Best Personal Loans for Excellent Credit

If you’ve worked hard to cultivate an excellent credit score, there’s no better time to make the most of it than when you’re in need of a personal loan. But exactly what qualifies as excellent credit in 2019, and which lenders are most likely to offer the best rates for exceptionally qualified borrowers?
Continue reading to find out what constitutes a superb score and to learn all about the best personal loans for excellent credit applicants.

What Is an Excellent Credit Score?

In the realm of personal finance, every consumer is assigned a credit score based on their individual creditworthiness. These scores range from 300 to 850 — the higher the better — and several factors play a role in determining a person’s specific number.

While no three digits universally signify the threshold of an excellent score, generally speaking, most lenders will consider any credit score greater than 750 to be exceptional. Individuals who have a score in that range are likely to qualify for the lowest APRs offered by a particular bank, peer-to-peer platform, or other financial organization. This means their loan will cost less in the long run. So in order to score the best personal loan rates, excellent credit is essential.

Personal Loans for Excellent Credit

While many online lenders specifically target individuals with less-than-impressive scores, there are others that almost exclusively issue personal loans for excellent credit applicants. If you’ve done an exemplary job when it comes to maintaining your personal finances, these five lenders are likely to offer you some of the most attractive loans on the internet.

Let’s take a quick look at each of them and their best personal loan rates for excellent credit applicants.

LightStream

This online lending division of SunTrust Bank uses its own set of criteria to determine an applicant’s creditworthiness, but an excellent score is a must. Note, though, that LightStream does not offer a pre-approval process and any application with this lender requires a hard credit pull, which will temporarily lower the applicant’s credit score.

SoFi

Short for Social Finance, SoFi is a peer-to-peer platform that distinguishes itself from other lenders by offering exclusive member perks including social events and professional coaching. In addition to considering an applicant’s credit score, SoFi also weighs their salary and payment history when determining a borrower’s terms.

Marcus

Operated by investment bank Goldman Sachs, Marcus offers personal loans for weddings, vacations, debt consolidation, home improvement projects, and more. Marcus provides pre-qualified loans, so borrowers can apply without the process affecting their credit scores.

Prosper

Prosper's peer-to-peer network eliminates the role of traditional lenders by connecting borrowers directly with investors who provide loans in exchange for interest. Due to this unique funding arrangement, money can sometimes take longer to transfer into a borrower’s account.

Laurel Road

Laurel Road may be lesser known than the other lenders on this list, but this bank offers some of the best rates for borrowers who have immaculate credit reports.

Personal Loans for Debt Consolidation

If your credit score isn’t currently high enough to qualify for the best rates from the above lenders, there could still be some attractive offers available to you if you have “good” credit. But what kind of credit scores do lenders consider “good”?

In general, a rating between 670 and 750 is above average but not quite excellent. Consumers whose credit scores fall into this category will likely find agreeable terms from the below three lenders.

Discover

While Discover might be most well known as a credit card company, the institution also offers personal loans, primarily for debt consolidation. You don’t need to have a Discover credit card in order to get a loan, and you can completely avoid paying interest fees if you’re able to pay off the loan within the first month.

Best Egg

This online-only lending platform offers personal loans that can be processed in as quickly as the same day. Note that borrowers who opt not to enroll in Best Egg’s automatic payments program will be charged a $7 processing fee for each transaction.

Payoff

Designed specifically for consumers interested in debt consolidation, Payoff offers attractive APRs to help borrowers achieve financial freedom. Payoff currently doesn’t operate in Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Nebraska, and West Virginia, and rates in all other states may vary slightly.

How to Maintain a High Credit Score

If you’re looking for low-interest personal loans, excellent credit will go a long way toward ensuring you get the very best rate. If you’re not sure how to establish excellent credit — or if you’d just like a refresher regarding how to maintain it — try to keep these tips in mind:

• At the very least, make your minimum payments on time, but aim to pay off any outstanding debt as quickly as possible.
• Refrain from closing old or unused accounts; this will reduce your open credit, lowering your overall credit score.
• Be crafty about your credit card utilization. Transfer bigger balances to accounts with higher limits, and keep lower balances on cards with lower limits.
• Open a new credit account every couple of years even if you don’t plan on using it, and try to have as diverse a mix of account types as possible.

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