Best Egg Personal Loan Review: Fast Funding and Low Secured Loan Rates

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Best Egg

Check Your Rate

• Loan Amounts$2,000 – $50,000
• Loan Terms36 – 60 months
• APR Range8.99% – 35.99%
• Minimum
  Credit Score700 or above More Info

  A credit score is used to indicate the creditworthiness of an applicant, but it is only one of several factors considered for approval. These credit scores alone are not guarantees for approval and should only be used as guidelines.

Best Egg provides fast personal loans, including unsecured and secured options.

Best for Low Rates on Secured Loan Options

Best Egg offers good rates on personal loans for people with excellent credit and income. The lender also offers fast funding as soon as the next day after approval and a sizable loan maximum of $50,000 for a variety of uses, including debt consolidation, emergency expenses, and more. Where it really shines, however, is its secured loan option for homeowners. It’s essentially a quicker and easier version of a home equity loan, albeit with rates that aren’t always quite as low.

Loan Uses

You can use both loan options (secured or unsecured) for anything except for buying securities, illegal endeavors or post-secondary schooling. Some of the most popular options for Best Egg personal loans include things like:

• Veterinary care
• Debt consolidation
• Emergency expenses
• Home repairs and upgrades

At first glance, Best Egg’s personal loans look pretty generic and similar to a dozen other online lenders. For its unsecured personal loan (not backed by any collateral), that’s true — there’s not a lot that makes Best Egg stick out. 

It’s a different story with its secured loan option, however. Due to the unique way it’s structured compared to almost every other lender operating in this space, it’s an especially good option if you’re a homeowner looking to save money without lugging the excess baggage a home equity loan might come with. More on this below.

Best Egg Loan Details

Highlights and Perks

• Good range of loan amounts: Best Egg offers smaller loans (as low as $2,000), which is lower than the $5,000 minimum that many other competitors require. That makes it a better option for people who just need a smaller bit of cash. 
• Quick funding: Most loans are funded the next day after approval via an ACH transfer, according to Best Egg. However, your bank’s ACH deposit policies can introduce a delay by a business day or two, depending on the institution. 
• Homeowner secured loan: Homeowners can offer specific fixtures in their homes as collateral for lower rates on a loan. It’s faster and easier than a home equity loan which uses your entire property as collateral. However, the rates for Best Egg’s secured loan may not always be quite as low as other home equity loans from other institutions. 
• Discount for direct pay: One of the best uses for any personal loan is paying off higher-interest debt, such as from credit cards. If you’re using your loan for this purpose and opt to have Best Egg pay your creditors off directly, you’ll get a rate discount.

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What to Look Out For

• Designed for high-income, creditworthy applicants: Best Egg may approve you with a credit score as low as 640. But in order to get the best deals, you’ll need to earn at least $100,000 per year and have a 700+ credit score.
• High rates for less creditworthy applicants: If your credit and income aren’t as high but are approved for a loan, you could potentially pay higher rates than most credit cards charge. 
• Origination fees: You’ll always pay an origination fee for a Best Egg loan, between 0.99% – 8.99%. In contrast, many lenders don’t charge origination fees, or at least waive it for applicants with good credit.

How to Qualify

Best Egg doesn’t allow you to apply for a loan with a co-signer or co-borrower, so you’ll need to meet the requirements to get a loan on your own. Best Egg will approve applicants with more marginal creditworthiness, but like most lenders, it prefers to work with people who have good qualifications:

Credit and income requirements:

• Credit score of 640 or higher (ideally, 700 or more)
• Annual income of $100,000 or more is best, but lower-income applicants may be approved with higher rates

Other requirements include:

• Must have a valid email address and personal checking account
• Must have a physical mailing address (P.O. Boxes aren’t accepted)
• Must be old enough to take out a loan in your area (18 in most states)
• Must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident living in any state except for Iowa, Vermont, Washington D.C. or West Virginia.
• Must have some amount of equity in your home to apply for a secured loan, though the exact amount isn’t specified.

