Upgrade

Founded in April 2017, Upgrade is a fairly new personal loan company with online personal loan experience.

Upgrade was founded by Renaud Laplanche and Soul Htite, both of whom were co-founders of the online loan marketplace LendingClub before founding Upgrade around ten years later. Laplanche, who is also CEO of Upgrade, was also formerly the head of LendingClub. Htite founded Dianrong, which is a large online marketplace in China.

Upgrade provides unsecured loans, which means you do not have to provide any collateral. In addition, their loans have fixed -- rather than variable -- interest rates.

Upgrade has several requirements for potential borrowers to qualify for their loans (their primary demographic is in the fair to excellent credit segment):

• You are over 18 years of age (for most states). You must be at least 19 to be eligible in Alabama and a few other states.
• You must be a US citizen, permanent resident, or be living in the US with a valid visa.
• You must have a verifiable bank account.
• You must have a valid email address.
• You must have $800 of your monthly income left over after your monthly expenses. Upgrade determines if you have enough free cash flow by looking at your income, the cost of living in your area, tax rate, and your rent or mortgage.
• You must live in one of the eligible states. Upgrade does not provide services to Connecticut, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, or West Virginia.
• You must have a minimum credit score of 620. The average borrower's score is 675.
• There is no minimum income requirement.
• You must have at least 3 years of credit history.
• Your credit history, usage, and available amount are taken into consideration.
• You must have a maximum debt-to-income ratio of 40%, excluding your mortgage.

Upgrade's application process is done entirely online. If you are interested in seeing your potential interest rates, you must visit Upgrade’s home page, enter your loan amount and the reason you want to borrow, and click on “Check Your Rate.” You must then submit your personal and financial information, which includes your address, date of birth, income, and employment information.

This initial process does not harm your credit score and when you have completed these steps, Upgrade shows you multiple loan options with varying amounts and length, or they will notify you that your application has been denied and give you a reason. Your qualification for Upgrade's loans is determined by an algorithm.

Once you have chosen the best loan terms, filled out a detailed application, and agreed to the terms, Upgrade performs a hard credit check and verifies your bank account information before directly depositing your cash within the same business day.