Upgrade is an online lender providing individuals with personal loans for a wide range of uses. While you can’t use the funds for tuition or other education-related expenses, you can use them for just about anything else. This includes debt consolidation, renovating your home, making a large purchase, or even growing your business.
If you have fair credit or better, read on to find out if Upgrade is the right online lender for you.
Upgrade Personal Loans
Upgrade personal loans start at $1,000 and go up to $50,000. You have the choice to pay back the personal loan over three or five years. APRs range from 8.49%-35.99% APR. This is higher than some other online lenders, but you do have the benefit of potentially receiving a larger loan amount.
Origination fees can be as low as 1.85% of the total loan amount, or as high as 9.99%. You don’t have to pay the origination fee out of your pocket. It’s included in the APR and deducted from your loan funds before they hit your bank account.
There are no prepayment penalties for repaying an Upgrade loan early.
Borrower Profile
All eligible applicants must have a minimum credit score of 620. Still, that’s only considered “fair,” making Upgrade an excellent choice to consider if you don’t have excellent credit.
Throughout the application process, Upgrade also takes into account the following factors:
- Loan amount
- Loan term
- Credit utilization
- Credit history
Loan Requirements
You’ll also need to meet a few other requirements to get an Upgrade personal loan. For example, you must have a verifiable bank account and email address. The minimum age requirement is 18 years old. Additionally, you need to either be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or residing in the U.S. on a valid visa.
Another interesting requirement is that you need to have at least $1,000 leftover every month after paying all of your bills.
Upgrade personal loans are available in most states. However, they’re currently not available in these seven:
- Connecticut
- Colorado
- Iowa
- Massachusetts
- Maryland
- Vermont
- West Virginia
Upgrade Personal Loan Application Process
The application process for an Upgrade personal loan is pretty simple. And the best part is that you can check your eligibility without a hard credit check which would impact your credit score.
You can first enter just some basic information about your loan request, like your income, how much you want to borrow, and what you’ll use the money for.
From there, you’ll receive several loan offers. You can see what the interest rate and monthly payments look like with different types of personal loans. This feature allows you to compare different loan amounts and loan terms before you commit.
Receive Your Funds within a Day
Once you select your loan, Upgrade works to verify all of your information (along with pulling a hard credit check). When everything checks out, you can receive your funds within a day.
All Upgrade loans are unsecured, so you don’t have to worry about putting up any collateral throughout the process. The application decision is entirely based on your personal and financial information.
If, for some reason, Upgrade denies your application, you can try applying again. You’ll just need to wait 30 days, which is one of the shorter wait times among online personal loan lenders.
Once You’re Approved
After your loan application is approved, Upgrade will deposit the funds into your chosen checking or savings account. It can take up to four business days to receive the money. From there, you can use your Upgrade funds for whatever purpose you specified on your loan application.
All of their interest rates are fixed, so whatever monthly payment amount you agreed to is what you’ll see every month. If your payment is late, you get a 15-day grace period. After that point, you’ll be charged a $10 late fee. There’s also a returned payment fee of $15.
You do have options for how you want to pay. If you prefer a check, you’ll appreciate that there’s no check processing fee. You can also pay by phone or online.
Upgrade Special Features
Upgrade has several exceptional things worth noting when comparing it to other lenders. First off, the lender advertises sending the loan money within 24 hours after the loan approval. It might take a little longer to be available in your account, but that’s still a fast turnaround time.
Secondly, Upgrade has programs available for borrowers who go through hardship, such as losing a job.
Those who qualify can either get a temporary monthly payment reduction or, in extreme cases, a permanent modification that lasts the entire length of the loan term. Call early if you feel you may qualify to have the best chance of reaching a good solution.
Upgrade’s History
With offices in Phoenix, Montreal, and San Francisco, Upgrade is truly a part of a global effort to make credit more available and more affordable to the masses. One of Upgrade’s primary missions is to educate the public by providing free credit monitoring services and educational courses online.
The company believes that when each person understands their credit potential, they can make intelligent borrowing decisions.
It’s already well on its way to achieving this, which is unsurprising since two of its founders are Renaud Laplanche and Soul Htite, who are the two founders of LendingClub. LendingClub’s spent a better part of the past ten years lending money with great APR to American families.
Upgrade Reviews
One of the best ways to research online lenders is by reading third-party reviews. You can discover what actual customers are saying about them before you choose to do business with them.
Upgrade currently has a Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating of A+, indicating excellent customer service. They also have very few complaints. You can find more Upgrade reviews at other review sites as well.
Getting a Loan from Upgrade
Whether you want a loan from Upgrade to consolidate debt or pay for a major expense, a few different factors come into play during the application process. Here are the major highlights to help things go more smoothly.
What does a lender look for on your application?
We mentioned earlier that Upgrade considers several factors, including the following: loan amount, loan term, credit usage, and credit history. All of that information comes to play in a few different ways.
Credit History
Your credit history is going to give a strong indication as to whether you’re likely to repay your loan. Similarly, learning about your income level helps the lender determine your current debt to income ratio by comparing your earnings to your credit utilization.
So, if the amount of debt you have is too high for the amount of debt you carry (or would carry if you received the personal loan you want), then your application likely won’t be approved.
Debt-to-Income Ratio
Most lenders have a debt-to-income ratio limit of around 40%, meaning that 40% of your monthly income can’t be devoted to debt payments. That includes anything like your mortgage, car loan, student loan, and credit card minimums.
How much you get approved for relates to your current credit usage because the lender wants to make sure you can afford your monthly payments. After all, it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to not only pay on time every month but also not feel cash-strapped when you make that payment.
All of these application requirements are in place to protect both you and the lender, whether it be Upgrade or another one.
How can you strengthen your loan application?
One of the best things you can do to help your personal loan application is to work on your credit scores. Start by checking your credit report for any inaccuracies. If you see something that doesn’t look right, file a dispute with the credit bureau to attempt to get it removed.
It’s also important to pay all of your bills on time because that’s a huge factor in your credit score. This simple act also demonstrates to lenders that you’re trustworthy when it comes to taking care of your financial responsibilities.
If your debt to income ratio is too high to get approved for a personal loan, you have two options: pay down your existing debt or earn more money. You could also do both. Also, pay careful attention to what the lender asks for.
Upgrade, for example, requires that you submit your gross income — that’s the amount you make before taxes and deductions. That’s typically much higher than the paycheck you receive each month.
There’s also a place for you to include “additional” income. This might include your spouse’s earnings that contribute to your household income, investment income, rental property income, or Social Security earnings.
Disclaimer: *Personal loans made through Upgrade feature Annual Percentage Rates (APRs) of 8.24%-35.97%. All personal loans have a 1.85% to 8.99% origination fee, which is deducted from the loan proceeds. Lowest rates require Autopay and paying off a portion of existing debt directly. Loans feature repayment terms of 24 to 84 months.
For example, if you receive a $10,000 loan with a 36-month term and a 17.59% APR (which includes a 13.94% yearly interest rate and a 5% one-time origination fee), you would receive $9,500 in your account and would have a required monthly payment of $341.48. Over the life of the loan, your payments would total $12,293.46.
The APR on your loan may be higher or lower and your loan offers may not have multiple term lengths available. Actual rate depends on credit score, credit usage history, loan term, and other factors. Late payments or subsequent charges and fees may increase the cost of your fixed rate loan. There is no fee or penalty for repaying a loan early.
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