Bad Credit Loans

It’s an all too familiar occurrence for disaster to strike, causing a sudden emergency to shake up life’s comfort. In these cases, average people may need access to a line of credit. While this isn’t a problem for those with good credit, it can be a struggle for people who already have bad credit to find loans without almost immediately getting turned away by lending organizations.

However, there are some bad credit loans that you could qualify for — regardless of how bad your credit score is. While they aren’t offered with 100% assurance that you’ll get the credit you need immediately, they do offer loans to people with bad credit, low income, and other aspects that many other lending platforms might shoot the same person down for.

If you’re one of those folks, there’s no need to panic just yet. Let’s take a look at some lending platforms that provide good loans if you already have bad credit.

7 Great Loans for Those with Bad Credit

Below, we’ve organized the seven leading lending platforms we could find if you have bad credit. The following is a brief overview of the primary factors considered when choosing lending platform, while we go further in-depth below:

If you’ve struggled to maintain a high credit score, you still have options. You’ll need to be careful however, as some lending platforms are known to charge high interest rates and take advantage of poor credit history.

How can you find the premier lending partner for your particular situation? The answer is simple: research. Fortunately, we’ve conducted more than 150 hours of research, by analyzing lending platforms across more than 25 data points.

Our findings suggest one primary point: while there are a number of options available, the best bad credit loans each have one unique factor which make them appeal to a certain type of borrower. This guide aims to articulate which of the top lending partners will appeal to your particular situation — despite having bad credit.

Bad Credit Loans

Below, we take a deep dive into the top seven lending platforms for those with bad credit. Each lending platform has its own pros and cons.

1. CashUSA.com – Best Overall

CashUSA.com is a phenomenal bad credit lending partner overall for a variety of reasons. For starters, they offer competitive interest rates between 5.99% and 35.99%; these are high compared to other loans, but decent for those with bad credit.

They are also pretty fast when it comes to actually accessing your funds. You can usually get your cash by the next business day.

The business operates by connecting you to various creditors who might take your case even with bad credit. Loans range from as low as $500 to as high as $10,000, so they work for those with larger and smaller debts alike. They also don’t charge any additional fees for their service.

The downside to all these benefits is that CashUSA has a few strict requirements. For instance, they require you to earn a specific amount of income every month and have a checking account. So they’re not a good choice if you’re unemployed and have bad credit.

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2. MoneyMutual – Top Lender Marketplace

MoneyMutual is a service that exclusively facilitates access to a network of lenders who provide short-term loans for those with bad credit. As a result, lenders in the network only allow you to borrow up to $5000 in a single loan.

However, the lender network can make your funds available in as little as 24 hours and the loan approval process is known to be extremely simple. All-in-all, you do it online and it’s usually complete within five minutes.

They’re also able to connect you to several creditors that come with a plethora of different payment terms. As a result, you might find a creditor that works with your unique financial situation a little easier than you would with another lending organization. This does mean that nailing down the exact interest rate or loan term ahead of time is tricky, as it all depends on the specific lender that MoneyMutual connects you with.

You may need to go through several of their connectable creditors, for instance, until you find one that works for you. Furthermore, they’re not available in New York or Connecticut.

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3. BadCreditLoans.com – Best for No Collateral Loans

BadCreditLoans is a decent choice if you don’t have any collateral to put up for a bad credit loan or you aren’t interested in putting your house or car on the line for whatever reason.

They offer you loan agreements that can range between $500 and $5000, although keep in mind that they do have loan limits based on your credit score. Those with very bad credit might only be able to borrow up to $1000.

You are required to have a checking account and a source of reliable income, too. If all these requirements don’t dissuade you, you might benefit from an interest rate as low as 5.99%.

Loan terms are also pretty flexible, going between 3 and 60 months. Applying for one of the loans is pretty quick and easy and you should be able to get your cash within the next business day under most scenarios.

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4. PersonalLoans.com – Best for Fast Loans

PersonalLoans.com is an ideal choice if you need a loan quickly and potentially in high amounts. They provide loans between $500 and $35,000, and regardless of what amount you need, you might get it in a single business day.

They typically make loan decisions based on the same day of your application. The only delay is due to how they may need to wire the money to your account.

They also provide relatively competitive interest rates between 5.99% and 35.99%, along with flexible loan terms between 3 and 72 months. You can use the loan however you like without any stipulations from the lending partner.

They provide a relatively large creditor network, so finding someone with a payment plan that works for you is potentially a bit easier than otherwise.

