Best Egg Personal Loans: 2023 Review
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Our Take
4.5
The bottom line:
Best Egg personal loans are available to borrowers who want to consolidate debt and secure a loan, but they lack some features offered by other lenders.
Full Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Option to pre-qualify with a soft credit check.
- Wide range of loan amounts.
- Unsecured and secured loan options.
- Direct payment to creditors with debt consolidation loans.
Cons
- Origination fee.
- No rate discounts.
- No option to choose initial payment date.
Compare to Other Lenders
 |  |
|---|---|
Est. APR8.99-35.99% | Est. APR6.99-23.99% |
Loan term3 to 5 years | Loan term2 to 7 years |
Loan amount$2,000-$50,000 | Loan amount$5,000-$100,000 |
Min. credit score600 | Min. credit score660 |
Compare estimated rates from multiple lenders
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Full Review of Best Egg
Best Egg is an online lender that offers unsecured and secured personal loans for borrowers with fair to good credit.
Best Egg personal loan amounts range from $2,000 to $50,000 (though some states have different minimum amounts), and repayment terms are from three to five years. Borrowers can use their loan to consolidate debt, refinance credit cards or cover large expenses. Best Egg’s secured loans require permanent fixtures in your home as collateral.
Table of Contents:
Best Egg personal loans at a glance
Minimum credit score | 600. |
APR | 8.99% - 35.99%. |
Fees |
|
Loan amount | $2,000 - $50,000. |
Repayment terms | 3, 4 or 5 years. |
Time to fund after approval | 1 - 3 business days. |
Loan availability | Loans not available in Iowa, Vermont, West Virginia or Washington, D.C. |
Where Best Egg personal loans stand out
Offers direct payment to creditors on debt consolidation loans: For borrowers who opt-in, Best Egg sends loan payments directly to creditors on debt consolidation loans. This feature takes the work of paying individual creditors out of borrowers' hands and eliminates any temptation to spend the money elsewhere.
Wide loan amount range: Borrowers have the option to take out loans from $2,000 to $50,000, which gives them the flexibility to cover smaller expenses or larger costs associated with events like moving or home improvement projects.
Secured loans: Best Egg offers both unsecured and secured personal loans. The secured loan is similar to a home equity loan, but it uses fixtures permanently attached to your home, like your water heater, ceiling fans or window shutters, as collateral instead of your entire house. Once approved, you can receive funding in one to three days. If a borrower fails to repay the loan, Best Egg can repossess the collateral.
» MORE: Best secured loans
Free credit score access: Personal loan customers can access their credit score through their Best Egg account, which allows borrowers to see how on-time payments benefit their credit scores over time.
» MORE: Best good-credit lenders
Where Best Egg personal loans fall short
No rate discounts: Unlike other lenders, Best Egg doesn't offer an additional rate discount for setting up autopayment. Other lenders typically discount interest rates by 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points to incentivize borrowers to choose autopayment.
Origination fee: Best Egg charges an origination fee ranging from 0.99% to 8.99%. Not all lenders charge an origination fee, and Best Egg’s range is high compared with other lenders that charge one.
No mobile app: Best Egg doesn't offer a mobile app to manage your loan. Many online lenders have mobile apps where borrowers can make payments and track the progress of their loans.
How to qualify for a Best Egg personal loan
Minimum credit score: 600.
Average personal loan size: $15,000.
Minimum debt-to-income ratio: 40%, or 65% with a mortgage.
Employment: Must provide proof of income.
Must provide a valid U.S. address and Social Security number.
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’d 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 to repay the loan, it’s better to know that before you borrow.
Gather your documents. Best Egg 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 Best Egg personal loan
Here are the steps to apply for a Best Egg loan.
Provide details on Best Egg’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 and email address. There’s no hard credit pull at this stage.
Preview loan offers and find the one that fits your budget. You can pre-qualify on Best Egg’s website. There is a soft-credit pull and Best Egg will provide you with different loan offers which include more, less or the amount you requested.
Submit an application. Once you find a loan offer that works for you, you’ll submit a formal personal loan application. This will require documentation to verify your personal details, employment, Social Security number and income. Best Egg will do a hard credit check when you apply, so your credit score may temporarily dip.
Make a plan to repay the loan. Best Egg reports payments to all three major credit bureaus, so on-time payments will help build your credit, 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 Best Egg with other lenders
Compare Best Egg with other lenders to decide which is right for you. Lenders offer varying rates, loan amounts and special features, so it pays to weigh alternatives.
You can pre-qualify on NerdWallet to compare offers from multiple lenders at once.
Best Egg vs. Prosper
Like Best Egg, Prosper personal loans are a fit for borrowers with fair or good credit (a score of 630 to 719). Prosper offers similar loan amounts and repayment term options. Unlike Best Egg, Prosper doesn’t directly pay your other creditors when you get a debt consolidation loan.
» MORE: Prosper personal loan review
How we rate Best Egg 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? Select "Get Rate" below and head to Best Egg's website to pre-qualify.
on Best Egg'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
Yes, you can pay off a Best Egg loan early with no prepayment penalty.
Best Egg is a reputable online lender that offers personal loans for borrowers with fair to good credit.
Best Egg doesn't let you add a co-signer to your loan application. Other online lenders offer co-signed personal loans.
