Installment Loans

Fixed payments over a set term make installment loans easier to manage than payday products — but rates, fees and terms vary enormously. These guides show you how the math works and what to watch for.

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How the payments break down

An installment loan splits what you borrow into fixed payments over a set term, commonly weeks to a few years depending on the lender and loan type. Each payment covers part interest and part principal, so the balance shrinks steadily until the loan is paid off. That structure makes payments predictable and easier to budget around than a lump sum due all at once, but it doesn't automatically make the loan cheap. See how installment loan interest actually works to understand how the rate, term and fees combine to determine your total cost, not just the monthly payment.

What an installment loan costs: a worked example

The same $2,000 loan can cost a few hundred dollars or a few thousand, depending on the APR and how long you take to repay it. The table uses standard amortization (level monthly payments, no origination fee), so you can reproduce every line with any loan calculator. The APRs are illustrative tiers, not quotes: 18% sits in the prime range, 36% is the ceiling many states and the Military Lending Act use, and 99% is typical of the subprime installment lenders reviewed below.

$2,000 installment loan, level monthly payments
APR	Term	Monthly payment	Total repaid	Interest paid
18%	24 months	$99.85	$2,396	$396
36%	24 months	$118.09	$2,834	$834
99%	24 months	$193.93	$4,654	$2,654
36%	12 months	$200.92	$2,411	$411
36%	36 months	$91.61	$3,298	$1,298

Two things stand out. Stretching the 36% loan from 12 to 36 months cuts the payment by more than half but triples the interest. And moving from 36% to 99% APR at the same term costs more in interest than the loan was worth. Add an origination fee and the real cost climbs again, which is why origination fees and prepayment penalties deserve a read before you compare offers on rate alone. If the difference between an interest rate and an APR is fuzzy, start with APR vs. interest rate.

Why the APR alone doesn't tell the whole story

A longer term lowers the monthly payment, but it also means paying interest for more months, which can raise the total cost even at a similar rate. This is easy to misjudge when comparing an installment loan to a payday loan. The payday loan's APR looks far higher on paper, but its dollar cost is capped by a short repayment window, while a long installment loan at a high rate can end up costing more in total. Installment loans vs payday loans walks through a full worked comparison of how the two structures actually stack up.

Shopping with less-than-perfect credit

If your credit is bruised, some installment lenders will still approve you, usually with a higher rate or a smaller loan amount to offset the risk. That can be a reasonable trade-off compared with a payday loan, but terms vary widely between lenders, and some come with add-on fees that quietly raise the cost. Read bad-credit installment loans: what to watch for before you apply, so you know which red flags to look for in the fine print, and how lenders decide your rate for what actually moves the number you are offered.

The installment lenders we review

These are the lenders in our catalog that make subprime installment loans online. The APR range, loan amounts, and terms on each row come from the lender's own published terms; the review behind each one has the date and the source, plus the pros, the cons, and the states the lender serves.

OppLoans

4.0

Est. APR: 129% – 195%
Loan amount: $500 – $5,000
Min. credit score: None
Loan term: 9 – 18 mo

Personify Financial

3.9

Est. APR: 36% – 179.5%
Loan amount: $500 – $15,000
Min. credit score: Varies
Loan term: 12 – 48 mo

NetCredit

3.8

Est. APR: 34.99% – 99.99%
Loan amount: $1,000 – $10,000
Min. credit score: Varies
Loan term: 12 – 60 mo

Oportun

3.7

Est. APR: Up to 36%
Loan amount: $300 – $10,000
Min. credit score: None
Loan term: Not published

Possible Finance

3.6

Est. APR: 136% – 249%
Loan amount: $50 – $600
Min. credit score: None
Loan term: 2 mo

RISE

3.4

Est. APR: 60% – 299%
Loan amount: $500 – $5,000
Min. credit score: Varies
Loan term: 7 – 36 mo

Integra Credit

3.3

Est. APR: 159% – 249%
Loan amount: $500 – $3,000
Min. credit score: Varies
Loan term: 12 – 21 mo

CreditNinja

3.2

Est. APR: From 35.99%
Loan amount: $300 – $5,000
Min. credit score: None
Loan term: 3 – 24 mo

Minimum credit scores are editorial estimates based on lender disclosures and public reporting; approval depends on your full application, and "None" means the lender does not set a published score minimum.

Compare two lenders side by side

Every lender we review has a head-to-head page against every other. The most useful pairs among the installment lenders above:

The full set, including the prime personal-loan lenders, is on the lender comparison page.

What happens after you submit a request

You fill in one form with the amount, the purpose, where you live, and the income and contact details a lender needs to consider you; submitting it does not affect your credit score, though lenders you are connected with may run credit checks before making an offer. We send the request to the lending networks you consent to on the last step. If a lender wants to make you an offer, you are sent on to review the exact amount, APR, payment, and term with that lender, and nothing is binding until you sign with them. The full walkthrough, including timing and what each status message means, is in what happens after you submit a loan request.

Where the matching service is available

Our matching service currently accepts requests from residents of 49 states. It is not available in the District of Columbia or New York. Availability depends on the lending networks we work with and can change; the form checks your state before you submit. Loan amounts, fees, and terms are set by each lender and vary by state.

