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LendingClub Personal Loans Review of April 2024

ElitePersonalFinance
Last Update: March 11, 2023 • Loan Reviews •

    LendingClub in a nutshell

    LendingClub is one of the most popular loan companies online. If you are with great credit score, low debt to income ratio, and high income, LendingClub can be one of the best options for you! However, if you are with bad credit, you can’t get a loan from the company.

    Loan Amount:$1,000 – $40,000
    APR:6.16% – 35.89%
    Min. Credit Score:600
    Approval:1 – 7 Days
    Terms:3 – 5 years
    Origination Fee:1% – 6%
    DTI Ratio:40%
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    What You have to know about LendingClub Loans?

    Fees

    • Origination fee: 1% – 6%
    • Late fee: Greater $15 or 5% of payment after a 15-day grace period.
    • Check processing fee: $7
    • No application fees.
    • No pre-payment fees.
    • No returned check fees.
    • No annual fees.

    Requirements

    • Min Credit Score: 600
    • Debt-to-income ratio: 40%
    • Income requirement: Not specified
    • Credit history: Min 3 years

    Best for

    • People with high credit scores and high income.

    Other Facts about LendingClub

    • LendingClub offers secured and unsecured loans and the option to add a cosigner.
    • LendingClub offers fixed loans.
    • They have great customer support.
    • Type of credit check: Soft
    • LendingClub is not so flexible.

    The Application Process

    • Register and check your rate. There are no application fees and no obligations. Also, no hard inquiry on your credit that will lower it.
    • Check your terms select the offer that works best for you, and finish your application.
    • Verify your info.
    • Receive your funds. You have to know that LendingClub will make a hard inquiry on your credit if you approve the offer.

    LendingClub vs. Other Top Companies

    Loan Company:Amount:Min. Credit Score:APR:
    LendingClub$1,000 – $40,0006006.16% – 35.89%
    Prosper$2,000 – $40,0006407.95% – 35.99%
    PersonalLoans$1,000 – $35,0005805.99% – 35.99%

    Now Let’s Review LendingClub in Details

    LendingClub is an online marketplace that connects borrowers and lenders. This is a relatively new concept, and it is most commonly known as “peer to peer lending.”  The people on both ends are just looking for a better deal, and in many cases, both parties get exactly what they are looking for. Because LendingClub is just a website without a bank’s large infrastructure, it can keep its costs extremely low and pass most of the savings on borrowers.

    LendingClub is known as the leader in the peer to peer lending space. They have managed to facilitate the lending of more than $20B since they opened for business. As a lender, you can receive a higher return rate than many other investments, but there are still risks involved. As a borrower, if you can get approved, you are almost guaranteed lower interest rates here than on a credit card or other personal loans.

    Who Can Apply?

    Anyone can apply for a loan with LendingClub, but they only accept about 33% of applicants. You have to have great credit to get approved to keep the risk fairly low for lenders and the marketplace. The average interest rate offered is 12-15%, but borrowers with the highest credit ratings can receive funds with interest rates as low as 5.99%.

    What to Expect During The Application and Approval Process?

    The process from start to finish will look like this:

    • Fill out the application online. You will fill in basic information about yourself and your financial situation and choose an amount to apply for.
    • You will create a LendingClub account and answer a few more personal questions.
    • You will then see your loan amount, interest rate, and monthly payments.
    • You will be given other options, including higher dollar amount loans and long term. These will end up costing you, so we recommend that you only borrow the exact amount that you need and only apply for a 36-month loan.
    • At this point, you are tentatively approved, but LendingClub will review your file, and if they like what they see, they will post your loan up for funding with their investors. They may verify employment and salary information.
    • Investors will look at your basic profile and choose whether to fund you. Once you have full funding, your loan is complete.
    • Your funds will be disbursed.

    Minimum Requirements as a Borrower

    • The minimum credit score is 600, but the average for approved borrowers is 699.
    • A fairly high income is required for approval. The minimum seems to be about $70,000 annual income.
    • Low debt to income ratio, excluding your mortgage. If your debt to income ratio is over 40%, it is unlikely that you will get approved, and the lower, the better your chances.
    • No delinquency, tax liens, missed payments, or other negative marks on your accounts in recent years.
    • Income verification is required to prove your ability to repay the loan.

    Minimum Requirements as an Investor

    • Must be at least 18 years old and hold a social security number.
    • Must have an annual gross income and net worth of $70,000 or more, or $85,000 in California.
    • Only allowed to purchase notes equal in value to 10% of your net worth.

    Who Is The Average Borrower Who Gets Approved?

    The following stats are the average stats for a borrower who gets their loan approved and funded by LendingClub.

    • A credit score of 699.
    • The income of $74,414.
    • Credit History of 16+ years.
    • Debt-to-Income Ratio of 17.9%.

    These stats include small business borrowers, which changes the formula quite a bit. If these were all individuals and no businesses, these numbers could very well be quite different.

