Have you received an Avant personal loan offer in mail? Don’t rush to make a decision. When people need money for something urgent they often try to take a personal loan like Avant. The reasons include medical bills, home improvements, and other unexpected circumstances. Should you keep looking or is this good enough? What is the benefit of obtaining a personal loan?
Avant Personal Loans target people with bad credit. Therefore eligibility requirements are quite loose. You can qualify with FICO credit score as low as 550. If you don’t know your credit score, you can check it using tools like CreditWise from Capital One that shows TransUnion credit score. Other banks offer their own tools that supposed to help you understand which factors have most impact. For example Credit Journey from Chase that shows Experian version. In addition to the credit score to have chance to be approved you must earn at least $1,200 per month.
However, if you want to take the loan just to build your credit score, think again. It is a very expensive way to establish your credit history. But once you pay off the loan, the credit bureaus will remove the account from your report.
Avant allows you to prequalify for the personal loan by filing an electronic form on their website. After 2-3 business days they can send you an offer. The pre-qualification means they are not going to make a hard pull. Instead, they’ll tell you if you have a good chance to be approved. It is very useful if you consider many lenders. After approval it takes 1 business day for the money to deposit to your checking account.
The interest for Avant loans can range from 10% up to 36% none of which is good. The lowest 10% is reserved for people with good credit scores who have a high chance to be accepted by better lenders. Borrowing money at 30% APR is a bad idea. You should think twice before going with this personal loan.
The amount you can borrow ranges from $2,000 up to $35,000. This is fine, but if you need a larger amount like $50,000 you should look for other lenders. The term of the Avant personal loan is 2 or 5 years. It means you can pay it off in 24 payments or in 60. For example, if you borrow $10,000 for 2 years you’ll have to pay more than $500 every month.
One thing that should keep you from taking this option is the administration fee. You may have to pay as much as 5% of the loan amount as an administration fee. That is a lot of money!
Another thing to pay attention to is the late payment fee. Avant personal loans have a $25 late payment fee. It means you’d better setup auto-payment. Returned payment fee is $15. On the bright side you can pay it off early without penalties. So if you can find money earlier, then you should definitely pay it off early.
With the high APR of Avant personal loan I would strongly recommend you look for other options before you apply or reconsider your needs. Taking an expensive loan for a home improvement is definitely a bad idea.