Annie Millerbernd
Jackie Veling
Kim Lowe
Vacation loans are unsecured personal loans used to pay for travel. Pre-qualify and compare loan offers with other ways to finance your vacation.
This service is free and will not affect your credit score.
Best for borrowers with good or excellent credit
2025 NerdWallet award winner
6.49 - 24.89%
$5K - $100K
660
2 to 7 years
Our take on LightStream
LightStream is a solid option for good- and excellent-credit borrowers, with no fees and a promise to beat competitors’ rates. Read our review of LightStream
Best for borrowers with good or excellent credit
2025 NerdWallet award winner
7.99 - 24.99%
$2.5K - $40K
660
3 to 7 years
Our take on Discover® Personal Loans
With competitive rates and no origination fees, Discover personal loans are good options for borrowers with good and excellent credit. Read our review of Discover® Personal Loans
Best for borrowers with good or excellent credit
2025 NerdWallet award winner
8.99 - 35.49%
$5K - $100K
None
2 to 7 years
Our take on SoFi Personal Loan
SoFi offers large online personal loans with consumer-friendly features for good- and excellent-credit borrowers. Read our review of SoFi Personal Loan
Best for borrowers with fair credit
8.99 - 35.99%
$2K - $50K
560
2 to 5 years
Our take on Prosper
Prosper is a peer-to-peer online lending platform that accepts borrowers across the credit spectrum. Read our review of Prosper
Best for borrowers with fair credit
6.99 - 35.99%
$2K - $50K
600
3 to 5 years
Our take on Best Egg
Best Egg is worth considering for borrowers looking for a secured loan or to consolidate debt. Read our review of Best Egg
Best for borrowers with bad credit
6.70 - 35.99%
$1K - $75K
None
3 to 5 years
Our take on Upstart
Upstart personal loans offer fast funding and may be an option for borrowers with low credit scores or thin credit histories. Upstart is a solid financing choice for large purchases. Read our review of Upstart
Best for borrowers with bad credit
2025 NerdWallet award winner
7.74 - 35.99%
$1K - $50K
600
2 to 7 years
Our take on Upgrade
Upgrade accepts lower credit scores than similar lenders, and it offers multiple rate discounts for its personal loans. Read our review of Upgrade
Best for small vacation loans
2025 NerdWallet award winner
7.90 - 35.99%
$1K - $60K
600
2 to 7 years
Our take on LendingClub
A LendingClub personal loan is a standout option for qualified borrowers who want to pay off debt with flexible terms. Read our review of LendingClub
Best for small vacation loans
7.99 - 35.99%
$1K - $36.5K
640
2 to 6 years
Our take on LendingPoint
LendingPoint's no-frills personal loans offer fast approval and funding to borrowers with good credit. Read our review of LendingPoint
Our team of consumer lending experts follows an objective and robust methodology to rate lenders and pick the best.
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Lenders reviewed
We review over 35 lenders, including major banks, top credit unions, leading digital platforms, and high interest installment lenders operating across multiple states.
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Categories assessed
Each lender is evaluated across five weighted categories and 27 subcategories, covering affordability, eligibility, consumer experience, flexibility, and application process.
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Our team tracks and reassesses hundreds of data points annually, including APR ranges, fees, credit requirements, and borrower tools, ensuring up to date, accurate comparisons.
We evaluate more categories than competitors and carefully weigh how each factor impacts your experience.
NerdWallet’s review process evaluates and rates personal loan products from more than 30 financial technology companies and financial institutions. We collect over 60 data points and cross-check company websites, earnings reports and other public documents to confirm product details. We may also go through a lender’s pre-qualification flow and follow up with company representatives. NerdWallet writers and editors conduct a full fact check and update annually, but also make updates throughout the year as necessary.
Our star ratings award points to lenders that offer consumer-friendly features, including: soft credit checks to pre-qualify, competitive interest rates and no fees, transparency of rates and terms, flexible payment options, fast funding times, accessible customer service, reporting of payments to credit bureaus and financial education. Our ratings award fewer points to lenders with practices that may make a loan difficult to repay on time, such as charging high annual percentage rates (above 36%), underwriting that does not adequately assess consumers’ ability to repay and lack of credit-building help. We also consider regulatory actions filed by agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We weigh these factors based on our assessment of which are the most important to consumers and how meaningfully they impact consumers’ experiences.
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A vacation loan is an unsecured personal loan used to pay for travel expenses, including flights, hotels, rental cars, meals or anything else trip-related.
These loans don’t require collateral and are repaid in fixed monthly installments, meaning the monthly payment won’t change over the course of the loan. Online lenders, banks and credit unions all offer vacation loans.
» MORE: What is an unsecured personal loan?
Most financial experts advise against incurring debt for discretionary vacation spending. For urgent travel, and when a loan is your cheapest option, borrowing may make sense. But make sure the monthly payments fit into your budget, and commit to paying off the loan on time.
Weigh the pros and cons of a vacation loan to see if it’s the right choice for financing a trip.
Annual percentage rates on personal loans range from about 6% to 36%, and some lenders may use the reason for the loan to help decide your rate.
But the rate you ultimately get depends mostly on your credit score and your debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which is the percentage of your income that goes toward paying off debt each month. The higher your credit score and the lower your DTI, the more likely you’ll get a low rate on a vacation loan. A lower rate means a less expensive loan.
For example, a two-year loan of $3,000 with an APR of 11% would cost about $140 in monthly payments and $3,356 overall. That same loan with a 25% APR would require monthly payments of $160 and cost $3,843.
» MORE: View average personal loan rates
Nerdy Tip
Use NerdWallet’s free personal loan calculator to estimate your vacation loan’s monthly payments, based on the amount, rate and term.
If you’re interested in a vacation loan, you can get one in five simple steps:
» GET STARTED: Pre-qualify for free on NerdWallet to compare loan offers
Before getting a loan, consider these alternatives to finance your trip.
Savings: If there’s still time before your trip, start saving. Create a dedicated travel savings account and put away some money each month. Find out how much the trip will cost by comparing prices of flights, hotel rooms and car rentals on travel websites.
» MORE: Easy tips to save money on travel
Travel credit cards: If you travel frequently and have good or excellent credit (a score in the mid-600s or higher), you may qualify for a travel credit card that offers a sign-up bonus and other perks that could help lower the cost of trips in the long run.
0% credit card: If you have good credit, you may also qualify for a 0% APR credit card that allows you to carry a balance interest-free, typically for 15 to 21 months. That means if you can pay off the trip in that time, you can skip the interest altogether and finance your trip for free.
“Buy now, pay later” loans: Some lenders, like Uplift and Affirm, partner with major airlines, hotel companies and travel websites to include BNPL financing for travelers when they book their tickets. This means you can make your purchase now, but pay for it in installments, similar to a personal loan, but BNPL may offer 0% interest. Borrowers with fair or bad credit (any score between 300 to the low 600s) may have an easier time qualifying for BNPL than other financing options.
» MORE: Should you use BNPL for travel?
A vacation loan is an unsecured personal loan used to pay for travel expenses, like flights, hotels or meals out.
You can finance a vacation with a personal loan or credit card, but it typically costs interest. The cheapest option is paying for a vacation with savings.
