U.S. Bank Personal Loans: 2023 Review
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Our Take
4.0
With a wide range of loan amounts and terms plus fast funding, U.S. Bank is a strong option for customers, but non-customers may find better loans elsewhere.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Option to pre-qualify with a soft credit check.
- Wide variety of repayment term options.
- Rate discount for autopay.
- Joint loan option.
Cons
- Available in a limited number of states.
- Qualification and features differ for non-customers.
- No direct payment to creditors with debt consolidation loans.
Compare to Other Lenders
Full Review of U.S. Bank Personal Loan
U.S. Bank offers personal loans to both customers and non-customers, though qualification criteria and loan features vary. For example, U.S. Bank customers have access to larger loan amounts and longer repayment terms compared to non-customers.
Financing is available in 26 states, and borrowers can see if they qualify with a soft credit check, which won't hurt your credit score.
U.S. Bank also offers a separate small-dollar loan called the Simple Loan.
» MORE: Best bank loans
Table of Contents
U.S. Bank personal loans at a glance
Minimum credit score |
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APR | 8.24% - 21.49%. |
Fees |
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Loan amount |
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Repayment terms |
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Time to fund after approval |
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Loan availability | Loans not available in AL, AK, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MS, NH, NJ, NY, OK, PA, RI, SC, TX, VT, VA, WV and Washington, D.C. |
Where U.S. Bank personal loans stand out
Rate discount for autopay: Existing customers who make automatic payments from any personal checking or savings account can qualify for a rate discount of 0.5 percentage points. A rate discount means you’ll pay less interest overall on your loan.
Offers joint and secured loans: Applicants can apply for a joint loan by adding a co-borrower to their personal loan application. Adding a co-borrower with a higher credit score could help you qualify for a lower rate or higher loan amount.
Applicants can also secure their personal loan with a U.S. Bank certificate of deposit, which can help boost your application.
Quick funding: Once they’ve signed the loan agreement, current customers can expect to receive the funds in their U.S. Bank account within minutes, according to the lender. If you want funds sent to an external account, you may need to wait one to four business days.
Wide range of repayment terms: Current customers can choose from seven repayment terms, ranging from one to seven years. If you choose a shorter term, you’ll pay less in interest, while a longer term means lower monthly payments.
Where U.S. Bank personal loans fall short
Loan product varies by customer status: Unlike other banks, U.S. Bank’s personal loan is available to non-customers, but the loan itself varies significantly. As a non-customer, you’ll need excellent credit to qualify, and you can only apply for loan amounts up to $25,000 and terms up to five years. Sending funds to an external account will also take longer, up to four business days.
No direct payment to creditors: If you want to use a personal loan for debt consolidation, U.S. Bank doesn't send loan proceeds to your other creditors. Some other banks and online lenders offer this feature to simplify the debt payoff process.
» MORE: Best debt consolidation loans
Regulatory action against U.S. Bank
In July 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an order against U.S. Bank for unlawful practices that violated federal laws, including the Truth in Lending Act.
According to the CFPB, the bank implemented a financially incentivized sales goal, which led employees to open credit cards, lines of credit and deposit accounts for consumers without their knowledge or permission. These actions then resulted in fees and hits to those people’s credit reports.
The CFPB ordered U.S. Bank to stop the practice, develop a remediation plan for affected consumers and pay a fine of $37.5 million.
Do you qualify for a U.S. Bank personal loan?
To qualify for a U.S. Bank personal loan, you must meet the following requirements:
Be 18 years or older.
Have a 660 credit score or higher (720 if you’re not a customer).
Provide a Social Security number.
Provide a home address and employment 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. U.S. Bank may require proof of income, which can be a W-2, 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 U.S. Bank personal loan
Here are the steps to apply for a U.S. Bank loan.
Pre-qualify on U.S. Bank’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 annual income and whether you rent or own your home. Then, the lender will ask for your contact information before you can preview loan offers. There’s no hard credit pull at this stage.
Preview loan offers and accept the one that fits your budget. Once you accept a loan offer, you’ll submit a formal personal loan application. This step could require more documents, like W-2s, pay stubs and bank statements to confirm the information you gave during pre-qualification. U.S. Bank will do a hard credit check when you apply, so your credit score could temporarily dip.
Make a plan to repay the loan. U.S. Bank reports payment to the three main credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), 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 U.S. Bank with 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 LightStream are two similar lenders that accept borrowers with good to excellent credit (690 credit score or higher) and can fund loans the same or next day after approval.
U.S. Bank vs. Discover
Similar to U.S. Bank, Discover requires a minimum credit score of 660, lets you pre-qualify with a soft credit check and doesn’t charge an origination fee. Though Discover doesn’t offer a rate discount, it will send funds directly to creditors for debt consolidation loans, saving you that step.
» MORE: Read our review of Discover
U.S. Bank vs. LightStream
LightStream’s personal loans come with no fees, and its wide range of repayment terms is similar to U.S. Bank's. Its larger loan amounts are an especially good fit for funding big expenses, like home improvement projects. You can add a co-borrower to your application to boost your chances of getting approved.
» MORE: Read our review of LightStream
How we rate U.S. Bank 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.
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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.