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5. CashAdvance.com – Best for Small Loan Amounts 

CashAdvance is an ideal choice if you only need a small amount of money, particularly for a short amount of time. They welcome those with bad credit and provide loans between $100 and $1000.

Furthermore, CashAdvance makes very fast decisions on loans, sometimes as quickly as a few minutes. You should get your money within the next business day.

Of course, all these advantages to quickly getting a few hundred dollars come with the disadvantages that payday loans are known for. You need a required income of $1000 per month and at least 90 days on the job.

In addition, interest rates can be as high as 200% or even go as high as over 2000%. This means you’ll only want to look into this lending partner if you absolutely need a small amount of fast cash.

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6. Avant – Best for Credit on the Border to Fair or Good

Avant is a lending platform that provides loans to those with fair or good credit more often than not. However, they do accept borrowers who happen to have credit scores that are lower than 600 under the right circumstances. Thus, they’re a good pick if you have credit that’s right on the line and just can’t get another creditor to cut you some slack.

They offer loans between $2000 and $35,000 which can be available by the next business day. They do offer relatively high interest rates, though, which range between 9.95% and 35.99%. There’s also an administration fee of up to 4.75% that you should be aware of.

They offer a range of credit cards you can pick up as well for additional lines of credit. The cards come with a cash advance option you might take advantage of, as well.

Their customer service team is top-notch and willing to work with you if you explain your situation. Furthermore, loan terms are usually between 2 and 5 years, which is fairly long.

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7. LendingPoint – Best for Those Improving Credit Over Time

LendingPoint is a good choice if you have bad credit but are already taking active steps to improve it. This is because LendingPoint is more interested in your debt to income ratio than your credit score. They have a minimum credit score of 585 and they aren’t available in West Virginia, but they are otherwise a good choice all around.

They can offer personal loans up to $25,000 and provide that money upon the next business day. Interest rates are a bit high at 9.99% to 35.99%, but they have a good range of loan repayment terms between 2 and 4 years. 

Most importantly, LendingPoint offers you the option to refinance your loan after making six months of on-time payments. This could allow you to get more money, negotiate your way to a lower interest rate, or even have a smaller monthly payment over time.

Even better, they let you choose your payment due date and will set up your payments on a schedule that works for you.

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What Are Bad Credit Loans?

Bad credit loans are, as their names suggest, loans that you can still qualify for even if you have bad credit or no/low credit. This makes them open both to people with low credit scores or those who haven’t built up enough credit over their financial histories.

People can, unfortunately, lower their credit score via a variety of actions, including maxing out their credit cards or failing to make their payments on time. However, the existence of bad credit loans means that these individuals can still have some lines of credit open in the event of an emergency or to help handle their debts.

This being said, bad credit loans often come with several stipulations or strings attached. For instance, many bad credit loans have high-interest rates and various fees.

Predatory bad credit loans are common across the industry. This is why finding “good” bad credit loans is so important.

Bad credit loans can be offered by banks, online creditors, credit unions, and other organizations.

Are There Any Real Guaranteed Loans for Bad Credit?

Even though we’ve talked about “guaranteed” bad credit loans above, there are no actual guaranteed bad credit loans in reality. Loans like the above may be tailored for specific individuals with bad credit or other factors.

But no loan is ever 100% guaranteed – it all comes down to the discretion of the lending platform. This is why platforms never guarantee loan approval to anyone, even those with absolutely perfect credit and ideal financial circumstances.

In fact, if any lender or a lending partner ever tries to guarantee that they’ll give you a loan even though you have bad credit, it’s a good idea to avoid them. They’re lying to you, plain and simple.

What Are the Types of Bad Credit Loans?

Bad credit loans come in several different types, some of which were mentioned above.

Secured Loans

Secured loans are those that require collateral to back up the loan amount. Collateral, in this sense, is some kind of physically valued property or an item that has real-world value.

The collateral for these types of loans are usually high-value and necessary items like homes or cars.

As a benefit, secured loans typically offer better rates, higher loan limits, and several other advantages. This is because those who take out secured loans have greater incentives to pay back the loan appropriately. The flip side, of course, is that defaulting on this loan can result in you having to give up whatever collateral you agreed to.

Unsecured Loans

Unsecured loans are the opposite of secured loans. They don’t require any collateral.

Instead, any lending organization determines whether you are approved for an unsecured loan based on your ethereal creditworthiness. These are therefore harder to qualify for if you have bad credit, although they are not secured by any asset, so you don’t risk losing your car or home if you don’t pay. Note that these loans do come with higher interest rates and lower loan limits in most cases.