    LendingClub Terms

    LendingClub requirements for borrowers:

    • Annual percentage rates from 6.16% to 35.89% and the rates are fixed.
    • Three to five-year terms.
    • 1 to 6% origination fees, with the average origination fee being 5.13%.
    • Loans from $1,000 to $40,000.
    • Funding in as little as two days.

    LendingClub requirements for lenders:

    • Solid returns of 5-8% on average.
    • 8% of investors who hold 100 or more notes of similar size get positive returns from their investments with LendingClub.
    • Investors see 3-6% of their investment back in cash payments monthly.

    What We Like about LendingClub

    As a borrower:

    • Easy application process.
    • Getting your funds within just a couple of days.
    • Some people get approved for very low rates.

    As a lender:

    • A potentially high rate of returns if you invest wisely and diversify.
    • Filtering options to select only borrowers who meet your own personal risk criteria.
    • You can set it up to automatically invest for you based on the criteria you set.

    What We Don’t Like about LendingClub

    As a borrower:

    • Most applications are denied.
    • High origination fees. The average origination fee is over 5%.
    • The requirements are quite high to apply and get approved, so LendingClub is not available to the average individual borrower.

    As a lender:

    • Not everyone can invest. You must meet the minimum requirements set forth by LendingClub.
    • Earnings are taxed as ordinary income, which is an issue for lenders with high-income brackets.
    • LendingClub charges a 1% annual fee per note you own.
    • LendingClub has a questionable past. Several scandals have surfaced over the years that could cause concern, but less so now that they are a publicly-traded company and must be transparent in all of their financial dealings.

    Tips for Getting a Loan from LendingClub

    • Check your credit report before applying. Make sure to fix any issues you find and make sure that your debt to income ratio is low and you have no derogatory comments on your report.
    • Wait to apply until you have had a job for more than one year. This will show the lenders’ stability and make them more likely to loan you the money you seek.
    • Work on getting your credit score to 650 or higher.
    • Break your loan into smaller parts. If you need $30,000, there is no reason that you can’t apply twice for $15,000. Each of these two smaller loans would be seen as less risky, and you may get lower interest rates this way.
    • Apply only for the amount you need. Don’t apply for more just because it is available to you. The more money you apply for, the harder it will be to get approved and funded.

    Tips for Investing Wisely with LendingClub

    • Diversify! It is much wiser to fund 100 loans at $25 per loan rather than 10 loans at $250 per loan. You are loaning the same amount of money, but funding more loans means your risk is much lower. If one person defaults out of 10, that could hugely affect your returns. If one person defaults out of 100, it may not be quite noticeable. Most financial experts recommend that you hold more than 200 notes on LendingClub to diversify effectively.
    • Keep reinvesting funds. As borrowers pay their loans back, your cash will begin to refill in your account. If it is not reinvested, you are not interested in this cash. You will always want to be reinvesting, and it is quite easy to do this by setting up the Automated Investing tool. It makes investing almost thoughtless and makes for quite an easy experience.
    • If you want to increase your return rate, take on higher risk loans. Most people start by funding extremely low-risk loans, but you may find that it is worth the risk to invest in higher-risk loans over time.
    • Use filtering to find the appropriate investments for the level of risk versus return you are comfortable with. See below for filtering ideas.
    • Invest through an IRA to protect yourself against paying exorbitant taxes. Since your earnings are considered ordinary income, you will want to put your earnings into a tax-deferred IRA and pay the taxes later. Generally, you will end up making more money this way, and LendingClub makes it easy by helping you set it up.

    Filtering for Best Returns

    For example, let’s say you were looking to get an average 9% ROI. Below is an example of a filter that you could use to attempt to achieve this:

    • Loan grades – E, F, and G (high risk).
    • Homeowner status – mortgage, owner.
    • Credit inquiries – 0.
    • Income – $59,000 or more.
    • States – No Arizona, California, Florida, or Nevada.

    You are looking for higher risk investments here. You are looking for homeowners who have not recently applied for credit, with a decent income, and living in lower-cost states. Using these filters to your advantage can be a very smart investing strategy.

    Would We Use LendingClub?

    We think that LendingClub is an incredible platform for both borrowers and lenders. The marketplace was designed to enable people to have lower interest rates as borrowers, higher returns as lenders, and definitely achieved this.

    The interest rates are not significantly lower than one might find with another personal loan or credit card if your account for the origination fees involved. Still, keeping those in mind, you can potentially shave 2-5% off your current interest rates. This can save a borrower thousands of dollars over a 36 month period on a large loan.

    If a borrower has responsibly built up their credit and kept their debt levels low, they may have access to funds with an interest rate as low as 5.99%, which is hard to find at any financial institution. As a lender, receiving a 5-10% return is quite healthy, and if you manage your LendingClub portfolio, wisely it can be fairly low risk.

    We would definitely use LendingClub as a borrower or a lender. The platform has great things to offer to both parties, with many pros and few cons.

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