Avant Personal Loan Review
- APR
- 9.95% to 35.99%
- Eligibility and access: 5/5
- Cost to borrow: 3.4/5
- Loan terms and options: 4.2/5
- Repayment support and tools: 5/5
Avant is an online lender that offers loans and credit cards. You can use an unsecured Avant personal loan for a variety of purposes, including emergencies, debt consolidation and home improvement.
- Low minimum credit score: Avant offers one of the lowest credit score minimums on the market for traditional personal loan lenders, so it’s worth considering if you have bad credit. Payday lenders often have even lower (or no) credit requirements, but they charge much higher rates. This makes payday loans much more expensive.
- Possible administration fees: Avant charges an upfront origination fee on some of its loans. Up to 9.99% of the amount you borrow will be deducted as a fee before Avant sends you your loan.
- Flexible loan terms: Avant offers loan periods from 24 to 60 months — 24 months being shorter than what many competitors offer. Choosing a shorter loan term can help you save money on interest.
- Check rates without impacting your credit: Avant allows you to see potential loan terms, interest rates and amounts without a hard credit pull.
- Best for borrowers with bad credit: Avant stands out for its low minimum credit score (580) and affordable rates for bad-credit borrowers, so its loans are worth considering if your credit needs work.
Avant pros and cons
Since Avant offers a wide range of potential APRs, pros and cons may depend on factors like your credit score. For example, borrowers with excellent credit typically will not pay a high APR.
Pros
- Offers loans to borrowers with low credit scores
- Prequalify to see what rates you might get without impacting your credit score
- Offers smaller and shorter loans than other lenders
Cons
- High potential maximum APR (35.99%)
- May charge an origination fee (Up to 9.99%)
- Loans aren’t available nationwide
Financial experts agree that 36% is the cutoff between affordable interest rates and predatory ones. The highest APR Avant will charge is 35.99%, which falls just below that limit. Borrowers with bad credit can save hundreds or thousands on interest when they get a loan from a reputable lender like Avant rather than a predatory lender.
Avant loans do come with some drawbacks. Avant may take an origination fee from your loan before sending it to you. And while Avant’s maximum APR is lower than what most payday lenders charge, it is on the high end for traditional personal lenders. If you can’t afford an Avant loan, take time to improve your credit before applying again.
Avant requirements
Avant doesn’t specify much of its eligibility criteria beyond its minimum credit score. Here’s what you need to get a loan from Avant:
| Minimum credit score | 580 |
| Residency | Not available to residents of certain states, so verify availability directly with Avant before applying |
| Additional documentation | You may have to provide documents like bank statements or pay stubs to verify your income or identity |
| Administrative requirements | Must have a personal bank account |
If Avant’s loan options won’t work for your borrowing needs, be sure to shop around for the best personal loan that helps you meet your financial goals and can offer you good rates, terms and amounts.
See the New Mexico consumer brochure for common terms and definitions and regulations around rates and fees.
How to get a personal loan with Avant
Prequalify
Avant asks for quite a bit of information during the prequalification process. You’ll enter your name, address, email, date of birth, Social Security number, type of residence, housing costs, income type and amount, loan purpose and the amount of money you hope to borrow.
Receive loan terms
Avant provides conditional loan terms — within minutes, in some cases. Once you receive your offers, you may need to provide supporting documentation like bank statements and pay stubs before formally applying for the loan. If you choose to move forward with the loan, Avant will run a hard credit check to pull your credit score and credit report.
Approval and funding
Once you sign, Avant can send your money as soon as the next business day. Avant will take any administration or origination fees out of your loan before sending you the money.
If you can’t prequalify for an Avant loan, there are some ways to improve your credit score and chances of approval.
How Avant compares to other personal loan companies
Even if you believe Avant aligns with what you’re looking for in a personal loan, it never hurts to shop around and compare lenders. Here’s how Avant stacks up against similar personal loan lenders.
| Avant | Best Egg | Prosper | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LendingTree’s rating | 4.3/5 | 4.4/5 | 4.5/5 |
| Minimum credit score | 580 | 620 | 600 |
| APRs | 9.95% to 35.99% | 6.99% to 35.99% | 8.99% to 35.99% |
| Loan amounts | $2,000 to $35,000 | $2,000 to $50,000 | $2,000 to $50,000 |
| Repayment terms | 24 to 60 months | 36 to 60 months | 24 to 72 months |
| Origination fee | Up to 9.99% | 0.99% – 9.99% | 1.00% – 9.99% |
| Funding timeline | May receive funds as soon as the next business day | May receive funds as soon as the next business day | May receive funds as soon as the next business day |
| Bottom line | Avant offers quick funding and short-term loans. It has lower credit requirements than Best Egg and Prosper, which may make it a good choice for borrowers with bad credit. | Best Egg offers more money and a lower starting rate than Avant, making it more ideal for larger loans and borrowers with excellent credit who can qualify for low starting rates. | Prosper offers larger loans than Avant, but it has a slightly higher credit requirement. |
How we rated Avant
We evaluate personal loan lenders on more than just interest rates. Our goal is to show how accessible, affordable, transparent and supportive each lender really is.
Our categories
Every lender is scored out of 5 stars, with 5 stars being the highest rating. LendingTree loan experts determine this score using dozens of underlying data points across four weighted categories covering the full borrowing journey.
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.
In some cases, our editors may apply a small adjustment (no more than 4% of the overall score) to account for factors not captured by the methodology. This could include J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys, recent regulatory actions or features that stand out in ways our rubric doesn’t measure directly.
Our editorial team applies the same scoring model and standards to every lender. Lenders cannot pay to influence our ratings. Read more about our editorial guidelines.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, Avant is a legitimate online lender that offers unsecured personal loans in most U.S. states.
The exact size of your loan depends on your credit score and what you intend to use the loan for, but the most you can borrow from Avant is $35,000.
Avant requires a variety of personal documents to verify your financial standing. You will typically need to provide government-issued photo ID, proof of income such as recent pay stubs or bank statements, proof of address and your Social Security number.
You can check your rates while only taking a soft credit check, but if you choose to move forward with the loan, Avant will do a hard credit check as part of the approval process.
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