Achieve Personal Loans: 2023 Review
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Our Take
5.0
The bottom line:
Achieve personal loans can be a good debt consolidation option for fair- or good-credit borrowers who qualify for one of the lender’s rate discounts.
Full Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Direct payment to creditors with debt consolidation loans.
- Option to pre-qualify with a soft credit check.
- Joint loan options.
- Multiple rate discounts.
Cons
- Origination fee.
- Not available in all states.
- No mobile app to manage loan.
Compare to Other Lenders
 |  |
Est. APR7.99-35.99% | Est. APR8.99-35.99% |
Loan term2 to 5 years | Loan term3 to 5 years |
Loan amount$5,000-$50,000 | Loan amount$2,000-$50,000 |
Min. credit score620 | Min. credit score600 |
Compare estimated rates from multiple lenders
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Full Review of Achieve Personal Loans
Achieve, formerly FreedomPlus, offers personal loans that work well for consolidating large amounts of credit card or other unsecured debt. While starting rates are high, they can be reduced if you qualify for one of the lender’s rate discounts, and loan proceeds can be sent directly to creditors.
Achieve says it offers personal loans for borrowers with fair, good and excellent credit scores (630 and higher); average borrowers have good credit and strong household income.
The company has an online application, but unlike other online personal loan lenders, you'll speak to a dedicated Achieve loan consultant to complete the application process.
Table of Contents
Achieve personal loans at a glance
Minimum credit score | 620. |
APR | 7.99% - 35.99%. |
Fees | Origination: 1.99% to 5.99%. |
Loan amount | $5,000 to $50,000. |
Repayment terms | 2 to 5 years. |
Time to fund after approval | 1 to 3 business days. |
Loan availability | Loans aren't available in CO, CT, HI, KS, ME, ND, VT, WV, WI and WY. |
Where Achieve personal loans stand out
Multiple ways to get rate discounts. Achieve offers three ways to get a rate discount for qualifying borrowers:
Joint loan discount: Achieve will take up to six percentage points off your rate if you add a co-borrower to your application. Achieve will assess the combined income and credit profile of both borrowers on a joint loan application.
Retirement savings discount: Qualifying Achieve borrowers with at least $25,000 in retirement savings can receive a discount of up to five percentage points on their rate. Borrowers with $40,000 or more may get the largest discount. Your retirement savings aren't used to secure a loan.
Direct pay discount: Borrowers using their Achieve loan for debt consolidation can get a discount of up to four percentage points on their rate if the loan proceeds are sent directly to their creditors. To qualify for the full discount, borrowers must have at least 85% of the Achieve funds sent to another creditor.
» COMPARE: Best debt consolidation loans
Fast funding. Achieve says most customers receive a loan decision the same day they apply. Once a borrower is approved, the lender can fund a loan within three days. While that isn’t the next-day funding option other online lenders provide, it is faster than some lenders that take five or more days to deposit the funds into your account.
Option to change your payment date. Achieve says borrowers can choose their payment date before signing a loan agreement and change the date twice in a 12-month rolling period, or six times throughout the life of the loan. This is a helpful feature if you switch jobs, for example, and get paid on a different date.
Where Achieve personal loans fall short
Origination fee. Achieve charges an origination fee. For most borrowers the fee is 4.99% of the loan amount, according to the company’s website.
No rate discount for autopay. Many lenders offer a small APR discount — usually 0.5 percentage points or less — to encourage borrowers to set up automatic payments. Achieve doesn’t offer the discount but says most borrowers are automatically set up for autopay. This ensures on-time payments, which can help build credit.
Not available in all states. Achieve is available to borrowers only in states where the lender is licensed. While most states are included, borrowers in Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming aren't eligible to apply.
No mobile app. Achieve doesn’t have a mobile app, which can make things less convenient for borrowers who prefer managing their accounts on their phones.
How to qualify for a Achieve personal loan
Most lenders have basic requirements to apply, and some have financial requirements or recommendations to qualify. To apply for an Achieve personal loan, you must be:
A resident in one of Achieve's licensed states.
Able to provide a verifiable bank account.
Able to provide verifiable income.
