Personify Financial Personal Loans: 2023 Review
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Our Take
2.5
The bottom line:
An option for borrowers with bad credit, but high rates make a Personify loan a last-resort option.
Full Review
on NerdWallet's secure website
Pros & Cons
Pros
- May accept borrowers with bad credit.
- Fast funding.
- Ties repayment date to borrower’s pay schedule.
Cons
- High rates.
- May charge an origination fee.
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Full Review of Personify Financial
Personify Financial is an online lender that offers high-interest installment loans to borrowers with bad credit (629 or lower FICO).
Consider a Personify loan a last-resort option. The lender pairs high rates with long repayment terms that may make its loans difficult to repay or costly in the long term. NerdWallet recommends avoiding loans with rates above 36% unless you’ve ruled out all the alternatives.
» COMPARE: See your bad-credit loan options
Personify rates, fees and terms
Personify Finance’s rates, fees and repayment terms may vary by state, but here’s what the lender offers across all states where it operates.
APR range | 19%-199.99%. |
Loan amount | $500-$15,000. |
Fees | Personify charges:
|
Repayment terms | 12, 18, 24, 36 and 48 months. |
States where available | AK, AL, AZ, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NM, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, UT, WA and WI. |
How to qualify for a Personify Finance personal loan
Personify relies on bank account and credit information to decide whether you qualify for a loan. Unlike lenders that provide no-credit-check loans, Personify does a hard credit pull to view your TransUnion credit report, according to a customer service representative.
Requirements:
To qualify for a Personify loan, you need:
An email address.
An address in a state where Personify provides loans.
A bank account where you receive regular deposits.
Personify Financial loan pros and cons
A Personify loan is an option for borrowers who don’t qualify for a loan with a lower annual percentage rate. Consider the pros and cons before you borrow.
Pros
Borrowers with low credit scores may qualify. Personify says it looks at consumers’ whole financial picture, which includes bank account data, to determine whether an applicant qualifies. This means consumers with bad credit may be able to qualify with Personify.
Fast funding. Personify says it can deposit funds into a borrower’s checking account one or two business days after approval. This speed is common for most online lenders.
Pre-qualification. You can pre-qualify for a Personify loan to preview your potential loan offer without affecting your credit score. The lender will perform a hard credit inquiry if you accept the offer.
Payment date is tied to borrowers’ pay schedule. Personify reviews your bank account to see when you get paid and schedules your loan’s payment date accordingly. For example, if you get paid biweekly, your repayment schedule will align with those biweekly payments, according to a customer service representative. Borrowers can request to change a payment date, but they must do so at least three days before it’s due.
Cons
High interest rates. Most consumer advocates say 36% is the highest annual percentage rate a loan can have and still be considered affordable. Though Personify offers rates below 36%, the majority of its APR range is above that threshold. Even a small loan with a high APR can be difficult to repay.
Interest may add up to more than 50% of the loan amount. Interest costs on a Personify loan may make up more than half the amount you borrowed, depending on the rate and repayment term you get. For example, a $4,000 loan repaid over one year at 99% APR would cost $2,452 in interest.
May charge an origination fee. Personify charges an origination fee of 5% in most states where it provides loans. This fee is usually taken from the loan funds before they are deposited into your account.
Should you get a Personify Financial loan?
Consider Personify a last resort in an emergency. While you may be able to make the biweekly or monthly payment on a high-interest loan, if the repayment term is too long and the rate too high, your total interest costs could exceed the amount borrowed.
Personify reports loan payments to all three major credit bureaus, so on-time payments can help build credit but missed payments will hurt it.
Depending on your goal, you may have better options. Personify isn’t a good idea if:
Your main goal is to build credit: There are ways to build credit without incurring high-interest debt.
You can get cash elsewhere: NerdWallet recommends exhausting all your options before considering a lender with high interest rates. Even in an emergency, you may have cheaper options.
How Personify compares
SeedFi offers a personal loan and credit-builder loan in one. You receive some funds to spend on an urgent expense, and the rest of the loan goes into a savings account, which you can access once the loan is paid off. Like Personify, SeedFi offers loans to bad-credit borrowers, but rates are capped at 29.99%.
OppLoans APRs start higher than Personify but are capped a little lower. OppLoans offers smaller loans than Personify, but it does not check your credit.
Oportun personal loans have maximum APRs below 36% but are still available to borrowers with little or no credit history. Like Personify, Oportun boasts fast funding but reports on-time payments to only two of the three credit bureaus.
» MORE: Best installment loans
Personify Financial loan example
A $6,000 loan with a 70% APR and an 18-month repayment term would carry the following costs:
Monthly payment: $547.
Total interest paid: $3,850.
Total amount repaid: $9,850.
Alternatives to Personify loans
Here are some alternatives that may be cheaper than borrowing.
For help meeting basic needs: Seek assistance from local nonprofits, charities and religious organizations. They can help you get food, clothing and access to transportation for job interviews.
For help with rent or utilities: Contact your utility company, landlord or mortgage issuer for help deferring a payment. If you need long-term help, consider seeking other housing, or contact a housing counselor.
To pay medical bills: Learn about ways to cover medical costs, including payment plans.
To cover other one-time emergency expenses:
Ask a friend or family member for a loan, or form a lending circle to borrow from those you trust without accruing interest.
Ask your employer for a paycheck advance, or use a loan app to borrow against your next paycheck.
Get a payday alternative loan or a small personal loan from a credit union. You have to be a member to use this option, but it’s one of the most affordable ways to pay for an emergency.
Try other ways to make money. You need some extra time to make this option work.
Before you get a Personify loan
Exhaust all other options: If none of the above alternatives work for you, try to buy time from your creditor or work out a payment plan. Also, consider facing the short-term consequences of not paying, like a late fee.
Compare the cost of taking out the loan to the cost of not taking it out: Calculate the overall cost of not having funds for your purpose, then weigh that against the typical cost of a Personify loan in your state.
If a Personify installment loan is your best option, do what you can to carve out room in your budget to pay off the loan as quickly as possible. For most people, this loan is too expensive to be a long-term or repeat solution.
How to get a Personify Financial loan
Here are the steps to get a Personify loan:
Select “Apply” on Personify’s website.
Enter your ZIP code and select the “See My Loan Offers” button.
Enter some personal information, including your name, address, email address and phone number.
If you qualify, you’ll be shown potential loan offers with amounts, rates and repayment terms and choose one, according to a customer service representative.
You’ll be asked to log into your bank account where you receive income and submit the application, which will trigger a hard credit inquiry.
Borrowers who are automatically approved will receive an instant decision. Others may be asked to provide more information. Once approved, expect funds to arrive within one or two business days.
on NerdWallet's secure website
Methodology
NerdWallet rates lenders that offer high-interest personal loans separately from other lenders due to the consumer risk associated with these loans. We define high-interest loans as those with rates that exceed 36%, which is the maximum rate financial experts and consumer advocates agree is the acceptable limit for a loan to be affordable. The maximum allowable rating for high-interest lenders that we review is four stars. We award points to lenders that offer loans that minimize harm to consumers through affordability, transparency and practices that prioritize consumers’ needs. This includes: checking credit and reporting payments to credit bureaus, monthly payments that don’t exceed 5% of a borrower’s monthly income, fully amortizing repayments, transparency of loan rates and fees, and accessible customer service and financial education. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for our star ratings.
