Best Swimming Pool Loans in 2026
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Best pool loans
| Lender | User rating | APR | Term | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
5.99% – 29.91% | 36 to 84 months |
$5k – $50k |
||
|
6.74% – 20.94% (with autopay) | 24 to 240 months |
$5k – $100k |
||
|
8.99% – 35.99% | 24 to 60 months |
$2k – $50k |
||
|
8.74% – 35.49% (with discounts) | 24 to 84 months |
$5k – $100k |
||
|
7.74% – 35.99% (with discounts) | 24 to 84 months |
$1k – $50k |
||
|
6.50% – 35.99% | 36 to 60 months |
$1k – $75k |
Read more about how we made our picks for the best swimming pool loans.
Best for: Getting cheaper rates with a secured pool loan – Best Egg
- APR
- 5.99% – 29.91%
- Better rates when you use your home’s fixtures as collateral
- Get money as soon as 24 hours
- Fair credit OK
- Charges one-time fee of 1.49% – 8.99% on every loan
- Must pay the loan in full before you can sell or refinance your home
- Not good for large pool loans or extensive remodels (can only borrow up to $50,000)
If you want the lower rates of a home equity loan or home equity loan (HELOC) without having to use your home as collateral, check out Best Egg’s secured loans for your pool loan. Best Egg offers cheaper rates when you use your home’s permanent fixtures (like cabinets or lighting) as collateral.
But Best Egg loans do come at a price: You’ll need to pay a one-time origination fee, which Best Egg will keep before sending you your loan money. And if you need a large pool loan, consider LightStream or SoFi — you can only borrow up to $50,000 with Best Egg.
Best Egg uses your home’s permanent fixtures as collateral, but no appraisal is needed. Instead, Best Egg will review your credit history and home equity to see if you qualify.
You’ll also need meet the requirements below to qualify for a Best Egg loan:
- Age: Be of legal age to borrow in your state of residence
- 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+
Best for: Beating competitors’ rates – LightStream
- APR (with autopay)
- 6.74% – 20.94%
- Get money as soon as the same day
- No fees
- Get lower payments with an extra-long repayment term
- Competitive rates and Rate Beat Program
- Seeing your rates requires a hard credit check
- Won’t qualify with bad or fair credit
LightStream is hard to beat when it comes to pool loans. In fact, LightStream’s Rate Beat program is designed to blow competitors out of the water — LightStream will beat a competitor’s rate by 0.10 percentage points, as long as the loan offer meets certain criteria. Plus, LightStream offers quick loans with no fees, which could make your loan cheaper and more convenient.
But not everyone will qualify for a loan with LightStream: You’ll need good or excellent credit to meet their eligibility requirements. Plus, LightStream does a hard credit check before showing you rates, so you can’t see what you’re eligible for without taking a hit to your credit.
LightStream doesn’t specify its exact credit score requirements, but you’ll need to have good to excellent credit to qualify. Most of the applicants that LightStream approves have the following in common:
- At least five years of on-time payments under a variety of accounts (credit cards, auto loans, etc.)
- Stable income and can handle paying their current debt obligations
- Savings, whether in a bank account, investment account or retirement account
Best for: Better odds of approval with peer-to-peer loans – Prosper
- APR
- 8.99% – 35.99%
- Boost odds of approval by applying for a peer-to-peer loan
- Joint loans OK (can get lower rates and better approval odds with a co-borrower)
- Bad credit OK
- Not good for large pool loans or extensive remodels (can only borrow up to $50,000)
- Charges one-time fee of 1.00% – 9.99% on every loan
Check your rates with Prosper if you’re worried about getting approved for your pool loan. Prosper’s loans are peer-to-peer, which tend to have better approval odds. Plus, Prosper lets you further boost your odds of approval by applying for a joint loan with a borrower who has good or excellent credit.
However, Prosper loans do come with a one-time fee of 1.00% – 9.99% of the amount you borrow. This fee will be taken out of your loan before Prosper sends it to you.
Best for: Same-day pool loans with no required fees – SoFi
- APR (with discounts)
- 8.74% – 35.49%
- Get money as soon as the same day
- No fees required
- Joint loans OK (can get lower rates and better approval odds with a co-borrower)
- Need at least fair credit
- You may need to pay an origination fee to get the lowest rates
If you need fast cash for your pool contractor bills, try SoFi. If you qualify, SoFi will send your money as soon as the same day, and there are no required fees. Plus, if you want to add a co-borrower to your loan to get lower rates or improve your chances of qualifying, SoFi lets you do so.