Here are Achieve’s minimum requirements to qualify for a loan. (Meeting these requirements doesn't guarantee approval.)
Minimum credit score: 620.
Maximum debt-to-income ratio: 45%, excluding mortgage.
Minimum income: None.
Minimum credit history: Three years and two accounts.
Not actively delinquent on debt.
No bankruptcy in the last 24 months.
Here are details about Achieve’s average borrower, according to the lender.
Average credit score: 700.
Average annual income: $115,000.
Average loan amount: $22,000.
Average loan term: 3 years.
Most common loan purpose: Debt consolidation and credit card refinancing.
Before you apply
Check your credit. You can get your free credit report on NerdWallet or at AnnualCreditReport.com. Doing so will help you spot and fix any errors before you apply.
Calculate your monthly payments. Use a personal loan calculator to determine what APR and repayment term you would need to get a loan with affordable monthly payments.
Make a plan to repay the loan. Review your budget to see how the loan’s monthly payments impact your cash flow. If you have to cut other expenses in order to repay the loan, it’s better to know that before you borrow.
Gather your documents. Achieve requires proof of income, which can be a W-2 or pay stub, as well as proof of address and a Social Security number. Having these documents handy can speed the application process.
How to apply for a Achieve personal loan
Here are the steps to apply for a Achieve personal loan.
Pre-qualify on Achieve’s website. You’ll be asked how much you want to borrow and what the funds are for, as well as some personal information like your name, email address, phone number, income and employment. There’s no hard credit pull at this stage.
Submit the online application. Once you're ready, submit a formal personal loan application. This could require more documents, like W-2s, pay stubs and bank statements to confirm the information you gave during pre-qualification. Achieve will also do a hard credit check when you apply, so your credit score could temporarily dip.
Talk to a Achieve loan consultant. After you submit the application online, a dedicated loan consultant from Achieve will reach out to you. The loan consultant may ask questions on your overall financial picture and let you know your loan options.
Stay on top of your loan payments. Achieve reports payments to all three major credit bureaus, so on-time payments will help build your credit score, but missed payments will hurt it. Setting up automatic payments and keeping an eye on your budget are two ways to manage your loan payments.
Compare Achieve with other lenders
Compare Achieve with other lenders to decide whether it offers the right personal loan for you. Lenders offer different rates, loan amounts and special features, so it pays to weigh your options. The best personal loan is usually the one with the lowest APR and most affordable monthly payments.
Achieve vs. Happy Money
Like Achieve, Happy Money offers personal loans to fair- and good-credit borrowers. Both lenders also charge origination fees. But Achieve offers more rate discounts that can lower the overall cost of your loan when compared with Happy Money.
» MORE: Read our review of Happy Money
Achieve vs. Best Egg
Best Egg and Achieve are both good options for debt consolidation, although Best Egg has higher origination fees and no rate discounts. Best Egg can be a good option for borrowers looking for a secured loan for home improvements.
» MORE: Read our review of Best Egg
How we rate Achieve personal loans
NerdWallet writers rate lenders against a rubric that changes each year based on how personal loan products evolve. Here’s what we prioritized this year:
Category | Star rating |
|---|---|
Affordability | |
Transparency | |
Loan flexibility | |
Customer experience | |
Overall |
Ready to apply? Click the button below and head to the Achieve website to pre-qualify.
on Achieve's website
Methodology
NerdWallet’s review process evaluates and rates personal loan products from more than 35 financial institutions. We collect over 45 data points from each lender, interview company representatives and compare the lender with others that seek the same customer or offer a similar personal loan product. 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. 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.
This methodology applies only to lenders that cap interest rates at 36%, the maximum rate most financial experts and consumer advocates agree is the acceptable limit for a loan to be affordable. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for our star ratings. Read more about our ratings methodologies for personal loans and our editorial guidelines.
Find the Best Personal Loan
Frequently asked questions
A minimum FICO score of 600 is required for Achieve personal loan borrowers. The average Achieve borrower, however, has a score of 700.
Achieve has same-day approval for qualifying applicants who have submitted an online application and have talked to a dedicated Achieve loan consultant. Funds can be deposited within 24 to 72 hours.
