Excellent credit can be an asset when you need a personal loan. You can qualify for a loan more easily than borrowers with less-than-perfect credit and get the best terms.
“The benefits of excellent credit can go a long way in helping a person be approved and benefit from the best possible interest rates available at the time,” says Chase Peckham, director of community outreach for the San Diego Financial Literacy Center.
An excellent credit score assures lenders that you’re responsible when it comes to borrowing money. The less risky you appear to lenders, the more likely you will be able to comparison shop and choose from among the lowest rates and fees.
This guide can help you narrow your shortlist of lenders to find the best personal loans for excellent credit.
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Lender |
Learn More |
APR |
Max. Loan Amount |
Min. Credit Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
10.49% to 12.49% | $50,000 | Not disclosed | |
 |
5.99% to 23.99% | $100,000 | 670 | |
 |
8.99% to 23.43% | $100,000 | Not disclosed | |
 |
6.50% to 35.99% | $50,000 | Not disclosed | |
 |
6.99% to 12.09% | $35,000 | Not disclosed | |
 |
7.99% to 14.99% | $50,000 | 700 | |
 |
8.24% to 35.97% | $50,000 | Not disclosed | |
 |
Up to 29.99% | $47,500 | N/A | |
 |
8.42% to 29.99% | $45,000 | Not disclosed | |
 |
8.99% to 35.99% | $8,000 | Not disclosed |
If you need money fast, Alliant Credit Union typically makes same-day online personal loans between $1,000 and $50,000. The Chicago-based credit union, founded in 1935, is one of the biggest in the nation, with 700,000 members and more than $17 billion in assets. In addition to personal loans, Alliant offers home and auto loans, credit cards, checking and savings accounts, individual retirement accounts, trust accounts, and insurance policies.
LightStream is the online consumer lending division of Truist Bank. Low-interest fixed-rate loans from $5,000 to $100,000 are available for almost any purpose and backed by a $100 satisfaction guarantee. Borrowers have good to excellent credit and may receive funds as soon as the same day they apply from the website or mobile app.
SoFi, short for Social Finance, offers personal loans of up to $100,000 with terms between two and seven years. The lender was founded in 2011 and is known for offering loans with no fees. In addition to personal loans, SoFi offers student loans, auto and student loan refinancing and home loans.
Upstart is a lending platform that uses artificial intelligence to improve access to affordable credit. Based in California and founded by former Google employees in 2012, Upstart also applies AI to reduce lending risks and costs for its bank partners. The lending intermediary provides unsecured personal loans from $1,000 to $50,000 to borrowers anywhere in the U.S. except West Virginia or Iowa.
PNC Bank can trace its history back to 1852 and the Pittsburgh Trust and Savings Co. Today, PNC Bank is the sixth-largest bank in the U.S., and it features a wide range of consumer and business banking services. Among its suite of products, PNC offers personal, unsecured installment loans up to $35,000. Applicants are considered based on satisfactory credit history, ability to repay and income.
Axos Bank is a digital bank founded in July 2000 with one product, a basic checking account. The San Diego-based bank has since focused on providing innovative products and solutions, including personal loans, to customers nationwide. Potential borrowers can prequalify online with no credit damage and obtain personalized loan options and rates.
Upgrade offers access to personal loans, the Upgrade card with a personal line of credit, rewards checking and credit monitoring and educational tools. Founded in 2017 in San Francisco, the firm also has operations offices in Chicago, Phoenix and Montreal.
LendingUSA was founded in 2015 to be a lending solution for merchants. The company offers point-of-sale financing to more than 10,000 merchant partners in veterinary, chiropractic, dermatology, general health care and other industries.
Rocket Loans offers personal loans to qualified borrowers in 47 states. These loans may be useful for people who need to borrow up to $45,000 for debt consolidation, home improvements, car repairs or other expenses.
Founded in 2005 and based in San Carlos, California, Oportun originates unsecured personal loans of up to $8,000 in 11 states. Loans are available in 30 additional states through Oportun’s partnership with Pathward, formerly known as MetaBank. The lender has no credit history requirement, making its loans an option for consumers with no credit or limited credit. In addition to unsecured personal loans, the lender offers secured personal loans to borrowers in Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey and Texas.
Personal loan interest rates rose this week, trending higher for three-year and five-year loan terms. Here are the average personal loan rates offered to well-qualified applicants with a credit score of 720 or greater, as of Feb. 27:
- Three-year personal loan term: 18.34% (down from 18.62% a week ago).
- Five-year personal loan term: 19.7% (up from 18.89% a week ago).
Personal loan rates vary widely based on creditworthiness. Borrowers with very good or excellent credit scores will see much lower interest rates than those with fair or poor credit, as seen in the chart below:
Powered by Bankrate
Personal loans aren’t one-size-fits-all. The best loan for you may be different from the best one for someone else, even if you both have excellent credit. You’ll need to consider factors that make a loan ideal for your needs.
Because qualifying isn’t a concern if you have excellent credit, you may want to choose a personal loan based on the best deal you can get. Remember to compare APRs instead of interest rates because they include fees.
You may select a lender based on funding speed, loan size, repayment term or a combination of these variables.
Find the Personal Loan That’s Right for You
To find the lowest interest rates, you can prequalify for loans with a soft inquiry that won’t damage your excellent credit score.
