Loan Amounts | $1,000 - $50,000 |
Term Length | 36 - 60 months |
Loan Rates | 6.98% - 35.89% APR |
Min Credit Score | 600 |
Better Business Bureau Rating | A+ |
Time to Funding | |
Upgrade Highlights
What differentiates Upgrade from their competition is the mission they set for themselves. They want to help people manage, and ultimately, improve their credit.
So, even if they deny your application, they will provide you with some support. However, here is what you'll get to enjoy if Upgrade accepts you.
Pre-Qualification With Soft Credit Pull
With Upgrade, you may check your rate and the offers available to you with a soft credit pull. This feature means that you can do some window shopping without suffering an impact on your credit score.
Remember that, if you accept the offer, this will trigger a hard pull and all its side-effects, though.
High DTI Ratio Allowed
This company allows for a quite high DTI or debt-to-income ratio for their borrowers. You calculate this by dividing your monthly debt payments by your income. Upgrade provides loans to customers with a 60% or better ratio.
Line Of Credit
The company also offers a personal line of credit, which is a unique product in the world of online lending.
This alternative allows you to use your loan like a credit card. The lender will approve the total amount, up to $50,000 in Upgrade's case, at once. You will only pay interest on the amount you use.
Repayment terms for the line of credit vary from a year to five years, and advances come with fixed annual rates.
Credit Health Tools
As we mentioned, one of the goals of this company is to help consumers understand and improve their credit scores. Their credit health tools include credit monitoring, a credit simulator, various alerts, as well as free access to educational content in the form of blogs.
Hardship Programs
If, after you get a loan, you experience sudden hardship (loss of a job, death in the family, home disaster), you may qualify for the hardship program.
The perks include temporary reduction of your monthly payment or permanent modification of the loan, extending the repayment terms.
No Prepayment Penalty
A prepayment penalty charges you for paying off your loan early. Some loans are not subject to these fees, so check when you take out a loan to see if this is an issue.
However, Upgrade doesn’t charge prepayment penalties for most of their deals, which means that, if you happen to earn more than you expect, you may pay off more of your debt, avoiding some of the interest.
Note: if you repay a part of your loan early, there will be no consequences. However, being late with your repayments does trigger a penalty.
Unsecured Loans
The structure of personal loans with Upgrade is pretty standard. All loans are unsecured, so they won't ask for collateral to ensure you repay your debt.