LendingTree connects you with lenders to get the best deal.
You may have seen one of the company’s TV commercials with the tagline “When banks compete, you win.” That’s the model LendingTree revolves around: Depending on what you need — whether that’s a mortgage loan, personal loan, student loan or even a credit card — LendingTree finds out a bit about you and connects you to providers that can best help you.
LendingTree Personal Loans
What everybody ought to know about LendingTree and the personal loans it provides.
- Recommended Credit Score: 640 or higher
- Min. Loan Amount: $1,000
- Max. Loan Amount: $35,000
- Loan Term: Varies based on lender
- Interest Rate: From 5.99% (fixed)
- Easy comparison process
- Multiple offers
- Low APR
First, do I qualify?
To meet the basic requirements of most LendingTree lenders, you must:
- Have a credit score of at least 640.
- Have a debt-to-income ratio of 45% or lower.
- Be a US citizen or legal resident.
- Have a steady source of income.
Keep in mind that there might be some exceptions, but people who meet or exceed the above qualifications have a better chance of finding a good loan with LendingTree.
What is LendingTree?
You can acquire loans through LendingTree, but it’s not a lender. Rather, LendingTree is an online marketplace where you can get connected to loan offers.
Essentially, LendingTree works by pointing you toward different lenders. The basic process works like this:
- Fill out an online form. Tell LendingTree the type of loan you’re looking for, as well as basic information about yourself.
- Review offers from multiple lenders. You’ll see several offers that are customized to your profile.
- Accept an offer and start working with the lender. When you find a loan offer you like, you’ll be forwarded to a representative with whom you can finish the process.
It doesn’t cost anything to use LendingTree; however, you may need to pay fees assessed by the lender, including processing fees or closing costs.
Compare a variety of loans through LendingTree
How does LendingTree make money?
LendingTree isn’t a lender, and it doesn’t make money by offering loans. So, how does the company make money?
As an online loan marketplace, LendingTree makes money by directing you to lenders. Banks find customers through LendingTree, and in turn they pay LendingTree for the referrals.
Keep in mind that you are never under any obligation to pay LendingTree any fee, and you are never required to accept any loan offer you’re presented.
Loans and products you can find through LendingTree
Here’s a quick rundown of what types of loans and products you can find through LendingTree:
| Type of finance | Uses | Term of finance | Secured or unsecured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal loans | Almost anything you can think of. Debt consolidation, credit card consolidation, major purchases, vacation, wedding, moving and even medical expenses can be covered with these loans. | 1 to 10 years | Unsecured |
| Home mortgages | Buy a single family home, a multiple family dwelling home, a condo, a townhouse, or a mobile home. | 15 or 30 years, fixed | Secured. Your home works as collateral. |
| Mortgage refinancing | Trade equity you’ve built in your home for cash. | 15 or 30 years, fixed | Secured. Your home is also used as collateral for this loan. |
| Auto loans | Buy a new or used car, refinance one you already have or buy out a lease. Also available for boat, RV and motorcycles. | 12 to 72 months | Secured. Your car works as collateral. |
| Small business loans | Sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations and limited liability companies can finance their business. | Up to 40 years, depending on the lender | Secured. Collateral options depend on the loan, but can range from equipment or the building your business operates out of to personal assets. |
| Credit cards | Personal, student and business credit cards are available to suit your individual needs. You can also filter by credit score, balance transfers, cash back, travel, 0% APR, no foreign transaction fees, rewards and those with no annual fee | Ongoing | Unsecured |
Mortgage loans
With a mortgage loan, you can borrow money from a bank to buy a house. You can find different types of mortgages through LendingTree, including:
- Refinancing: Refinancing means you’re taking out a new mortgage to replace your original one.
- Home loan: If you’re buying a house, you’ll look for this type of loan.
- Home equity loan/line: With a home equity loan or line of credit, you can take out a loan backed by the equity you have in your home.