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Application Process

Like most online lenders, applying for a Best Egg loan is a simple process and can be done entirely online. Here’s how the process works:

• Get prequalified: You can check your rates via a soft credit pull by filling out a quick online form with basic details like your name, address and date of birth. Alternatively, you can also apply over the phone by calling 855-282-6353.
• Check your rates with other lenders: This isn’t a requirement, but it’s always highly recommended. That way you know whether Best Egg or another lender is your best option.
• Check your budget: You’ll want to check your budget (or at least put together a quick one) to make sure you’re able to make the proposed monthly payments. Defaulting on a loan can ruin your credit and put you further into debt.
• Complete the loan application: If you decide Best Egg is your best option, you’ll need to submit a few documents to show proof of your identity and financial details, such as a copy of your driver’s license and recent pay stubs, tax returns, utility bills and/or bank statements. Best Egg will do a hard credit pull at this time, which can affect your credit score. 
• Receive funding: If you’re approved for the loan, Best Egg is generally able to disburse your loan funds on the next business day. Most banks have policies in place for receiving funds into your account via an ACH deposit, however, so it may take a day or two before you actually see anything in your checking account. 
• Repay the loan: It’s always best to sign up for autopay on the loan so you don’t have to worry about missing any payments, paying late fees or damaging your credit score. 

Example of Loan Payments

It’s always best to calculate your monthly payments before you apply for a loan. 

If you took out a $10,000, five-year loan with the lowest origination fee (0.99%) and APR (5.99%) using the homeowner secured option, you’d have a monthly payment of $193 and you’d pay back $1,597 in interest.

If you opted for the unsecured loan, which comes with a higher minimum interest rate (8.99%), your monthly payments would be $208 and you’d pay back a total of $2,452 in interest.

Reputation

Best Egg receives mixed reviews depending on where you look. On the Better Business Bureau website, Best Egg has an A+ BBB rating, with an average customer rating of 4.87 out of five stars, based on over 2,000 reviews. Trustpilot tells a similar tale, with an average rating of 4.6 out of five stars, based on over 8,000 customer reviews. 

However, according to a 2022 J.D. Power survey of overall customer satisfaction among personal loan lenders, the company ranked near the bottom of the pack, and well below average.

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How Best Egg Compares

Before committing to a loan, it’s wise to compare your options first to make sure you're choosing the right one for your needs and situation. Here are some other lenders to consider:

Best Egg vs. SoFi

Best Egg and SoFi both cater to the excellent-credit crowd. SoFi doesn’t offer a secured loan, and it charges roughly the same rates as Best Egg, but SoFi comes with one significant advantage: it does not require any fees whatsoever. 

In addition, SoFi offers an excellent package of borrower benefits you don’t see with most lenders, including free one-on-one access to a financial advisor and career counseling support.

Best Egg vs. LightStream

Best Egg can fund your loan the next business day, but it still may take a day or two to reach your bank account. If you absolutely need funds ASAP, LightStream is a better choice because it can disburse funds via a wire transfer, which is much faster. 

LightStream also caters to people with better credit and given its annual percentage rate (APR) range, may be a cheaper option from the get-go. Plus, LightStream offers a 0.50% discount for borrowers who enroll in auto pay and they'll lower its rate by 0.10% below any identical competing offer you get.

SoFi Personal Loans

• $5,000 – $100,000 Loan Amounts
• 8.99% – 24.18% APR Range

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LightStream

• $5,000 – $100,000 Loan Amounts
• 7.99% – 25.49% (with autopay) APR Range

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FAQs

• Does Best Egg offer unsecured loans?

  Yes. Best Egg offers unsecured loans; however, the rates that it charges are a bit higher, and you may be limited to a smaller payoff window as well (three to five years for an unsecured loan versus five to seven years for a secured loan).

• Does Best Egg offer a home equity loan?

  Not exactly. Although you’ll need to be a homeowner, Best Egg uses a UCC-1 lien against specific fixtures in your home to secure the loan, instead of a blanket lien against your entire home like most home equity loan lenders. Since you’re only using a specific part of your home as collateral, Best Egg doesn’t require a more thorough application with stricter limits and higher fees like with most home equity loans.

• Can I get a personal loan with Best Egg if I have bad credit?

  Unfortunately, probably not. Best Egg approves applicants with a minimum credit score of 640, which falls into the “fair credit” category — not great, but not bad either. There’s no harm in checking your rates, however, since it only does a soft credit check to prequalify.

• How much can I borrow with Best Egg?

  Best Egg offers loans from $2,000 – $50,000 for both its secured loan and its unsecured loans. This is a good range for most people, but may not work if you need a truly large loan or a smaller one. Most credit unions offer smaller-dollar loans that may be helpful to more members.