Service · Personal loans
Personal loans: the online route
For needs beyond what a storefront can legally offer — $5,000 to $35,000, repaid over years instead of weeks — the market is banks, credit unions and online lenders. There is no storefront layer and no payday-style fee schedule: pricing follows your credit profile, and the protections that matter are disclosure and licensing.
The frame
What a fair offer looks like
A lawful personal-loan offer is boring on purpose: a fixed APR that matches your credit tier, a term in months, no fee to apply, and a total-of-payments figure on the first page of the contract. Anything that flips that pattern — fees before funding, verbal rates, "guaranteed approval" — is the product to walk away from.
Fixed APR, disclosed
The rate is set by your credit profile, not negotiated at a counter — and it must be on paper before you sign. Compare offers on APR and total of payments together.
No money before funding
Lawful lenders deduct fees from the loan proceeds. Anyone asking for a payment upfront — "insurance", "processing", gift cards — is running the classic advance-fee scam.
Licensed in your state
Online does not mean unregulated: the lender must be licensed where you live. The regulator linked on every state page here confirms it — and takes complaints.
Honest scope
What this page can and cannot tell you
This site's core data is about storefront lending: state payday statutes and real locations on the ground. Personal loans are an online product, so there are no storefront tables or local fee schedules here — and we will not fabricate them. What the rest of the platform gives you is the legal context: your state's small-loan ceilings, the credit-union PAL alternative at a 28% APR ceiling, and the regulator to verify any online lender against.
If you are comparing partner offers through our application form, the same checks apply: licensed in your state, no upfront fees, and a written APR before you sign. Dataset refreshed September 2026.
Amount guides
What a specific size costs per month
Each guide shows the payment spread across three credit tiers and two common terms — market math, clearly labelled, never a fabricated state schedule.
from $121.66/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $141.93/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $162.21/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $182.49/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $202.76/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $304.15/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $405.53/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $506.91/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $608.29/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
from $709.67/mo
at strong-credit rates, 60 mo
Payment calculator
The credit-tier spread, live
Choose an amount and a term — the three rows show the market spread between strong and damaged credit at the same labelled tiers the amount guides use.
The spread is the point: over a five-year term a few APR points compound into thousands, which is why the lender's disclosed APR and total of payments are the only two numbers worth comparing.
Questions people ask about personal loans
How much does a personal loan cost?
Pricing follows your credit profile, not a state payday-style fee schedule: banks, credit unions and online lenders typically price fixed-rate personal loans somewhere between single-digit APRs for strong credit and mid-30s APR for thin or damaged credit, over terms of roughly 12 to 84 months. The lender must disclose the APR and the total of payments before you sign — compare those two numbers, not the monthly one.
Do personal loans require collateral?
Most are unsecured — no car, no title, no property on the line. That is the structural difference from a title loan: default damages your credit and can lead to collection, but the lender cannot take your vehicle. Secured personal options exist at banks if your credit needs help qualifying.
Why does this site have no storefront data for personal loans?
Because there is none to collect: this product lives at banks, credit unions and online lenders, not at the check-cashing and installment storefronts our directory maps. We will not invent local listings for a product that has no storefront layer — for the storefront side of the market, see our company directory.
How do I check that an online lender is legitimate?
Three checks before you send anything: the lender is licensed in your state (the regulator linked on every state page can confirm), there is no fee demanded before the loan is funded — upfront-fee demands are the classic scam pattern — and the credit offer is not "guaranteed" regardless of history, which no lawful lender can promise.
Other services
Explore other loans
LendMap USA is an information platform, not a lender: nothing here is an offer of credit or legal advice.