Payday Loans

Payday loans are another common type of loan available to those with bad credit. These are also often given out by predatory organizations, so watch out.

Payday loans are short-term loans designed to hold people over until their next paycheck. They’re usually offered in amounts of $500 or less. These loans are given out by lenders who don’t normally run any credit checks.

However, they come with disadvantages; interest rates can run as high as 400% and other ancillary fees may be included. This isn’t always the case of course, but it shows that you need to be aware of the applicable interest rates before signing anything.

Payday loans should only ever be sought out rarely, as it’s easy to become trapped in a cycle of debt by repaying payday loans with other payday loans. Others get stuck in a cycle by taking out a payday loan just to pay it back with their check, emptying their account once again.

Cash Advances

Cash advances are short-term loans given out by lenders with sometimes, a helping hand from the lending partners that don’t check your credit. They do require you to show proof of income, and they provide those with bad credit some cash in advance in exchange for a loan with a high-interest rate and several fees. They’re normally used if someone needs to make a big purchase and can’t wait until their payday.

Bank Agreements

Bank agreements are loans given out by your bank. These are typically short term and may enable you to get your finances in order before your next paycheck.

They’re heavily dependent on your banking history and whether you have any money in the banking account – however, they can be much better in terms of interest rates and fees compared to a typical payday loan from a third-party.

Home Equity Loans for Bad Credit

Home equity loans are a type of secured loan that uses your home equity as the collateral and are distinct from mortgage loans, although it’s easy to get them mixed up. They give you a lump sum of money to be paid back over time in fixed monthly installments. These can be easier for people with bad credit to acquire because the debt is secured by the mortgage rather than by credit score.

HELOCs

HELOCs, or home equity lines of credit, are loans that are based in value on your home’s equity. Like the above loan, they’re also secured by the equity of your home.

They’re somewhat like credit cards in that they let you borrow a set amount whenever you need and come with variable interest rates. HELOCs are sometimes used by those looking to invest in other property or get enough money to secure another valuable item like a car. 

What’s the Easiest Loan to Get with Bad Credit?

The easiest bad credit loans to get, by far, are payday loans or loans from other no credit check organizations. Easiest, of course, does not mean the best by any measure. The trade-off to the advantage of having access to an instant line of credit or a bundle of cash is that the loans often come with several costly strings attached.

For instance, payday loans and similar loans like them usually come with very short repayment periods, high interest rates, or lots of extra fees that you have to pay when the bill comes due.

How to Get a Personal Loan with Bad Credit

It’s entirely possible to get a personal loan with bad credit. However, you should still do a lot of research to figure out the best loan you can take out.

Firstly, you should check your credit score. Free credit reports can be requested from your credit union or from websites such as AnnualCreditReport.com.

These resources perform soft credit checks rather than hard, so they don’t lower your credit score. You also get one free credit report every year from each main credit reporting agency.

Next, you should make sure you have enough income to progressively repay the loan. This may take some budget calculation.

You never want to take a loan with bad credit if you can’t pay it back in the foreseeable future or on schedule. This will only result in your credit score lowering even further.

After that, compare various bad credit personal loan options like we did above. You should always take advantage of the available bad credit loans that have the most favorable interest rates and lowest (or no) fees.

Furthermore, it’s a good idea to take advantage of loans that you may receive pre-approval for. Some platforms let you check whether you’ll qualify for their loan without checking your credit ahead of time. This can prevent your credit score from tipping even further and will let you shop around for rates or loan amounts without committing to anything.

Finally, always look into secured loans whenever you have bad credit and need some extra financing flexibility. The fact of the matter is that secured loans are much more accessible if you have bad credit, even if the consequences of not repaying the loan are more dramatic.

Do You Need Collateral to Get a Bad Credit Loan?

You don’t always need collateral in order to get a bad credit loan, as explained above. Only secured loans necessarily require collateral – HELOC loans and home equity loans are variations of secured loans. You can still get unsecured loans, payday loans, and cash advances even if you don’t have any collateral.

Can You Get a Bad Credit Loan if You’re Unemployed?

This depends greatly on the lending platform in question. Some lending partners and creditors have more specific requirements and may demand and employment history and reliable income if they are to give you any money. Others may accept borrowers without an employment history or without a current job.

However, it’s usually easier to get a loan if you are unemployed if you also have some collateral to back your loan up (i.e. a secured loan). It’s also easier to get a bad credit loan if you’re unemployed if you nonetheless have a history of employment – for instance, if you’re only temporarily in between jobs but were working for the previous six months.