However, in order to get the lowest rates, you may have to pay an upfront origination fee. Ask for offers that do and don’t include the origination fee to see if the fee is worth it.
You’ll need meet the requirements below 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: 620+
Best for: Pool loans with discounts – Upgrade
- APR (with discounts)
- 7.74% – 35.99%
- Discounts for autopay and/or using car or home fixtures as collateral
- Get money as soon as one business day
- Fair credit OK
- Charges one-time fee of 1.85% – 9.99% on every loan
- Not good for large pool loans or extensive remodels (can only borrow up to $50,000)
If you’re on the hunt for pool loan deals, check out Upgrade’s discounts. You can get a lower APR by signing up for autopay and/or by using your car or home fixtures as collateral. You won’t have to sacrifice time, either — Upgrade will send you your money in as soon as one business day.
Still, like many lenders, Upgrade charges a one-time fee on each loan. It’ll take 1.85% – 9.99% from the amount you borrow before sending you your money.
Best for: Bad or fair credit pool loans – Upstart
- APR
- 6.50% – 35.99%
- One of the lowest minimum credit scores on the market
- Competitive starting rates for excellent credit
- Get money as soon as one business day
- Charges one-time fee of 0.00% – 12.00%
- Only two repayment terms: 36 or 60 months
Worried you won’t qualify for a pool loan with poor credit? Try your luck with Upstart. Upstart’s minimum credit score is 300, offering loans to borrowers with bad and fair credit. And it’s also a great option if your credit is in the excellent range — Upstart’s low starting rates could mean big savings on your pool loan.
But if you do have bad or fair credit, expect to pay APRs as high as 35.99%, including a one-time fee of 0.00% – 12.00%. And if you want to customize your loan term, consider other lenders on this list. Upstart only offers repayment terms of 36 to 60 months.
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
- Income: Have a valid source of income, including a job, job offer or another regular income source
- Credit-related factors: No bankruptcies within the last three years, reasonable number of recent inquiries on your credit report and no current delinquencies
- Credit score: 300+ (unless you’re an eligible college student or graduate, in which case Upstart could approve you with no credit)
What is a pool loan?
A pool loan is a personal loan you use to pay for your pool when you can’t cover the full cost upfront. This is also called pool financing.
The specific type of personal loan you’d get to finance a pool would be a home improvement loan. Home improvement loans generally come with lower rates than other kinds of personal loans, meaning it’s less expensive to borrow the same amount of money.
Can I afford a pool loan?
Just starting to look at pool loans? It can be hard to tell whether you can afford a pool loan at this stage. Here are three easy ways to see if a pool loan will break the bank.
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Review your budget
Use a budgeting app like YNAB or Monarch Money to see how much room you have in your budget for a pool loan. You can also create a budget yourself. If you’re making more than you’re spending, measure the gap between your income and expenses and use this number as a starting point. -
Check your rates
You can check your rates by prequalifying for a loan on lender websites or by using the LendingTree marketplace. This means you can see your potential rates without any damage to your credit or any obligation to actually get the loan. -
Use a personal loan calculator
A personal loan calculator can help you calculate your potential monthly pool loan payments. Use our data to estimate your rates, then plug your approximate rate into our pool loan calculator.
Current pool loan rates
Pools are a luxury rather than a necessity. That makes it extra important to make sure that pool financing is worth it. Use the real LendingTree marketplace data below to see what kind of pool loan rates you might get, based on your credit score.
| Credit score range | Average APR |
|---|---|
| Excellent (800 and above) | 11.77% |
| Very good (740-799) | 14.74% |
| Good (670-739) | 22.72% |
| Fair (580-669) | 30.17% |
| Poor (under 580) | 32.19% |
Check your credit score for free with LendingTree Spring. You’ll get personalized recommendations on how to boost your score, and you can use Spring to track your score over time.
Pool finance calculator
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In 2024 alone, LendingTree helped find funding for over $2.8 billion in personal loans.
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In 2024, LendingTree helped find funding for over 309,000 personal loans.
When banks compete, you win
You’d shop around for flights — why not your pool loan? LendingTree makes it easy. Fill out one form and get lenders from the country’s largest network to compete for your business.
Tell us what you need
Take two minutes to tell us who you are and how much money you’ll need for your pool — we’ll take care of the rest. It’s free, simple and secure.
