You may be able to get a personal loan to pay off a student loan, but it depends on the lender. Some lenders do not allow you to use their personal loans for anything education-related, including student loan refinancing, so you should contact the lender directly to see if they’ll allow it. For your convenience, below are popular lenders’ policies on using a personal loan to pay off a student loan.... read full answer

Policies for Using a Personal Loan to Pay Off a Student Loan

To see how much refinancing a student loan will save you, check out WalletHub’s student loan refinance calculator. You should also familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of using a personal loan to pay off a student loan.

Pros of Using a Personal Loan to Pay Off a Student Loan

1. You could get a lower interest rate. In general, personal loans have an interest rate range of 4% - 36%.
2. You could release your student loan cosigner. If you have a cosigner on your student loan and decide to pay it off with a personal loan, the student loan account will be closed. This will release the cosigner from the loan agreement.

Cons of Using a Personal Loan to Pay Off a Student Loan

1. You can’t get federal student loan forgiveness. Federal programs will forgive all or some of your student loan debt if you are eligible. For some programs, you must be a government employee or a teacher. There is no program like this for personal loans.
2. You can’t deduct a portion of your personal loan from your taxes. You can deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest from your taxes per year. You cannot do this with a personal loan.
3. Not all lenders allow it. When you get a personal loan, you have to sign an agreement saying you will follow the terms of the loan. Many personal loan providers do not allow you to use your funds to pay for post-secondary education expenses.

The easiest loans to get approved for with bad credit are secured, co-signed and joint loans because you can use collateral or another person’s creditworthiness to make up for your bad credit score. Payday loans, pawnshop loans and car title loans also are easy to get, but they’re extremely expensive. ... read full answer

Alternatively, personal loans may offer the lowest rates among loan options that are relatively easy to qualify for. Some personal loans won’t even check your credit when you apply. The easiest personal loan to get with bad credit is a no credit check loan from OppLoans, which offers loan amounts of $500 - $4,000, payoff periods of 9 - 18 months and APRs ranging from 59% - 160%. To qualify for a loan from OppLoans with bad credit, you will need to have an income that's high enough to pay the loan back.

Easiest Loans to Get with Bad Credit

Types of Loans That Are Easy to Get With Bad Credit

A no-credit-check loan is the easiest type of personal loan to get with bad credit and no co-signer, joint applicant or collateral, but it's bound to be a lot more expensive than loans from lenders that do a credit check. Among lenders that do a credit check, LendingPoint is a great choice. It requires a credit score of 580 to qualify and offers $2,000 - $30,000 in funding for 24 - 72 months. The APR range is 7.99% - 35.99%.

Another easy type of loan to get with bad credit is a secured personal loan. This type of loan requires you to put up collateral that the lender can keep if you default on the loan. Because there's little risk for the lender, it's often easy for people with bad credit to get approved.

Alternatively, you could consider borrowing from a friend or family member. They may not care about your credit score at all. A friend or family member with good credit could co-sign your application or apply jointly with you, too.

Finally, one of the easiest types of loans to get with bad credit is a payday loan, which is a small, short-term loan to be paid back with your next paycheck. You should avoid payday loans unless they're your only option, however, because they charge extremely expensive fees.

The easiest banks to get a personal loan from are USAA and Wells Fargo. USAA does not disclose a minimum credit score requirement, but their website indicates that they consider people with scores below the fair credit range (below 640). So even people with bad credit may be able to qualify.... read full answer

Wells Fargo normally requires a credit score of 660 for their unsecured personal loans. However, they also offer secured personal loans that are available even with lower scores. Wells Fargo’s secured loans require collateral in the form of money in a Wells Fargo savings account or CD.

Most banks that offer personal loans require a credit score of at least 660. Some require even higher scores, like Citizens Bank (680) and Barclays (700).

Easiest Banks to Get a Personal Loan From

These credit score requirements are either official info from the lender or the consensus of third-party sources.

The average person’s credit score is over 660, which puts them in a decent position to qualify for a personal loan from most banks. But if your score is lower, you can apply with USAA or get a secured loan from Wells Fargo.

You might also want to look outside of banks. Some credit unions and online lenders offer better chances of being approved with bad credit. For example, Avant’s minimum score requirement is reportedly 600 and LendingPoint’s is 585.