LightStream Personal Loan
- Best for: Borrowers with good to excellent credit who need $5,000 or more without fees
- What Sets It Apart: No fees of any kind; Rate Beat program; same-day funding possible
- Cost: 9.99% to 23.94% APR with AutoPay on debt consolidation; 25.44% maximum APR; $0 fees; 0.50 points more without AutoPay
- Features: $5,000 to $100,000; 24 to 84 months for debt consolidation; joint applications
- Pros: No origination fee or prepayment penalty; same-day funding; Rate Beat program
- Cons: Good to excellent credit only; hard credit pull to apply; no direct payment to creditors
Choose LightStream if your credit is good to excellent and you need $5,000 or more, because you’ll pay no origination fee, prepayment penalty, or other fee on the loan. If your credit is fair, or you want to check a rate without a hard credit pull, apply with a lender that prequalifies instead.
LightStream, the online lending arm of Truist Bank, makes fixed-rate loans for almost any personal purpose, from a kitchen remodel to a stack of credit card balances. It’s built for borrowers with good to excellent credit who want a large loan quickly and without fees.
Key Features
- APRs of 9.99% to 23.94% with AutoPay on debt consolidation loans, and 25.44% at most on any LightStream loan
- Rates 0.50 percentage points higher unless you set up AutoPay before funding
- Loans of $5,000 to $100,000, repaid over 24 to 84 months for debt consolidation
- No origination fee, prepayment penalty, or other fee, though Florida borrowers have the state’s documentary stamp tax, just over $35 per $10,000, added to the loan
- $322.62 a month for 36 months when you borrow $10,000 at 9.99% APR, per LightStream’s example
Pros
- No fee comes out of the loan, so the full amount reaches your account
- Same-day funding when you’re approved and finish the closing steps before the 2:30 p.m. Eastern cutoff on a banking business day
- Rate Beat program, which undercuts another lender’s approved, lower unsecured-loan rate by 0.10 percentage points on the same terms
- Joint applications accepted, with both borrowers equally responsible
Cons
- Good to excellent credit required, with no published minimum score
- No soft-pull prequalification, so applying means a hard credit inquiry
- Consolidation money lands in your account, so you pay off each creditor yourself
- $5,000 minimum loan
- Can’t fund college costs, business expenses, or a student loan payoff
If your credit is good to excellent, apply with LightStream and one or two other lenders in the same week, then submit a Rate Beat request if a rival approves you for a lower rate on the same terms. With fair credit, skip LightStream’s hard inquiry and apply with a lender that approves fair-credit borrowers.
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