How this page works

EconoCents is not a lender. We publish independent guides about installment borrowing, and we run a matching service: when you submit a loan request through our form, we pass it to lending networks whose participating lenders may make you an offer, and those networks pay us for the request. We do not charge you for this, we do not make credit decisions, and submitting a request does not guarantee that you will be connected with a lender or approved. The guides and reviews on this page are written to help you decide whether to borrow at all, before you decide who to borrow from.

Which Online Lenders Get the Most CFPB Complaints? 17 Lenders Compared (2026)

We pulled the CFPB's public complaint database for 17 lenders we review, same twelve-month window, same method. Possible Finance's complaints rose 132% and it was the only lender with a meaningful share of late responses; OneMain and SoFi drew the most overall; LendingPoint and Best Egg resolved the largest share with relief. Here is the full table, the loan-only comparison, and how to read a complaint count without being misled by it.

Personify Financial Alternatives: Lenders Like Personify Financial and What to Do If You Were Declined

Where Personify Financial's 36%-179.5% APR sits next to other high-cost and mid-cost installment lenders, what its own files say about why an application gets declined, and the lower-cost paths worth checking first.

Integra Credit Alternatives: Lenders Like Integra Credit and What to Do If You Were Declined

What Integra Credit charges, the other triple-digit-APR lenders serving the same borrowers, the mid-cost lenders worth checking first, and what to do if Integra Credit turned you down.

NetCredit Alternatives: Lenders Like NetCredit and What to Do If You Were Declined

Lenders in the same APR bracket as NetCredit, the lower-cost installment lenders worth checking first, and what to do next if NetCredit declined your application.

OppLoans Alternatives: Lenders Like OppLoans and What to Do If You Were Declined

Where OppLoans sits on cost and who else serves the same borrower, five lower-cost lenders worth checking first, and what to do if OppLoans turned you down.

RISE Alternatives: Lenders Like RISE and What to Do If You Were Declined

Where RISE sits on cost, which other installment lenders serve the same bracket, five lenders that cost less if you can clear their bar, and what to check if RISE turned you down.

APR vs. Interest Rate: What's the Difference?

The interest rate prices the money you borrow; the APR prices the whole loan, fees included. A worked $5,000 example shows how a 5% origination fee turns a 15% interest rate into an APR near 18.7%, plus the Regulation Z rules behind both numbers.

Personal Loan With a Cosigner vs. a Joint Application

The legal difference between a cosigner and a co-borrower, the FTC notice a creditor must give a cosigner, how each shows up on both people's credit reports, which lenders reviewed here offer a joint option, and a worked rate comparison.

Debt Consolidation Loans: How to Qualify and What It Really Costs

What lenders look at before approving a debt consolidation loan, which reviewed lenders pay your creditors directly, and what a $12,000 loan really costs once the origination fee and the APR are both counted.

How Do Lenders Decide Your Interest Rate?

The inputs that set your APR — credit score and file depth, income and debt, loan size and term, collateral, state rate caps, and the lender's own cost of funds — plus your rights to see the pricing notice and the reasons behind a denial.

Origination Fees and Prepayment Penalties, Decoded

What an origination fee actually deducts from your loan, what a prepayment penalty would cost you if a lender charged one, and a lender-by-lender table of who charges what as of September 2026.

What Credit Score Do You Need for a Personal Loan?

The published minimum credit score for every lender we review, what a published floor actually means for approval, and what to do if your score sits below 600 or in the 600-680 range.

How to Get a Personal Loan With Bad Credit

The steps that actually improve your approval odds with damaged credit, which reviewed lenders let you check your rate with a soft pull, how to match your score to the right tier, and what a $3,000 loan at 99% APR really costs once it's amortized out.

Refinancing an Installment Loan: When It Helps and When It Traps You

When refinancing an installment loan lowers your total cost, when it just restarts the clock on interest, the refinance-churn business model regulators have flagged, and a worked break-even calculation you can run on your own numbers.

Secured vs. Unsecured Installment Loan: What Collateral Changes

What pledging collateral actually buys you on an installment loan — rate, amount, and approval odds — what you risk if you default, and a worked $5,000 example comparing the two.

Bad-Credit Installment Loans: What to Watch For

What 'no credit check' really signals, the fee stack to inspect before signing, the refinancing-churn model to avoid, how to compare offers on total repayment, checking a lender's license, and legitimate paths to a better rate.

How Installment Loan Interest Actually Works

A plain-language explanation of amortization, a worked illustrative payment schedule, APR versus interest rate versus total cost of credit, why extra early principal payments save the most, precomputed interest as a red flag, and how to read a TILA disclosure box.

Installment Loans vs Payday Loans: The Real Difference

The same $500 borrowed as a two-week payday loan and as installment loans over 6, 12, and 18 months: total cost, what each payment takes out of a paycheck, why APR and interest rate are not the same thing, and which structure fits which situation.

Decided an installment loan is the right move?

One request goes to the lending networks we work with. If a lender in a network wants to make you an offer, you are sent to that lender to review the exact terms before you accept anything. Submitting does not guarantee an offer.

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