You’ll want to consider whether you’re getting a fixed or variable rate. With a fixed rate, your loan payments always stay the same. You’re gambling a little with a variable rate because rates could rise, but you save money if they drop.
You should always shop around for rates regardless of your credit score, Peckham says. “Even if you have excellent credit, every institution with which you are applying is going to have different factors for approving and setting rates for loans,” he says.
He reminds borrowers that credit score is a big factor, but not the only one, when determining loan options and terms.
Two main components make up the cost of a personal loan: interest rate and fees. That number is expressed as your APR, and it reflects how much you pay to borrow money on a yearly basis.
Your APR hinges on details such as your credit score, income and financial history. Getting a personal loan with excellent credit means your rates are usually on the lower end.
Fees can include origination fees, prepayment penalties or any other service fees the lender charges.
“Origination fees and the rates and terms can depend on a variety of factors,” says Caleb Cook, vice president of consumer lending at Digital Federal Credit Union.
Lenders charge you an origination fee upfront to process your application and underwrite the loan. You might pay a flat fee or a percentage of the loan amount deducted from the loan proceeds.
You may also be charged a prepayment penalty if you pay off the loan early.
The smallest personal loan is typically $1,000. The largest amount you can borrow is $100,000, but $50,000 is a more common borrowing limit. Credit score, income and other factors will influence the loan amount you receive.
Generally, you can spend your personal loan on whatever you want, but sometimes restrictions apply. For example, lenders may not allow you to use a personal loan for college expenses, business expenses, investments or gambling costs.
Repayment terms, or the time to pay back your personal loan, range from 12 to 60 months or longer.
Lenders can offer shorter or longer repayment options, depending on how much you borrow. You might get two years to repay a smaller loan, for example, or five years or longer for a larger loan.
Keeping the repayment term in mind is important for making sure personal loan payments fit your budget now and later.
When seeking personal loans for excellent credit, you have several options for borrowing, including:
Unsure where to start? Check your local community bank or credit union first, Cook says.
To keep you as a customer, these institutions may offer you incentives, such as rate discounts or fee waivers, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Credit unions have a reputation for offering low rates for loans, but you have to be a credit union member to borrow money. Check out the credit union’s membership requirements; they vary from living in a certain area to working in a specific industry or belonging to a particular organization or even contributing to a distinct cause.
The application process may also vary, depending on the lender you choose. For instance, if you’re applying for a loan at a bank or credit union, you may need to go to a branch to fill out an application. Online lenders and peer-to-peer lenders allow you to apply and upload all of your supporting documents digitally.
Your excellent credit score will likely lose a few points when you formally apply for a personal loan because the lender will perform a hard credit inquiry.
Prequalify first to avoid multiple hard credit pulls. You can then review various personal loan offers and apply only for the loan with the best terms for you. In any case, you’re trading a temporary credit score hit for access to necessary funds from a personal loan.
On the positive side, personal loans can add diversity to your credit mix, which accounts for 10% of your FICO credit score. Also, paying your loan on time contributes to a positive payment history, which makes up 35% of your credit score – the most important factor. Since you have an excellent score, that means you’ve already been paying your bills on time, so you may not see a big boost from adding a personal loan.
Before you compare personal loans, confirm your excellent credit score. In addition to free sources of your score, such as your credit card issuer or various personal finance websites, you could take a look at your credit scores from all three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
If your score is excellent, you are ready to compare these details for every loan offer:
- Minimum and maximum borrowing amounts.
- Minimum credit score requirements.
- Interest rate range and whether rates are fixed or variable.
- Loan fees, including origination, prepayment and late fees.
- What the loan can be used for and whether any exclusions apply.
- Minimum and maximum loan repayment terms.
Also, consider the ease of application and the speed of disbursal. If you need money from a personal loan to cover an emergency expense, timing could affect the lender you select. Some online lenders can approve your loan and distribute funds the same day you apply or the next business day, while a personal loan from a bank could take a little longer.
Finally, keep in mind that you can still be denied for a personal loan, even with excellent credit, Peckham says. For example, the lender may be overrun with applications and working through a backlog, or it may be carrying too much debt and lack capital to lend. That’s why shopping around for the right personal loan is important, he says.
U.S. News selects the Best Loan Companies by evaluating affordability, borrower eligibility criteria and customer service. Those with the highest overall scores are considered the best lenders.
To calculate each score, we use data about the lender and its loan offerings, giving greater weight to factors that matter most to borrowers. Personal loan companies are evaluated based on customer service ratings, interest rates, maximum loan term, minimum and maximum loan amounts, minimum FICO score, online features, and origination fees.
The weight each scoring factor receives is based on a nationwide survey on what borrowers look for in a lender.
To receive a rating, lenders must offer qualifying loans nationwide and have a good reputation within the industry. Read more about our methodology.
To recap, here are the picks:
Best Personal Loans for Excellent Credit of March 2023
Advertising Disclosure: Some of the loan offers on this site are from companies
who are advertising clients of U.S. News. Advertising considerations may impact
where offers appear on the site but do not affect any editorial decisions,
such as which loan products we write about and how we evaluate them. This site
does not include all loan companies or all loan offers available in the marketplace.
