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View RatesFounded in San Francisco in 2012, Credible is a lending marketplace that helps borrowers get pre-qualified loan offers from its network of vetted lenders. It facilitates offers for private student loans and student loan refinancing, as well as mortgage refinancing and purchase, personal loans and credit cards. With Credible, users can fill out a short form and instantly see which lenders they qualify for and at what rates. These are pre-qualified rates based on your credit history and won’t affect your credit score. Once you see a pre-qualified rate that interests you, you can apply for the loan and receive your loan offer within 1-2 business days.
Credible is suited to borrowers who have a strong credit history or can bring a cosigner with strong credit. Its most competitive rates are restricted to borrowers with a 660+ credit score. Being an online platform, this service is suited to borrowers who feel comfortable applying for financial services and products over the internet.
Credible has vetted lenders offering everything from private student loans and student loan refinancing to other consumer finance products such as personal loans.
Here are some of the highlights:
Private student loans: Participating lenders offer private student loans for college and grad students who have hit federal loan limits.
Student loan refinance: Anyone who holds private student loan debt, federal student loan debt, or a combination of the 2 may use Credible’s service to get pre-qualified for refinancing.
Large network of vetted banks, lending institutions, and credit unions, including: Citizens Bank, College Ave, EDvestinU, iHELP, Sallie Mae, Ascent, MEFA, and SunTrust.
Applying through Credible involves 2 steps. The first step involves filling out an online form on Credible’s website to get pre-qualified personalized rates from multiple lenders. This usually takes about 2 minutes. Once you see an option you like, you can apply through the Credible website. The application takes approximately 5-10 minutes and you'll receive your final offer in 1-2 business days.
Here’s the information you’ll need to supply to Credible:
State whether you’re applying as a student or cosigner.
Information about your studies, including school, degree, expected completion date, academic period of loan, and requested loan amount.
Financial information, including employment income, other income, monthly housing payments, and citizenship status.
Personal profile, including name, contact details, home address, and Social Security number. (This last bit is so Credible can run a soft credit check; this helps it in showing you recommended offers but doesn’t affect your credit score).
Participating lenders usually require additional personal and financial documentation. This can include the following:
Driver’s license, passport, or other ID.
Income verification in the form of pay stubs, W-2 or 1099 forms.
Payoff statement from current lender, if you’re refinancing.
Eligibility requirements, including minimum credit score, vary from lender to lender. Most lenders let students bring a cosigner with them if they don’t have sufficient credit history to qualify for a loan or to get a decent rate. A cosigner can be a spouse, relative, parent or any adult that is a US citizen or permanent resident alien. According to Credible, 85% of its applicants bring a cosigner. Credible states that adding a cosigner gives you a 4-fold-better chance of getting offers at a good rate.
To see pre-qualified rates, users must register for Credible’s service and fill out a short application form. Once you submit the form, you’ll see a list of pre-qualified rates from several lending partners. Credible’s partners offer competitive rates, reserving the most competitive APRs for borrowers with excellent credit.
Each of Credible’s lending partners sets its own repayment terms. The most common repayment term is 10 years. Other repayment terms include 5, 7, 8, 12, 15, and 20 years.
Credible vets all its lending partners. A look over Credible’s list of lenders shows that it works only with highly trusted and reputable lending institutions, including those listed in the Loan Features section above. Credible’s website uses all the right security and privacy protocols you’d expect of a platform that processes your personal information. This includes SSL, which encrypts the information you send from your browser to Credible’s online portal.
Credible has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and a 9.6/10 rating from almost 2,000 Trustpilot reviews. Both these ratings attest to exceptionally high levels of customer satisfaction. Although this is mainly an online service, users can speak to customer support during extended business hours (and after hours via live chat).
Here are the main contact channels:
Phone: 866-540-6005
Email: support@credible.com
Address: 22 4th St 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
| Credible | College Ave | |
|---|---|---|
| Var. APR from | 5.00% (with autopay)* See Terms* | 4.69% (with autopay)* |
| Minimum credit score | Around 620 | None |
| Loan amounts | $1,000 to full cost of degree | $1,000 to full cost of degree |
| Accepts cosigners | Yes | Yes |
| Suitable for | High credit scores | Flexible repayment options |
Credible offers a quick and easy way to compare multiple student loan options. It has a large network of lending partners, but not too large: all partners are vetted by Credible before being added to the network. This is a good option for any borrower who has a solid credit score or can bring a cosigner with a strong credit score.
*Read rates and terms at credible.com
*To check the rates and terms you qualify for, we will conduct a soft credit pull that will not affect your credit score. However, if you continue and submit an application, we will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit pull and may affect your credit.
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.