Some lending platforms may demand that you are employed and that you have some work history with the organization in question. For these creditors, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been employed for a week; most creditors who want you to be employed in the first place only care if you have around 90 days or so of employment history with the same company.

Are Bad Credit Loans Risky?

There is technically risk in any kind of loan you take out, not just bad credit ones. However, bad credit loans carry additional risk inherently because they presume you already have bad credit. It’s a lot easier to tank your credit score when you already have bad credit than it is when you have excellent credit.

By taking on a loan, you are willfully taking on the chance that you will increase your debt over time if you don’t manage to pay your bills promptly.

However, bad credit loans carry an additional factor of risk – the creditors themselves. Because those in need of bad credit loans are often undereducated in the areas of finance or don’t make much of an income already, predatory creditors and scammers frequently target at-risk populations. 

Therefore, it’s always important that you properly vet a company before taking a bad credit loan from them.

Can You Get A Bad Credit Loan Without a Credit Check?

Yes, some bad credit creditors will offer you a loan without a credit check. However, keep in mind that many of these companies are the above-mentioned scammers or predatory companies that don’t check credit for reasons other than the goodness of their hearts.

For instance, many of these creditors charge absolutely exorbitant fees or extremely high interest rates. These can often go upwards of 300% or even more. Always be wary of lenders that offer loans without credit checks of any kind – after all, they could always make a soft credit check without hurting your credit.

What About Without a Checking Account?

Yes, you can sometimes find bad credit loans without a checking account. These are usually cash advances or payday lenders.

However, your options are much more limited than if you do have a checking account. A checking account is a sign that lenders use for creditworthiness and to gauge your general ability to pay them back for the loan.

Additionally, many lenders only offer money through direct deposit, meaning you need a checking account if you want to receive the funds in the first place.

How Can You Tell if a Bad Credit Loan is a Scam?

We’ve talked a lot about how various bad credit lenders might be predatory or otherwise scamming you in some way. There are ways to tell whether a lending organization is potentially a scam.

One of the best ways to identify a “bad” bad credit lender is if they offer “guaranteed loans without approval”. Most reputable lenders worth their salt will likely want at least a soft check of your credit in addition to other personal income information, like your employment history and your monthly income rate.

If lenders don’t want this information, there’s a high likelihood that it doesn’t matter to them, which means that they expect you to default on the loan and collect money via more payments in the future.

You should also make sure that the lender in question is registered in your state of residence. The Federal Trade Commission requires this for all official lenders, so if they aren’t registered, they aren’t legit: period.

Another big way to spot a predatory lender is if they use annoying or otherwise intimidating advertising methods. If they constantly call your phone or are soliciting door-to-door, don’t bother taking them up on their offer.

They’re always trying to get people to sign up for bad loans and can’t be trusted to be legitimate. These are also usually accompanied by generally pushy salesmen who “won’t take no for an answer”.

Bad lending organizations can also be spotted if they demand “prepayment” fees. These are charges that are separate from the normal origination, appraisal, or application fees you can expect from a legitimate lending organization.

Prepayment charges are demands for cash or debit cards upfront – chances are that this is just a scam and the company is trying to scoop money out of its victims’ pockets before leaving them out to dry.

Predatory lending organizations can be spotted with other, more conventional means, too. For instance, if their website is insecure, it’s probably not worth your time and may even be open to hacking or other malicious cyberactivity. Secure websites begin with “https” and will have a padlock symbol in the address bar above the screen.

Additionally, bad lending organizations may forgo a physical address entirely. Always stay away from a lending organization that can’t be found in the real world. 

How Does Credit Affect Lending Decisions?

Credit can be “good” or “bad” based on the type of information the credit bureaus receive in a report.

Bad credit information is any information that would be unattractive to a prospective lender. Credit cards that are maxed out or close to being maxed out, late payments, defaulted financial obligations, or filing for bankruptcy are all easy examples. Good credit information is the reverse of all the above events: credit cards that are free and rarely used without being paid off immediately after, on-time payments, etc.

How does a lender decide whether you have good or bad credit? It all depends on your overall credit score. What a lender considers to be a good or bad credit score can, of course, vary. But, in general, credit scores are arranged as follows:

• 300-579: poor
• 580-669: fair
• 670-739: good
• 740-799: very good
• 800-850: excellent

It can take several years to go from poor credit to good or very good credit. This is why it’s a good thing to start building up a good credit history as soon as you can.

