Upstart is a fast and easy way to secure a personal loan or to consolidate your outstanding debt. The website is one of many where you can get an unsecured personal loan online.
You can also use Upstart to:
- Start or expand a business
- Make a large purchase
- Buy a car
- Pay taxes
- Take a course or bootcamp
- Pay for college or grad school
In this post, I’m going to go through the requirements for obtaining a loan on the website. Unlike other lending websites, Upstart takes the borrower’s area of study, education, and job history into account, along with their FICO score and years of credit.
Loan Eligibility
To be eligible to take out a loan on Upstart, you must be a US citizen living in the US, or a permanent resident in the US. You must also:
- Not reside in West Virginia
- Have a personal bank account in the US
- Be at least 18 years old, or if living in Nebraska or Alabama, be 19 years old
- Have a full time job or a full time job offer starting in 6 months. You can also have a part time job or other regular source of income.
Of course, you must also have many of the other standard requirements, like a valid email address, name, date of birth, and social security number.
In addition, if you’ve taken out a loan on Upstart in the past, you must wait at least 2 months from the time you paid it off until the time you take out another. You must also have made on-time payments for the last 6 consecutive payments and no more than one outstanding loan. The total outstanding principle should be no more than $50,000.
For the full list, click here.
Minimum Credit Requirements
At the most basic level you must have a minimum FICO score of 620! Upstart is also going to look through your credit history and look at variables like your debt to income ratio. You must not:
- Have any bankruptcies
- Have 6 or more inquiries on your credit report in the last 6 months (except for vehicle loans, mortgages or student loans).
- Accounts that are currently in the collection or delinquent phase.
- Have loans that are past due
- In the last three years, have accounts that have been moved to collections or charged-off in any way.
- Take on more debt from the time you apply to when you get the loan.
- Experience drops in your credit score before you get the loan.
For the full list of requirements, check out this post.
The Next Step
If you want to take a loan out with Upstart, the next step is to check your rate. Don’t worry, it won’t affect your credit score. After you check your rate, you’ll need to accept the terms of your loan. Once you do, you’ll then have the money shortly!
I recommend trying to pay off your loan as quickly as possible. There are no prepayment penalties. You can also set up automatic payments, so that you don’t have to remember to keep up with the payment schedule.
I truly believe that online lending institutions like Upstart are the future. There’s no reason that you have to pay super high credit card rates and deal with outdated banks. Instead, you can use the power of technology and the internet to get the BEST rates out there. You also don’t have to be a slave to your FICO score. This is one of the reasons that I have become an affiliate of Upstart and that there are affiliate links in this post.
The founder of Upstart, Dave Girouard, said it best when he was talking with ABC news. “FICO is inherently backward-looking, what you’ve done with credit in the past,” said Girouard, “We like to view it as identifying someone’s potential, where they’re going.”
This is a very smart approach. When students and young professionals have a great experience with the company, they’re going to continue to seek loans from the platform. Eventually, when they’re in the position to invest, they might even decide to invest in loans on the website. At the time I’m writing this article, Upstart has originated over $500 million worth of loans, and it’s only growing.
If you have any questions about getting a loan online, leave a comment down below. You can also shoot me an email if you want to discuss any lending platforms more in-depth. I want to better understand my audience so that I can put out EVEN MORE relevant content on the subject!
