In this post, we have given an honest review of 2 of the best loans providing organizations in the USA. You can take a loan from any organization as per your preference and requirements.

SoFi

Introduction to SoFi

SoFi or SoFi money is a cash management organization, not a Bank. Although it is not a bank but had awarded more than $ 50 billion in funded loans. They have more than 2,000,000 members who had taken funds from them and more than $ 22 billion in debts had already been paid of by their members. So we can say that this is a well-reputed organization that helps in providing funds for personal purposes, home purposes, education purposes, auto-financing, etc. SoFi is working in Insurance Sector also. you can take the Insurance.

In Which Category of Loan SoFi Money is best for

SoFi is one of the best personal loan providers for people who need money but the condition is they should have good credit and a good reputation in addition to it your income sources should also be such that it could cover your loan liability in the future. Even if you require a large amount of loan it can help in that thing also as it can provide up to $100000.
Although SoFi does offer other kinds of loans also for refinancing debts of customers, But Sofi does at present are not handling these payments, so borrowers had to pay off other lenders indirect manner.

What kind of Personal Loans SoFi Provides

SoFi Provides Loans for

• Home Improvement

• Family Planning

• Travel purpose

• Credit Card Consolidation

• Wedding purpose

Loan Amounts & Duration

• The loan amount in the case of Sofi is between $5000 to $100000. It means you can take a minimum $5000 and a maximum of up to $100000. although, minimum fund amounts could also be higher in certain states as $10,000 in Massachusetts, Arizona, and New Hampshire, and $15,000 in Kentucky. But it depends. Generally, the range is in between $5000 to $100000.

• Generally, SoFi Provides funds between the duration of 2 years to 7 years.

Annual Payment Rate and Other Expenses Details

• SoFi Annual Payment Rate is generally Between 5.99% to 18.85%. This means that you have to pay a minimum of 5.99% and it can go up to 18.85%. But if you enroll for autopay your Annual Payment may even be further reduced.

• Maximum interest rates are generally lower in lots of states such as Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, South Carolina, Houston Texas, Hawaii, Virginia Illinois, Oklahoma, Maine, Wyoming, and Alaska.

• There are no Late Fees in SoFi. This means if for some reason you are late in payment. Then there are no worries regarding late fees. but the accrued interest may be there. So it’s important that you should pay the payment in advance.

• There is zero Origination Fee in the case of SoFi. This is also a plus point for borrowers.

• We also advise you that if you can pay money in advance or before the due date you should try to pay as early as possible. There are no fees or penalties if you pay in advance or before the due date.

• We also advise you to pay with the autopay method because If you are using the autopay method then you get a 0.25% reduction in your Annual Payment Rates.

Procedure for Applying with SoFi for getting various kinds of Loans

1. The Loan applying procedure is entirely online. which means you don’t have to rush through offices for the needed funds. You simply need to create a username, password and fill in some basic details. Their Customer Support team is standing with you at each step of a loan application, approval, and after approval services. You will not have any problem in getting the amount once you reach their website or mobile app and once you contacted their customer support team (or even if you read this article) subject to other conditions. The procedure is written as below.

1. At, first of all, you must visit the SoFi Website or SoFi Mobile app and check whether you are eligible for funds or not. For this, you must check your FICO Credit Score. You will find out by checking whether you are qualified for a loan or not. otherwise, SoFi Customer care executives will help you in this regard.

1. Then you must check on which APR rates you are qualified for funds.

1. After loan qualification testing if everything goes in your favor and you are satisfied with your Annual Payment Rates. You can apply Online or through SoFi mobile app. The Processing officer will guide you as to how you can apply. At this stage, SoFi may request a complete credit report from one or more consumer rating agencies.

1. After this step, it may take up to 1-3 days for application review, approval, and processing. Normally it takes only 2-3 days but in some cases, it can take up to 2 weeks times if you are self-employed. But SoFi Team is well experienced and professional so there is not much time in this step.

1. After this, there is a signing formality. you have to sign few legal documents.

1. After signing the documents it takes few days in receiving the funds but larger funds may take some more days to credit your bank account.

1. The important thing once your application is approved you get your funds directly in your Bank Account.

1. After you receive your funds. Now you can find your first due date of payment in your first billing statement or final disclosure statement.

1. You can make payment on their mobile app or on their website at your convenience.

1. You can make payment via Online bill pay, paper check, ACH, etc.

1. You can not pay with credit cards.

Important Factors for Loan through SoFi

FICO Credit Score

You must have a FICO Credit score of at least 680 and a good reputation to be eligible for funds through SoFi.

