Best Personal Loans

How we shortlist personal loans

Plandime does not treat the lowest advertised APR as the winner. The Federal Reserve’s latest available commercial-bank benchmark for a 24-month personal loan was 11.86% in May 2026, which is useful context but not a rate any individual borrower is guaranteed to receive.

We compare the APR you can actually qualify for, origination fees, loan amount, repayment term, prequalification method, funding speed and restrictions on how proceeds may be used.

• Check whether prequalification uses a soft credit inquiry.
• Compare APR, not interest rate alone.
• Subtract any origination fee from proceeds when judging how much cash you will actually receive.
• Prefer a term you can afford without stretching repayment solely to lower the monthly payment.

Current lender snapshot

SoFi’s personal-loan page currently advertises rates starting at 6.99% APR with discounts and loan amounts from $5,000 to $100,000 on selected pages. Discover advertises $2,500 to $40,000 and states that its personal loans have no fees. LightStream, a Truist service, says terms vary by purpose, amount, term and credit profile and that the lowest rates require excellent credit.

Because lender pricing can change quickly, these figures are treated as checked product facts, not permanent promises.

Who should use a personal loan

A fixed-rate personal loan can make sense when you need a defined amount of money and want a set payoff schedule. It can be less attractive when the APR is high, fees reduce your proceeds, or the purchase can be postponed and saved for instead.