Best Debt Consolidation Loans in December 2024

If you’re looking for a fast turnaround time, check out Reach Financial. This lender specializes in quick funding for debt consolidation and credit card refinancing. After Reach Financial approves you, your loan may be available to your creditors in as little as 24 hours.

Reach Financial could save you a lot of money if you consolidate and have excellent credit. It has an ultra-low minimum rate. But if your borrowing history is rocky, you may have to pay an origination fee. This is a fee that Reach Financial will deduct from your loan before sending it to you.

Read our expert Reach Financial personal loan review.

Reach Financial doesn’t specify a minimum credit score, income or debt-to-income ratio. Learn more about personal loan requirements and how lenders like Reach Financial evaluate loan applications.

You don’t have to have stellar credit to get a Best Egg loan. Still, you’ll only qualify for its best rates if you make at least $100,000 a year and have a credit score of at least 700. If you tick those boxes, you could get a debt consolidation loan with an APR as low as 6.99%.

Unlike some lenders, Best Egg charges an origination fee on all of its borrowers, not just those with troubled credit.

Read our expert Best Egg personal loan review.

You must meet the requirements below to qualify for a Best Egg loan:

• Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident living in the U.S.
• Administrative: Have a personal checking account, email address and physical address
• Residency: Not live in the District of Columbia, Iowa, Vermont, West Virginia or U.S. territories
• Credit score: 580+

It can be hard to get a debt consolidation loan when you have bad credit. With a credit score minimum of just 300, online lending platform Upstart has one of the lowest score requirements around. You might even qualify if you have no credit (but you must have a college degree or be currently enrolled).

Still, between possible fees and a high maximum APR, getting a bad credit debt consolidation loan won’t come cheap. You also can’t get a lower rate by adding a second person to your loan (also called a joint loan).

Read our expert Upstart personal loan review.

Upstart has transparent eligibility requirements, including:

• Age: Be 18 or older
• Administrative: Have a U.S. address, personal banking account, email address and Social Security number
• Employment: Have a job or job offer that starts within six months, or have regular income
• Credit-related factors: Debt-to-income (DTI) ratio no higher than 50% (45% in Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Vermont), no bankruptcies within the last year, fewer than six inquiries on your credit report in the last six months and no current delinquencies
• Credit score: 300+

A debt consolidation loan might save you money on interest, but fees can add up. Luckily, LightStream is a zero-fee company. Also, if another lender offers you a lower APR, LightStream might beat it by .10 percentage points through its Rate Beat Program.

On the downside, LightStream doesn’t disclose its minimum credit score requirements and it doesn’t offer prequalification. You have to take a hard credit hit to check rates and eligibility, which could drop your score by a few points.

Read our expert LightStream personal loan review.

First, you must have good-to-excellent credit to qualify. It tends to approve those with:

• At least five years of credit history with a mix of accounts
• Assets such as savings, retirement and investment accounts
• An acceptable debt-to-income ratio
• A positive payment history with no delinquencies

Instead of using your debt consolidation loan to pay your creditors one by one, Discover can pay them for you. You can also forget about application fees, origination fee or prepayment penalties with this lender.

In addition to having a mobile app to manage your loan, Discover accepts loan payments online, over the phone, by mail, via wire transfer or through electronic bill pay. If you run into trouble, loan specialists are available by phone every day of the week.

Read our expert Discover Bank personal loan review.

You’ll need to meet these eligibility criteria to get a Discover loan:

• Age: Be at least 18
• Citizenship: Have a Social Security number
• Administrative: Have a physical address, email address and internet access
• Income: Minimum income of $40,000 (individually or as a household)
• Credit score: 720+

Happy Money loans can only be used to consolidate credit card debt. This lending platform works with credit unions to fund some of its loans. The upside to this is that, by law, the highest APR a federal credit union can charge is 18.00%. You’ll see that reflected in Happy Money’s low maximum APR of 17.48%.

Happy Money’s funding timeline is pretty slow. It can take 30 days for your debt consolidation loan to post to your credit card accounts. You can opt to get your loan deposited into your account instead, but you’ll still need three to six days to get your money.