Minimum Salary or Income

Your annual income or salary should be at least $45000 to $50000.

Income Debt Ratio

SoFi may or may not check your income debt ratio. Normally you should assume that they might check these before passing out funds to you. but in few conditions, they might not check. It is simply that your income/salary should be enough after deducting your all monthly and yearly expenses. It is normally checked to identify that whether you have enough cash to pay off the liability amount to SoFi.

Co-Applicants

If you want to take a loan with Co-applicant then Sofi allows you to take a funds with Co-applicant. But in that condition, you had to fulfill the basic formalities such as the Name, Email Address, Bank Details, Address, etc.. of yours as well as the co-applicant. You and your partner (co-applicant) must have the same residence address.
Moreover, there is a need of adding your partner’s income details, education status, employment details, etc. which are very basic formalities. In the future Co-borrower can not be removed even if you improve your credit scores and also establish a good reputation in paying your debts. If you are adding a Co-applicant or co-borrower then obviously it may delay 1-2 weeks in approval of funds from the application date because of processing time and other verification formalities.

SoFi Timings of Service for funds

SoFi customer support service is fabulous. You can contact customer support at (855) 456-7634. You can contact them from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific from Monday to Thursday, and from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Sunday.

Other Important Points

• SoFi offers Flexible Payments dates option once a year. It means the borrower can change its date once a year. which can be very helpful for borrowers in many cases. The borrower can also adjust their other expenses to some extent.

• SoFi offers Unemployment Protection also. but for taking the benefit of this scheme borrower must prove that he/she is receiving the unemployment benefits as well as actively searching for new jobs. Plus borrowers should also agree to work with the SoFi career strategy service. But in our view, this is a great benefit offer by SoFi. In this offer, Borrower loan payments are paused for a least 3 months to 12 months. but interest is accrued on the balance amount of the funds.

• Before the Finalization of funds amount, SoFi like all lenders do a “hard credit check” which can adversely impact your credit score in which they generally can confirm and verify. But if your credit score and reputation are good you should not worry about a hard credit check.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• SoFi offers Unemployment Protection.

• Rates are further reduced if one pays with the auto-pay method.

• Co-Applicants can take funds.

• One can manage funds amounts with mobile apps also.

• There are no other expenses such as origination fees, late payment fees, etc.

Cons

• A Higher Credit Score is required as compared to other lenders such as Payoff and Upgrade.

• One can not take secured loans.

Sofi Other Loans and Services in Addition to Personal Loans you can check for

Private Student Loans for

• Undergraduate Student

• Graduate Student

• Law & MBA Education

• Parent Student Loans

Student Loans Refinancing

• Parent PLUS Refinancing

• Medical Professional Refinancing

• Law & MBA Refinancing

• Medical Resident Refinancing

Home Loan

• Mortgage Refinance

• Home Equity

• Cash-out Refinance

Auto Refinancing

SoFi In Investment

• IPO Investing

• Stock Market Investing

• Active Investing

• Retirement Accounts

• Crypto Investing

• Automated Investing

• Investing 101

• ETF’s

LightStream

Introduction

LightStream is a division of Sun Trust Bank. This organization is best for Personal Loans. In addition to it, LightStream also gives Auto Loans. In Personal loans, LightStream is famous for Home Improvement Loans such as home improvement related to Kitchen and Bath Remodeling, Landscape Financing, Swimming Pool Financing, Solar Financing, Basement Remodeling, Hot Tub Financing, etc.

Reputation of LightStream

Its holding company, Truist, has given it A+ Ratings and at present holding a BBB-accredited business.
LightStream gives its borrowers a loan experience guarantee. If you are somehow not satisfied with the loan experience and dealings of the company, you can contact LightStream Customer support and tell them that you are not satisfied with loan experience and they will offer you a questionnaire in which you can file and write your issues with their services and there is a suggestion column too in which you can offer your suggestions as to how LightStream can improve its services further. If you give that questionnaire within 30 days to LightStream then you will get $100.
In 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received about merely 40 odd personal loan-related complaints about Truist, with a timely response for all and in which more than 80% complaints closed with an explanation, roughly 15% were resolved with nonmonetary rewards, and roughly 2%-3% were resolved with monetary rewards. Most of the complaints were due to getting the funds’ amount payoff procedure after submitting the loans.
LightStream has good reviews and ratings from U.S. News & World Report.
In short, we can say that LightStream is a highly reputed organization when it comes to all kinds of loans.