- Reverse mortgage: A reverse mortgage lets you take the equity you have in your home and convert it to cash.
Personal loans
You may occasionally need to borrow money for an important purpose — perhaps to buy a car or to pay for education fees. At that time, you might take out a personal loan. You’ll find these types of personal loans through LendingTree:
- Debt consolidation: If you’re currently paying off multiple loans, you can take out one loan to pay off all of them. Then you’ll just pay off that one loan.
- Credit card consolidation: Like debt consolidation, you might consider credit card consolidation if you’re paying off debt from multiple credit cards.
- Home improvement: If you need to make repairs or additions to your home, you might consider a home improvement loan.
- Home buying: You can request between $1,000 and $35,000 toward buying a home.
- Major purchase: Maybe you need to make a big purchase like a washer and dryer set. In that case, choose this option.
- Car financing: Loans for car purchases are very common.
- Green loan: With a green loan, you can upgrade your home appliances to energy-saving ones.
- Business loan: A loan you can take out toward business expenses.
- Vacation loan: You can use a vacation loan to finance things like a honeymoon or a long-awaited family vacation.
- Wedding expenses: Weddings can be expensive, and a loan can help you cover costs that you can’t currently pay out of pocket.
- Moving and relocation: You can take out a loan for any expenses you encounter while moving.
- Medical expenses: Medical bills can add up quickly; you can take out medical-expense loans to cover the costs.
Credit cards
LendingTree will show you different credit cards depending on your credit score. The site has cards tailored to these ranges of credit:
- Excellent/good credit (640 to 850)
- Fair credit (550 to 639)
- Poor credit (549 or less)
You’ll also be able to filter cards by different categories, including:
Business loans
You can look for business loans tailored to different types of businesses, such as:
- Sole proprietorship
- Partnership
- Corporation
- S Corporation
- Limited liability company (LLC)
Auto loans
LendingTree offers auto loans for different needs, including:
- New car purchase
- Used car purchase
- Refinance
- Lease buyout
- Boat loans
- RV loans
- Motorcycle loans
Student loans
You can find a student loan if you’re a new student or need to refinance your existing loan.
Credit score
If you’d like to find your credit score, you can do so for free through LendingTree. Just like how LendingTree receives commissions for connecting you to lenders, the site makes money from a free-credit-score offer by matching products (like credit cards) to you based on your credit profile.
Is it safe to use LendingTree?
Yes. LendingTree uses 128-bit encryption or higher when transmitting your personal data over the internet. Web pages are also secured with SSL technology, which you can verify by clicking on either a key or lock icon that appears in your browser. Stored information is protected by firewalls.
What does the Internet have to say about LendingTree?
LendingTree gets an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) based on factors like the volume and way it handles customer complaints, but it isn’t BBB-accredited. BBB customer reviews are a mixed bag — only 52% were positive. It does slightly better on Trustpilot, landing a 9.3 out of 10 from more than 5,000 reviews. Over 80% of reviewers rated it as “Excellent.”
Customer service appears to be a strong point, reflected in the fact that LendingTree takes the time to give personalized responses to negative reviews.
The biggest complaint concerned the volume of calls they had to deal with. This is a hazard of using online connection services — they work by giving your information to third-parties that you might qualify for. But the amount of calls, emails, text messages and beyond from LendingTree partners seems excessive.
Compare LendingTree to other online lender connection services
Things to look out for
Before proceeding with LendingTree, protect yourself by keeping these things in mind:
- You are never under any obligation to follow through with an offer. Offers presented on LendingTree are just that — offers. Browsing on LendingTree does not mean you are locked into taking out a loan, and you can stop using the site at any time without paying anything.
- You can use LendingTree at no cost. LendingTree does not assess fees for you to use its site. However, you may need to pay fees (like closing costs) when you finalize a deal with a lender.
- Expect calls from lenders. When you use LendingTree to look for a loan, your contact information will be passed on to banks. At that point, expect to be contacted by various banks.
