Company Profile
Credible is a loan marketplace, meaning it doesn’t issue the loans itself. You’ll instead be connected to a pool of lenders and be offered a range of borrowing options. Credible has maintained a good reputation on student loan refinancing since day one. It’s known for being able to get lower interest rates for borrowers on their current loans and helping them pay off their student debt faster. Credible is no slouch when it comes to its other products either, and checking rates is free and won't impact your credit score.** Plus, interest rates start from as low as 6.94% APR (with autopay)*. Its pool of lenders to choose from isn’t quite as large as some of its competitors, however. But it's free to get loan quotes, so you’ve lost nothing by giving Credible a go.
Loans and policies breakdown
Student loan refinancing
Credible has different lenders it can refer you to for student loan refinancing. The interest rates on offer were some of the lowest we’d seen on student loans, so this is definitely recommended if you’re currently paying over the odds on your loan.
Bear in mind, though, that a lot of the low rates were variable, meaning there’s always the risk these could go up based on fluctuations in the economy.
The terms include:
- No service fees or origination fees
- No early prepayment fees
- Rates starting from 4.84% fixed APR and moving up to around 11.85% APR (with autopay).
- The application form can be completed online in just a few minutes
- Searches won’t impact your credit score
- Repayment terms between 5 and 20 years
- You must have a minimum of $5,000 in student loan debt in order to refinance
Private student loans
Credible doesn’t just offer the refinancing of student debt, it now also provides a private student loan option. The terms are very similar to the refinancing options above, i.e. no fees, low rate options, and an easy-to-complete application.
The main difference when getting a fresh loan is that Credible will offer lower rates if your loan is cosigned. This means having a second person, usually a parent or guardian, sign up as equally liable to pay the loan off if you’re unable to. About 85% of Credible’s private student loans are cosigned.
Personal loans
Credible has a pool of lenders and therefore able to offer some pretty flexible loan options. While interest rates start low with Credible, they can creep up on some loans, especially if you don’t have great credit. In fact, Credible is only really looking for borrowers with good credit ratings so you may have to try elsewhere if you have poor credit.
In addition, some lenders have fees and others don’t, so take care and read the small print when you get your options.
The main terms include:
- Borrow between $600 and $200,000
- Interest rates between 6.94% and 35.99% APR
- Repayment terms between 12 and 120 months
- You’ll need fair to excellent credit to apply, although exceptions can be made if using a cosigner
- The online application only takes a few minutes
- The money can be in your account within 24 hours of applying
- No early repayment fees
- Some providers offer a no-fee service while others can charge an origination fee of up to 6% of the loan value
Credit cards
Credit cards are also an option that is available. The credit card comparison search can be broken down into a number of different categories depending on what you’re looking for. These include cashback, rewards, and low-interest cards. The full range of cards on offer are:
Cashback
Rewards
Low interest
Travel
Balance transfer
Zero-interest
Student
Secured
Key advantages of using credible
Credible has a very quick and easy-to-use application process. All quotes provided are no-obligation and your credit score won’t be affected. So, you really lose nothing by checking Credible out, and we’d always recommend shopping around as much as you can before signing on to any loan agreement.
Credible offers a good range of interest rates and repayment options on all of its loans. There’s enough flexibility here for you to get an overall deal that works well for you.
Key downsides of Credible
Credible might not be for you if you have a bad credit rating. Applications tend to only be accepted for those with good ratings unless you have a cosigner willing to vouch for you.
Also, multiple lenders will want to contact you once you’ve got your initial loan quotes. You may be under no obligation, but this might not stop you from being hounded by lenders trying to get you to sign up. A quick call to Credible’s customer service team should sort this out, though.
We think Credible is a great loan comparison site, and we’d definitely recommend the personal loan and student loan refinancing services. Credible is a great way to make side-by-side comparison and make sure you get preferable interest and repayment terms.
As long as you take care to understand the contract and any extra fees, you should find Credible the right source for a loan.
* read rates and terms at credible.com
** Requesting prequalified rates on Credible is free and doesn't affect your credit score. However, applying for or closing a loan will involve a hard credit pull that impacts your credit score and closing a loan will result in costs to you.
NMLS# DISCLOSURE
“Credible Operations, Inc. NMLS# 1681276, “Credible.” Not available in all states. www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org.”
Mortgage Address DISCLOSURE
110 Corcoran Street, 5th Floor, Suite 151 Durham, NC 27701
“Credible Operations, Inc. NMLS# 1681276, “Credible.” Not available in all states.
Bonus DISCLOSURE
“All bonus payments are by gift card. See terms”
“See terms” must link directly to the page that contains bonus terms and conditions
Prequalified Rates DISCLOSURE:
“Prequalified rates are based on the information you provide and a soft credit inquiry. Receiving prequalified rates does not guarantee that the Lender will extend you an offer of credit. You are not yet approved for a loan or a specific rate. All credit decisions, including loan approval, if any, are determined by Lenders, in their sole discretion. Rates and terms are subject to change without notice. Rates from Lenders may differ from prequalified rates due to factors which may include, but are not limited to: (i) changes in your personal credit circumstances; (ii) additional information in your hard credit pull and/or additional information you provide (or are unable to provide) to the Lender during the underwriting process; and/or (iii) changes in APRs (e.g., an increase in the rate index between the time of prequalification and the time of application or loan closing. (Or, if the loan option is a variable rate loan, then the interest rate index used to set the APR is subject to increases or decreases at any time). Lenders reserve the right to change or withdraw the prequalified rates at any time.”
Won’t impact your credit score DISCLOSURE: (May be in the footer, a tooltip, or a popup the user has to click on or scroll to see)
“Requesting prequalified rates on Credible is free and doesn't affect your credit score. However, applying for or closing a loan will involve a hard credit pull that impacts your credit score and closing a loan will result in costs to you.”
Ranked List Example DISCLOSURE:
“We accept advertising compensation from companies that appear on this site, which impacts the location and order in which brands (and/or their products) are presented, and also impacts the score that is assigned to it. Company lists on this page DO NOT imply endorsement. We do not feature all providers on the market.”
Editorial Example DISCLOSURE:
"We receive compensation from the companies below if you [click on a link/purchase a product]. Amount of compensation [does/does not] impact the ranking or placement of a particular product. Not all available financial products and offers from all financial institutions have been reviewed by this website. This content is not provided by Credible or any of the Providers on the Credible website. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed here are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Credible.”