When and How to Refinance a Personal Loan

If you’re looking to refinance your personal loan because you’re consolidating debt, consider Best Egg. It’s not the only lender that will send your funds directly to your current lender. But its online dashboard makes it easier for you to make sure your Best Egg funds made it to the right accounts.

It can take up to 15 days for your refinance loan to reach your current lender(s), although seven is more typical. Either way, make sure you keep up with due dates on all your accounts. You’re responsible for making payments until your new loan funds pay off your old balances.

You must meet the requirements below to qualify for a Best Egg loan:

• Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident living in the U.S.
• Administrative: Have a personal checking account, email address and physical address
• Residency: Not live in the District of Columbia, Iowa, Vermont, West Virginia or U.S. territories
• Credit score: 580+

When you need to refinance a large personal loan, BHG Financial may be a good fit. You can refinance up to $200,000, assuming you qualify. You could also have up to 120 months to pay back what you borrowed.

BHG only requires a credit score of at least 660. However, its average borrower has a 744 FICO score and an annual income of $241,000. If you don’t tick those boxes, you might not qualify for BHG Financial’s biggest loans.

BHG Financial also charges a steep origination fee between 3.00% - 4.00%. To put that into perspective, you’d lose $8,000 if you borrowed $200,000 with a 4.00% origination fee.

To get a loan from BHG Financial, you’ll need to meet the following requirements:

• Administrative: Have a Social Security number and email address
• Residency: Not live in North Dakota or Montana
• Credit score: 660+

BHG Financial’s average borrower has a score of 744, no past bankruptcies or collections, and an annual income of $241,000.

If you want a financial safety net for unexpected events like a job loss, consider Discover.

With Discover, you can move your past-due balance to the end of your loan term. It may also let you temporarily pay less than the minimum amount due. If you need long-term assistance, you could permanently extend your loan term. This will give you more time to pay back your loan and lower your monthly payments.

It can be hard to qualify for Discover. You must have good credit (the high end of good) to get a loan. You’ll also want to contact Discover as soon as you think you might fall behind. At $39, its late payment fee is steep.

You’ll need to meet these eligibility criteria to get a Discover loan:

• Age: Be at least 18
• Citizenship: Have a Social Security number
• Administrative: Have a physical address, email address and internet access
• Income: Minimum income of $40,000 (individually or as a household)
• Credit score: 720+

Online lender LightStream doesn’t charge any fees. It also has a unique customer satisfaction guarantee. If you aren’t satisfied with your LightStream experience, you could qualify for $100. Just let LightStream know within 30 days of receiving your money.

You can’t prequalify for a loan with LightStream. That means it requires a hard credit pull if you want to see if you’re eligible. It also won’t pay off your existing loans for you. Instead, you’ll have to send the funds to your old personal loan company (or companies) yourself.

LightStream doesn’t specify its exact credit score requirements, but you must have good to excellent credit to qualify. Most of the applicants that LightStream approves have the following in common:

• At least five years’ worth of on-time payments under a variety of accounts (such as credit cards, auto loans and home loans)
• Stable income that allows the borrower to handle paying their current debt obligations
• Savings, whether in a bank account, investment account or retirement account

You must also have a valid Visa or Mastercard credit card to accept your loan, but only for verification purposes. LightStream will not charge your card.

PenFed offers small personal loans, so it may be a good solution if you’re looking to refinance a little bit of debt. Although this article focuses on personal loan refinancing, an example of something you may need to refinance could be a high-interest store card. Rates are low at PenFed because by law, federal credit unions can’t charge rates above 18%.

Like any other credit union, you have to become a member to borrow. PenFed doesn’t specify its minimum credit score requirements, but historically, borrowers must have strong credit to qualify. You can check rates before joining without an impact on your credit.

To qualify for a PenFed loan, you must meet the following requirements:

• Membership: PenFed membership (anyone can join)
• Administrative: Open a PenFed savings account with $5 deposit; may need to submit documents to verify your identity and income

SoFi will send your funds to your old loan company if you’d like. But if you don’t mind handling the payoff yourself, you could get your money the same day SoFi approves you. SoFi is known for its quick loans. Just sign your final documents by 6 p.m. Eastern time, and you could have your money by the end of the evening.

SoFi doesn’t charge any mandatory fees, but you can choose to pay an origination fee to get a lower rate.

You must meet the requirements below to get a loan from SoFi:

• Age: Be the age of majority in your state (typically 18)
• Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen, an eligible permanent resident or a nonpermanent resident (a DACA recipient or asylum-seeker, for instance)
• Employment: Have a job or job offer with a start date within 90 days, or have regular income from another source
• Credit score: 680+

It can be easy to fall into the trap of high-interest installment loans when you have bad credit. If you have at least $1,000 to refinance, Upstart could be the way out of a triple-digit rate.

Upstart has one of the lowest minimum credit score requirements on the market. If you’re a college student or have an associate degree or higher, Upstart could waive its credit score requirement altogether.

There’s no guarantee that Upstart will charge you an origination fee. However, the lower your score, the more likely it is. Depending on your situation, prepare for a fee of up to 12%.

Upstart has transparent eligibility requirements, including:

• Age: Be 18 or older
• Administrative: Have a U.S. address, personal banking account, email address and Social Security number
• Employment: Have a job or job offer that starts within six months, or have regular income
• Credit-related factors: Debt-to-income (DTI) ratio no higher than 50% (45% in Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Vermont), no bankruptcies within the last year, fewer than six inquiries on your credit report in the last six months and no current delinquencies
• Credit score: 300+ (unless you’re an eligible college student or graduate, in which case Upstart could approve you with no credit)