Read our expert Happy Money personal loan review.

Happy Money provides clear eligibility requirements as to how you can qualify for a loan:

• Age: Must be 18 years or older
• Administrative: Must have a valid Social Security number and checking account
• Residency: Not live in Iowa, Massachusetts or Nevada
• Credit score: 640+
• Payment history: Zero current delinquencies on your credit profile

If you’re ready to knock out your debt in as little time as possible, check out PenFed. It offers a 12-month repayment term, which is much shorter than most lenders. The quicker you pay off your loan, the less time interest has to accrue. And in general, debt consolidation loans with shorter terms tend to have lower rates.

Since it’s a credit union, you’ll have to become a PenFed member to borrow. However, PenFed makes this easy. You can apply for your loan and for membership in one fell swoop.

Membership is open to everyone. You can also check your eligibility before joining, with no impact to your credit score.

Read our expert PenFed personal loan review.

To qualify for a PenFed loan, you must meet the following requirements:

• Membership requirements: PenFed membership (anyone can join)
• Administrative: Open up PenFed savings account with $5 deposit; may need to submit documents to verify your identity and income

Debt consolidation can make it easier to pay off what you owe, but it shouldn’t be the only tool in your kit. SoFi offers no-cost financial planning to its borrowers. Here, a professional can help you with your budget, debt strategies, investments and more. Best of all — no upselling, just advice.

SoFi is also unique in that its origination fee is optional. If you pay it, you could qualify for a lower rate. Be sure to ask for offers that include and don’t include this fee to see which option makes the most sense for you.

Read our expert SoFi personal loans review.

You must meet the requirements below in order to get a loan from SoFi:

• Age: Be the age of majority in your state (typically 18)
• Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen, an eligible permanent resident or a non-permanent resident (a DACA recipient or asylum-seeker, for instance)
• Employment: Have a job or job offer with a start date within 90 days, or have regular income from another source
• Credit score: 680+

Prosper, a peer-to-peer lender, connects borrowers with investors. Peer-to-peer is often easier to qualify for compared to banks and some online loans.

Prosper’s free FICO scores could also motivate you to improve your credit. According to a LendingTree study, improving your credit from fair to very good could save you $22,000 in interest over time.

However, it can take up to 14 days for an investor to pick up your loan. It’s also possible that all available investors pass on your application, even if Prosper has approved you. In that case, Prosper will cancel your loan request.

Read our expert Prosper personal loan review.

To get a loan with Prosper, you must meet the following requirements:

• Age: Be 18 or older
• Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen
• Administrative: Have a U.S. bank account and Social Security number
• Residency: Not live in Iowa or West Virginia
• Credit score: 560+

Achieve offers three interest rate discounts, including one designed specifically for debt consolidation loans. If you let Achieve use at least 85% of your loan to pay your creditors directly, you could get a discount of up to 4.50%. You can also get a discount if you take out a joint loan and by having a sufficiently-funded retirement account.

However, if you only have a small amount of debt to consolidate, Achieve might not work — its loans start at $5,000.

Read our expert Achieve personal loan review.

Other than a credit score of at least 620, Achieve will typically ask you to provide the following documents and information:

• Proof of income
• Social Security number
• Government-issued ID
• Employment status

If you’re in the market for a new bank and a consolidation loan, Upgrade could be for you. Its Rewards Checking Plus checking account (through Cross River Bank) unlocks special benefits on your debt consolidation loan.

As long as you get at least $1,000 in monthly direct deposits, you can get a lower debt consolidation rate. You can also earn up to 2% cash back on everyday purchases using your debit card.

Still, Upgrade makes more sense if you have so-so credit. Its minimum APR is a bit steep. It also charges an origination fee on every loan, no matter your score.

Read our expert Upgrade personal loan review.

To qualify for a loan through Upgrade, you must meet the requirements below:

• Age: Be at least 18 years old (19 in some states)
• Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident or live in the U.S. with a valid visa
• Administrative: Have a valid bank account and email address
• Credit score: 580+