Shop your offers
Receive offers from up to five trusted lenders. Our users get 18 personal loan offers on average. Compare your offers side by side to see which is the best deal.
Get your money
Pick a lender and sign your loan paperwork quickly. You could see money in your account in as soon as 24 hours, depending on the lender you choose.
Other ways to pay for your pool
You have several pool financing options to choose from if a pool loan just doesn’t work for your budget. Pool loans typically require less paperwork, and with an unsecured pool loan, you won’t risk losing collateral like your home and car if you can’t make payments.
But putting your home on the line could help you qualify for lower rates. Here’s what you need to know about how to use your home equity to get cheaper pool financing.
Home equity loans
Best if: You have a lot of equity and need a long time to pay off your pool
You can pay for your pool with a home equity loan, and you’ll likely get lower rates because you’re using your home as collateral. But home equity loan terms typically start at five years, so you’ll be in debt longer than you would with a personal loan. Plus, you risk losing your house if you can’t make payments.
Home equity lines of credit
Best if: You don’t know how much money you’ll need
Like home equity loans, home equity lines of credit (or HELOCs) allow you to borrow against the equity you have in your home. But since HELOCs let you borrow money and repay it again and again, they’re a better option for ongoing home improvement projects with no definitive final cost.
Make sure you can afford to pay off what you borrow, since you risk losing your house if you don’t make payments.
Cash-out refinance
Best if: You already want to refinance your mortgage and rates are low
If you’re looking to refinance your mortgage and borrow money to pay for your pool, you’re in luck — a cash-out refinance accomplishes both. You’ll borrow more money than you currently owe on your home and pocket that money to pay for your pool. You’ll also refinance your mortgage in the process.
However, taking out money for your pool could mean higher monthly payments on your mortgage, so make sure you can afford the new payments. If you stop paying, you risk losing your home to foreclosure.
How we chose the best pool loans
We reviewed more than 30 lenders and loan marketplaces to determine the top six pool loans. To make our list, lenders must offer pool loans with competitive annual percentage rates (APRs).
From there, we assessed each lender or marketplace across four categories: eligibility and access; cost to borrow; loan terms and options; repayment support and tools.
According to our systematic rating and review process, the best personal loans with a cosigner come from First Tech Credit Union, Laurel Road, PenFed Credit Union, SoFi and Upgrade.
Our categories
We assess how easy it is for people to qualify and apply. This includes state availability, soft-credit prequalification, membership requirements, funding speed and whether borrowers with less-than-excellent credit can get a loan.
We evaluate how affordable the loans are based on minimum and maximum APRs, loan fees and rate discounts. Lenders with unclear or potentially predatory costs receive lower scores.
We consider repayment term flexibility, loan amount ranges and whether options like secured loans, joint loans or direct-to-creditor payments are offered — plus whether the lender clearly communicates these options.
We evaluate borrower experience after funding: customer service access, hardship or forbearance programs, payment flexibility and digital tools like mobile apps or credit monitoring.
Our process
We gather data directly from lenders through their websites, disclosures and direct communication with company representatives. Our editorial team verifies and updates information regularly. We value transparency and award less favorable scores when lenders obscure or omit details.
Our editorial team applies the same scoring model and standards to every lender. Lenders cannot pay to influence our ratings.
Why trust LendingTree’s methodology
Our writers and editors dig through the facts, contact lenders directly and even go through the application process ourselves if it helps better explain what you can expect. As a Certified Financial Education Instructor℠, I’m committed to breaking down complex financial details so people can make confident, informed decisions with their money.
Jessica’s experience in editing and financial education helps shape LendingTree articles that are clear, accurate and truly useful to readers. Her certification means our recommendations are built on a foundation of consumer-first financial knowledge — not just numbers.
Frequently asked questions
The best pool loans come from Best Egg, LightStream, Prosper, SoFi, Upgrade and Upstart, according to our unique methodology.
You can get lower rates with pool loan alternatives like home equity loans or HELOCs, but these loans require more paperwork and put your home on the line. If you’re looking for a quick way to finance your pool that doesn’t risk your home to foreclosure, personal loans are the smarter option.
Pool loans usually run from 24 to 60 or 84 months, but it depends on the lender. For example, LightStream home improvement loans have terms as long as 240 months, or 20 years. Longer loan terms typically mean a lower monthly payment but more overall interest.