How We Rate Lenders

Every lender review on EconoCents carries a star rating out of 5. This page explains what that number measures, what it is based on, and what it does not mean, so you can decide how much weight to give it.

What the rating is based on

A rating is the editorial team’s judgment of a lender across five factors, using only the lender’s own published information: its rates and fees page, its terms, its state disclosures, and its regulator filings. We do not use customer reviews, lender-supplied marketing, or our own compensation as inputs.

1. Total cost. The published APR range and every fee the lender discloses (origination, late, returned-payment, prepayment). This factor carries the most weight, because it is the one that affects every borrower on every loan.
2. Repayment terms. The length of the repayment period, whether payments are installments or a single due date, and whether the lender allows early payoff without penalty. Longer, installment-style terms with no prepayment penalty rate higher than a single balloon payment.
3. Transparency. Whether the lender publishes its APR range, fees, and state availability plainly, before an application. A lender that discloses a high APR rates higher on this factor than one that hides it.
4. Eligibility and reach. The published minimum requirements (income, credit history, bank account) and the number of states served. Wider reach and clearer requirements rate higher.
5. Speed and funding. The lender’s published funding timeline and how applications are handled, as a secondary factor.

What moves a rating up or down

• A maximum APR above the typical range for the lender’s product type lowers the cost score; an APR range that starts materially below it raises the score.
• An origination fee, a prepayment penalty, or an undisclosed fee lowers the rating; no fee of that kind raises it.
• Single-payment, two-week products rate lower on terms than installment loans of the same cost, because a balloon due date is harder to repay.
• Publishing a complete fee schedule and a state list raises the transparency score; requiring an application to see rates lowers it.

The result is a rating in tenths of a star. Ratings on the site currently range from 3.2 to 4.5, and no lender is rated 5: every product we review has a real drawback, and the review’s “cons” section names it.

What the rating is not

• It is not a measure of whether a lender will approve you, or what rate you would be offered. Only the lender decides that.
• It is not a formula that can be gamed by one number. Two lenders with the same maximum APR can rate differently because of fees, terms, or disclosure.
• It is not affected by whether a lender pays us. EconoCents is paid by lending networks and lenders when a reader submits a loan request (see how we make money). That compensation can affect which lenders appear in our loan-matching service; it does not change a review’s rating or its pros and cons.
• It is not advice. A 4-star lender with a 150% APR is still a very expensive loan, and the review says so.

When ratings change

A rating is rechecked whenever a lender’s published figures change, when a review is updated, and when a new lender is added to the comparison set, since every rating is relative to the rest of the market we cover. The review’s date shows when it was last updated.

Questions about a specific rating, or a published figure you believe is wrong, go to [email protected]; see the editorial policy for how corrections are handled.