A foundational aspect of building credit is, well, not letting your credit drop any further. Sometimes this can happen without any fault of your own, through identify theft or cyber attacks. The best way to prevent this is through an automated credit monitoring service which will notify you if anything strange takes place.

How Can You Fix Your Credit to Get a Better Loan?

Bad credit loans are always intended to be short-term solutions while people improve their credit scores and eventually find their way back to creditworthiness. Fixing your credit to get better loans takes a lot of time and some hard work, but there are multiple ways in which you can make this happen.

First and foremost, pay every bill you have on time. Building up a history of timely payments will eventually inform credit agencies that you have the ability to pay your debts reliably and on time. Most billing entities these days allow you to set up automatic payments – take advantage of these tools whenever you can.

Secondly, you should begin paying down your debt as much as possible. Every free cent you have that isn’t dedicated to savings or necessities should be spent on paying down your debt.

Credit agencies use many tools to calculate your credit score. One of the most important aspects is your debt to income ratio – this measures how much debt you have compared to how much money you bring in.

Tilting this ratio greater into the favor of your income is an excellent way to increase your credit score. For motivation, it often helps to eliminate smaller debts and gradually build up to larger chunks of money.

Don’t forget to look into debt consolidation – it might help you manage your various bills and even take out fewer loans to stay afloat. Leveraging one of the best loans for debt consolidation can actually lower the amount of interest you’ll pay in the long run.

There are also plenty of credit score boosting programs you can take advantage of.

For instance, some special credit cards exist to help you boost credit by reporting every on-time payment you make to all the major credit bureaus. Other programs may allow you to add various payments, like payments to your phone or utility companies, to your credit history. This is essentially padding your score, but it’s all worthwhile in the end.

Further, you should always close any credit cards you never use. All the credit bureaus like accounts that have long payment histories. If you aren’t using a credit card, there’s no payment history for you to benefit from, and it may even passively lower your score over time.

Similarly, don’t open too many credit cards at once. Keep only the cards you plan to use.

Opening credit cards from anyone requires a hard check of your credit score, which lowers it by a set amount. If you already have bad credit, you can’t afford these negative points.

It can also be worthwhile to check your credit report personally and fix any errors you see by contesting them with your credit bureaus. In many cases, credit bureaus will fix errors if you put up enough of a fight, even if they don’t find evidence that there’s an error.

If there aren’t any errors, there’s still a chance you’ll be able to fix your credit. There are a number of top credit repair companies that will actually write customized letters to credit bureaus on your behalf.

Alternatives to Bad Credit Emergency Loans

If you have bad credit and are looking into an emergency loan, you may not necessarily need to stick with one of the predatory organizations we’ve been warning you about. There are some alternative paths to debt relief you can look into.

For instance, charities, religious organizations, and nonprofits all exist explicitly to help people who are in need. If you require emergency assistance, one of these organizations might be able to lend a hand. This is especially true if you are a demographic protected by the organization or if you are already a member of the organization itself (for instance, if you’re a member of a church).

Your employer or your bank may be able to give you an emergency loan, or a paycheck advance in the case of your employer. This is even more true if your employer knows you personally and is run by people who don’t belong to a big corporate entity (like a “mom and pop” store).

Don’t discount the avenues available to you from friends or family, of course.

If your need for emergency money is driven by a huge bill, like a medical bill you didn’t anticipate, don’t panic. You can often set up a payment plan or work with the hospital or medical center to figure out a way to balance the book. These organizations aren’t out to get you and understand that life sometimes comes at you with multiple curveballs.

Regardless of which path you take to handle your financial needs, you should immediately begin building up an emergency fund as soon as you are in the black and out of debt. Emergency funds, nest eggs, or whatever else you want to call them can prevent you from sliding into debt once again in case disaster strikes.

Then you should also take any good habits you learned from paying back your debt to avoid falling into debt once more as soon as your credit cards are freed up.

Summary

Bad credit loans can be lifesavers, but only if you find lenders that are worth your time and already fragile credit score. With the wrong lender, you could easily throw your financial situation into even greater jeopardy. But the right bad credit loan can help you turn everything around.

Hopefully, one of the above options we described is a great choice for your needs. We think that each of those lenders offers good opportunities to those committed to improving their credit and making the best of their situation.

Don’t forget the alternatives we outlined if you need fast cash and aren’t really sure about taking out a bad credit loan. There are almost always other options.

Still, be sure to let us know if you have ever used one of the above lenders. We’d be happy to hear about your experience. Good luck!