Truist Bank Personal Loans: 2023 Review
Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
Our Take
4.0
Truist Bank offers fast personal loans to excellent-credit borrowers, with the option to add a co-applicant, but it lacks benefits of other lenders.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- No origination fee.
- Fast funding.
- Direct payment to creditors with debt consolidation loans.
- Joint loan option.
- Options to choose and change your payment date.
Cons
- No option to pre-qualify with a soft credit check.
- Available in a limited number of states.
- No rate discount.
- Does not clearly display loan amounts on website.
Compare to Other Lenders
Full Review of Truist Bank Personal Loan
Truist Bank offers personal loans with fast funding, but the loans don’t include some features that are common among other lenders, like pre-qualification or a rate discount.
The bank lends in 17 states and Washington, D.C., and you don’t have to be an existing customer to borrow.
Truist also offers a separate small-dollar loan called the Ready Now loan.
» MORE: Best bank loans
Table of contents
Truist personal loans at a glance
Minimum credit score | Not disclosed. |
APR | 8.19% - 17.24%. |
Fees |
|
Loan amount | $3,500 to $50,000. |
Repayment terms | 1 to 5 years. |
Time to fund after approval | Funds may be available the same day if it’s a banking business day. |
Loan availability | Loans available in AL, AR, FL, GA, IN, KY, MD, MS, NJ, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV and Washington, D.C. |
Where Truist personal loans stand out
Fast approval and funding: For borrowers who need quick cash, Truist can approve and fund personal loans quickly, which isn’t always the case with banks. According to the lender’s website, as long as it’s a business banking day, borrowers can receive the money in their account the same day they’re approved.
No origination fee: Few banks charge an origination fee, and Truist is no different. Origination fees typically range from 1% to 10% of the loan amount and increase the overall cost of borrowing.
Joint loan option: Truist offers joint loans, meaning you can add a co-borrower to your application. Co-borrowers with better credit and a higher income may help you qualify for a lower rate or higher loan amount. Co-borrowers also have access to the loan funds and are equally responsible for missed payments.
Direct payment to creditors: If you want to consolidate high-interest debts with a personal loan, Truist will send the funds directly to your creditors, leaving you with just your loan payment. Though not a must-have for a debt consolidation loan, this perk removes the task of sending the funds yourself.
Payment date flexibility: Truist will let you choose your payment date before signing the loan documents, and you can change it multiple times after. This level of flexibility isn’t offered by all lenders, and it can be helpful, especially if the date you get paid changes over the life of the loan.
» COMPARE: Best debt consolidation loans
Where Truist personal loans fall short
No option to pre-qualify: Unlike some of its competitors, Truist doesn’t allow borrowers to pre-qualify and see their potential loan amount, rate and monthly payment before formally applying. Pre-qualifying will not affect your credit score, and doing so with multiple lenders is the best way to compare loans.
No rate discount: Some lenders offer rate discounts for setting up automatic payments or sending the loan funds directly to pay off creditors. This discount typically ranges from 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points and is applied directly to the loan’s annual percentage rate, or APR. Truist does not offer a rate discount.
Transparency: The Truist website includes a product page that explains some features of its personal loan, including rate and funding timeline. However, it doesn’t clearly display its full range of loan amounts, and it doesn’t have a dedicated FAQ page that answers basic loan questions like how to apply or make payments.
» MORE: Fast personal loans
Do you qualify for a Truist personal loan?
Truist Bank doesn't publicly disclose many of its personal loan requirements, but it accepts borrowers with excellent credit (720 credit score or higher). Here’s what you need to apply:
Personal and contact information, including a U.S.-based cell phone number.
Two years of address and employment history.
Financial information including income, debts and other personal obligations, like rent or mortgage.
According to the lender, once you submit an online application, Truist will contact you via email with a decision or call to request more information.
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 in order to repay the loan, it’s better to know that before you borrow.
Gather your documents. Truist may require proof of income, which can be a W-2 or paystub or tax document, 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 Truist personal loan
Here are the steps to apply for a Truist loan.
Apply on Truist’s website or by phone if you’re a customer. Because Truist doesn’t let you pre-qualify for a loan, your first step is to submit a formal personal loan application. This could require documentation, like W-2s, pay stubs and bank statements to confirm your information. Truist will do a hard credit check when you apply, so your credit score could temporarily dip.
Stay on top of your loan payments. Truist reports payments to the three main credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), 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 Truist to other lenders
Personal loan lenders offer different rates, loan amounts and special features, so it pays to weigh other options. The best personal loan is usually the one with the lowest APR.
Discover and SoFi accept borrowers with similar credit profiles as Truist and offer debt consolidation loans. Borrowers can apply online and be funded in all 50 states.
Truist Bank vs. Discover
Discover offers personal loans to borrowers with a minimum credit score of 660, and it can send loan proceeds to creditors within one business day of being approved, so it’s a great debt consolidation option. Borrowers don’t have the option to add a co-borrower, but you can see if you qualify on your own with a soft credit check.
» MORE: Read our review of Discover
Truist Bank vs. SoFi
SoFi accepts good- and excellent-credit borrowers and offers unique perks like free financial advising and unemployment protection. Similar to Truist, it has a joint loan option. SoFi also offers multiple rate discounts, including a discount for sending loan funds directly to creditors if you take out a debt consolidation loan.
» MORE: Read our review of SoFi
How we rate Truist 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 | |
Underwriting | |
Transparency | |
Loan flexibility | |
Customer experience | |
Overall |
- Category definitions
Affordability (30%) An affordable loan has low rates and fees compared to other similar loans and may offer rate discounts.
Underwriting and eligibility (25%) The lender reviews borrowers credit reports and credit history, and tries to understand their ability to repay a loan, before making a final application decision.
Loan flexibility (20%) A flexible loan is one that lets users customize terms and payments. That means offering a wide range of repayment term options, allowing the borrower to change their payment date, offering loans in most states and funding it quickly.
Customer experience (15%) A good customer experience can include a fully online application process, financial education on the lender’s website and a customer service team that’s available most of the time and can be reached multiple ways.
Transparency (10%) A transparent lender makes information about the loan easy to find on its website, including rates, terms and loan amounts. Transparency also means allowing users to pre-qualify online to preview potential loan offers and reporting payment information with the major credit bureaus.
Ready to apply? Select "See my rates" below to compare rates for different lenders on NerdWallet.
Find the Best Personal Loan
NerdWallet’s review process evaluates and rates personal loan products from more than 35 technology companies and financial institutions. We collect over 50 data points from each lender 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.
NerdWallet does not receive compensation for our star ratings. Read more about our ratings methodologies for personal loans and our editorial guidelines.
