Getting a personal loan from a top provider is just one way to handle medical expenses, especially since many in-house medical debt financing options have much higher interest rates than an unsecured personal loan. Using a personal loan to cover medical expenses can be a wise choice—it’s unsecured, so your home or car aren’t in danger of repossession; the term is usually fixed, so payments don’t drag on for too long; and if you have good credit, you can find low rates, especially from online lenders.
Borrowers with excellent credit could find rates as low as 5%, although an APR between 10% and 13% is more common. If your credit isn’t so good, you could end up paying interest of 28% to 32%, or even up to 35.99%, so compare your options with care. If you are unsure of which loan is the one for you, comparing options is easy.
5 Top Loan Providers for Medical Expenses
Here are our recommendations for 5 top personal loan providers for loans to cover medical expenses.
1. Credible
Credible is a loan broker that helps connect borrowers with the right lender for their needs. When you complete the application form with Credible, it will be sent to all of its lenders. Credible will also run a soft credit check. This way, you’ll receive up to 6 preliminary loan offers within minutes, to get more choices and help you compare your options.
Credible itself doesn’t charge any fees, but the direct lender could charge origination fees, application fees, and penalties such as a late payment fee or early prepayment fee. If you have excellent credit and can qualify for the lowest interest rates, the bottom APR rate is very competitive, and the maximum of about $100,000 helps you to get a loan that will cover your full medical costs. Do pay attention to the loan repayment term—some loans have terms as short as 24 months.
- Minimum credit score: 680
- Minimum annual income: not specified
- Loan amount: $1,000 to $100,000
- Loan term: 24 to 84 months
- APR range: 5.20% - 35.99%
Why go with Credible? Get up to 6 preliminary loan offers with one application
2. LendingTree
LendingTree is a one of the most popular online loan aggregators. It has many reputable lenders in its member directory, so it can help you find a loan to cover your medical costs. Because LendingTree works with multiple direct lenders, even borrowers with poor credit can find a lender who’s willing to finance the loan they need to cover medical expenses.
Like most loan marketplaces, LendingTree doesn’t charge any fees itself, but you might be charged origination fees by the lender. When you apply for a loan through LendingTree, you’ll receive multiple responses from lenders willing to work with you. This way you can compare your options and find the loan with the right terms for your situation. Remember to check preliminary loan offers for fees such as late payment penalties and early prepayment penalties, because these are set by the lender.
- Minimum credit score: none
- Minimum annual income: none
- Loan amount: $1,000 to $50,000
- Loan term: 3 months to 180 months
- APR range: 6.99% - 35.99%
Why go with LendingTree? Easy to compare multiple options
3. Marcus
Marcus is a personal lender backed by Goldman Sachs bank. Although the interest rates aren’t as low as others in the industry, that’s balanced out by the total lack of fees—no origination fees, early prepayment fees, and not even any late payment fees. If you’re late making a payment, the extra interest and capital are simply added on to the end of your loan, making the term longer.
You can also enjoy flexible repayment terms, and the ability to skip a month’s repayment or defer payments once you’ve made 12 consecutive, on-time payments. Repayment amounts are fixed, but you can pay the loan off early without any penalties, and if you need to, you can extend the term by deferring up to 3 payments every 12 months. The only downside is that the maximum loan amount is just $40,000, which might not be enough if you have very high medical debts.
- Minimum credit score: 660, but ideally 700
- Minimum annual income: none
- Loan amount: $3,500 to $40,000
- Loan term: 36 to 72 months
- APR range: 6.99% - 19.99%*
Why go with Marcus? No fees and flexible repayment terms
4. LendingClub
LendingClub is a leading peer-to-peer loan service. It serves as the marketplace that brings together lenders and borrowers, so you have the chance to explain your medical costs when you submit your application. This gives you a much better chance of finding the right loan for your needs. You’ll submit just one application and receive multiple offers competing to finance your loan, so you can compare the options without having to spend a lot of time on multiple applications.
LendingClub does charge an origination fee of between 1% and 6%. The direct lender will set its own late payment penalties, early prepayment fees, and any other charges, so be sure to check the exact terms when you receive your loan offer. All interest rates are fixed, so you'll know exactly what your payments are each month, and loan terms are only 3 or 5 years, so there isn't much flexibility.
- Minimum credit score: 600
- Minimum annual income: not specified
- Loan amount: $1,000 to $40,000
- Loan term: 3 or 5 years
- APR range: 8.05% - 35.89%
Why go with LendingClub? Compare multiple loan offers with one application
5. Upgrade
Upgrade is a direct personal loan lender with plenty of educational resources and online tools. These are useful for most lenders, but if you're just looking for a way to pay your medical expenses, then they aren't likely to be of much interest to you.
Upgrade’s loans are all fixed-rate and for a set term of 3 or 5 years, without much flexibility. Still, this isn’t a problem if you’d like to know exactly what your payments are each month and when you’ll have paid off your loan. Upgrade does charge an origination fee of up to 6% of the loan amount, plus late payment penalties, but there are no early prepayment fees. The main drawback to getting a loan from Upgrade is that it requires you to have a ‘free cash flow’ of at least $1,000 each, namely extra money after you’ve paid all your expenses—which is unlikely if you’re paying off medical debt.
- Minimum credit score: 620
- Minimum annual income: none, but minimum ‘free cash flow’ of $1,000
- Loan amount: $1,000 to $50,000
- Loan term: 3 or 5 years
- APR range: 8.49% - 35.99%
Why go with Upgrade? Free credit health tracker to improve your credit score
How to Find the Right Personal Loan to Cover Your Medical Costs
If you find yourself needing to turn to a personal loan to cover your medical expenses, you now know your options. Before choosing a personal loan company, compare the rates and fees of a few different lenders. You can apply for a preapproved loan offer, which won't affect your credit score, with 2 or 3 lenders, so you can get a better idea of how much you could borrow and what rates and fees you'll receive. Remember to check the fees and charges as well as the interest rates—these can push up the overall cost of the loan to far more than you realized initially.