Amount Offered by LightStream & Their Lending Conditions

This organization offers funds between $ 5000 to $ 100000. The most important point is your FICO credit score must be at least 660. If your FICO Credit score is less than 660 you might not get your funds from this lender. It takes Annual Payment Rates between 4.49% to 20.49%. Annual Payment Rates are totally dependent on your credit score and other factors. If you enroll through the autopayments method you will get a discount of 0.50% rates. We suggest you enroll or apply through autopay methods as it increases your chances extremely high for the lowest interest rates.
You can take funds from LightStream minimum for 2 years and a maximum of up to 7 years. but you can take some loans such as swimming pool financing, home improvement, solar financing, etc. for a maximum of 12 years. so here the organization is giving you 5 years’ benefit.
If you somehow find a better alternative for the same funds’ amount and lessor Annual Payment Rate and you just tell the LightStream that you are getting the same amount at better rates. Then they will co-ordinate with you and give you an even lesser rate. For Example, suppose you need a $10000 loan and LightStream is offering you 6.25% but in the meantime, you find their alternatives who are giving you funds at 6.00% and if you just tell them that you are getting a loan at 6.00% they will reduce it to 5.75%.
Other Finance companies might give you better rates but still, LightStream is beneficial as it has a brand name and extremely good reputation in the market and their personal loans can be used for many purposes unlike others including adoption financing and debt consolidation also.

Information to be provided to LightStream

1. You must provide your complete personal information like your residential address, Social Security Number, Phone Number, Email Address.

1. Your Employment Related Information

1. How will you pay your dues?

1. your purpose of the amount

1. Duration and amount of loan

1. Balance in your Saving account as well as your checking account.

1. If you are living or Rent. Then your monthly house Rent Payments.

1. Information related to your shares, stocks if you had invested money in Stock Market.

Other Fees

There are no Origination Fees, Pre Payment penalties, or pre-payment fees.
LightStream encourages its borrowers to Pay with the automatic method and that’s why there is no question of fees if you are paying with the autopay method. In fact, you will get a discount of 0.5% if you pay with the autopay method i.e direct deposit of expenses from your bank account.
In the net shell, we can say that there are no other fees if you get approved through LightStream.
But you will not get the extra 0.5% discount if you choose the manual payment method.

Restrictions of Personal Loan Usage

There are a few restrictions where you can not use LightStream Personal Loans.

• It can not be used for investing in share market, purchasing any kind of debentures, Bonds, Stock Options, or repayment of a loan against stock options.

• You can not use it for funding your businesses.

• It can not be used for post-secondary education expenses and for college fees or/and your college-related expenses.

• It can not be used in the case of life insurance policy payments.

• It can not be used in refinancing the existing LightStream Loans

Steps to apply for a Loan with LightStream

Step-1:- Apply online from Computer, Tablet, or Smart Phone. In this step, you must choose why and for what purpose you are applying for a loan.
Step-2:- Set your Terms in which you must type purpose, amount, duration and how will you pay your loan liability.
Step-3:- After your loan gets approves you must sign your loan agreement electronically/digitally.
Step-4:- In this step, you must set up your Bank related information such as your Bank Name, Bank Routing Number and Bank Account Number, etc. If all conditions are satisfied you will get your loan.

What Normally LightStream Check before giving loan

1. Your FICO Credit Score must be at least 660. If your FICO Score is less than 660 you will not get the loan amount.

1. It will check your Purpose of the loan amount.

1. Your Debt-Income ratio may be checked. It means you must not have more debts as compared to your income.

1. It may check your assets.

1. It may check your Income and corresponding monthly expenses.

1. It will check your credit history.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Only Annual Payment Rates are to be paid. which means there are no other fees.

• Lower rates as compared to many other Lenders

• Application Process is fast and completely online

• Approval of a loan is very fast and quick

• One of the Big Pro is It offers 1 tree to American Forest for every 1 loan which they processed.

• Almost 100% Paperless procedure which is great for serving the environment.

Cons

• Long Credit history. and FICO credit score is higher too.

Both the brands have their own reputation in the market. You can choose any one or both of them subject to their terms and conditions.
Note:- We had added the company logo for Review and Discussion Purposes and in good faith. If the company owners object to it. They can contact us. We will remove it within 48 hours.