SoFi Review

SoFi is a publicly traded financial technology company whose personal loans are originated by its own bank, SoFi Bank, N.A. That bank charter is a real distinction from marketplace lenders that route loans through a partner, and SoFi lends in larger amounts than most competitors reviewed on this site, from $5,000 up to $100,000, at APRs of 6.49% to 35.49% as of September 2026. It’s built for borrowers with good to excellent credit who want a sizable loan, not a lender for a small, fast emergency need.

That’s the trade-off worth sitting with before you apply. SoFi publishes no minimum credit score, so there’s no simple bar to check yourself against the way you can with Prosper’s stated 640. The $5,000 minimum loan also rules SoFi out if you need a few hundred or a couple thousand dollars; LendingClub and Upgrade both start at $1,000.

How SoFi works

SoFi Personal Loans are originated by SoFi Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, NMLS #696891 — a national bank, not a marketplace pairing you with investor funding. SoFi does note that some applicants may instead be paired with a participating bank, in which case the rate can fall outside SoFi’s published range.

The loan itself is a standard fixed-rate, fixed-term installment loan. SoFi’s rate page lists terms of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years, while a separate SoFi support-center article describes terms of “2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 years.” Those two SoFi pages disagree, so don’t assume a 10-year term is available until you see it on an actual offer; we’re listing 24 to 84 months here because that’s what the rate table shows. Proceeds can’t be used for post-secondary education expenses.

Rates, fees, and what a loan really costs

SoFi’s published APR range is 6.49% to 35.49%, and the floor rises with the term you choose: 6.49% on a 2-year loan, climbing to 7.38% at 3 years, 8.23% at 4 years, 9.50% at 5 years, 10.56% at 6 years, and 11.90% at 7 years, with the 35.49% ceiling the same across every term. Those floor rates already include two discounts — 0.25% for Autopay and 0.25% for the Member Rate Discount — and only apply to the term options without an origination fee, so the lowest tier is reserved for the strongest applicants on the shortest terms, not the typical offer.

The origination fee is optional rather than automatic: SoFi says some members see loan options with no origination fee at all, while others can choose a one-time fee in exchange for a lower rate. Choose the fee option and it’s folded into your total loan amount rather than charged out of pocket, so there’s no separate upfront cost — but SoFi doesn’t publish the fee percentage on the pages we checked, so you can’t estimate it until you have a real offer. SoFi says it does not charge late fees or prepayment penalties, though a missed payment can still be reported to the credit bureaus.

SoFi’s own example on its rate page: a $30,000 loan over 5 years at 9.50% APR runs 60 payments of $630.06, for a total of $37,803.35. Here’s the same math on a smaller loan with no origination fee, closer to the middle of SoFi’s range. Say you borrow $10,000 over 60 months at 22.5% APR, the rough midpoint between the 5-year floor (9.50%) and the ceiling (35.49%), with no origination fee:

• Cash received: an APR already includes the origination fee by definition, so we amortize the cash you actually receive at the APR rather than counting the fee a second time — with no fee here, that’s the full $10,000.
• Monthly payment: amortizing $10,000 at 22.5% APR over 60 months works out to about $279 (a standard amortization of payment = P·r/(1−(1+r)^−n), with r the monthly rate).
• Total paid over the term: $279 x 60 = about $16,742, roughly $6,742 more than the $10,000 you borrowed.

That’s our own amortization, not a SoFi quote, and your actual rate, term, and fee depend on your credit profile. How installment loan interest actually works walks through the same math with a fee folded in, and origination fees and prepayment penalties explains why an optional fee changes the math differently than a fee every borrower pays.

Beyond Autopay and the Member Rate Discount, SoFi offers a Direct Pay discount of 0.25% when you apply at least half of your proceeds directly to eligible creditors, plus separate pricing for returning borrowers.

Who qualifies

SoFi doesn’t publish a minimum credit score. It says eligibility depends on your financial history, credit score, and monthly income versus expenses among other factors — a harder bar to self-check than a lender that states a number. Personal-loan credit score requirements is worth reading if you want to gauge where you likely stand before you apply.

Beyond credit, SoFi’s published requirements are: the age of majority in your state; US citizenship, eligible permanent residence, or non-permanent resident alien status, including DACA recipients and asylum seekers; being employed, having sufficient income from another source, or a job offer starting within 90 days; and living in a state where SoFi is authorized to lend. A prior SoFi borrower needs at least three payments made — the most recent three on time — before taking out another loan. Checking your rate is a soft pull; continuing the application triggers a hard pull once SoFi requests your full credit report.

Applying and getting funded

You check your rate with the soft pull, review the terms you’re offered, and complete the application, which triggers the hard credit pull. SoFi calls its disbursement target Same Day Funding: most borrowers get funds the same day when the loan is approved and the agreement is signed by 5:30 PM ET on a business day. SoFi is explicit that this isn’t guaranteed, that delays can occur, and that it doesn’t apply to loans originated through a partner bank rather than SoFi Bank itself. SoFi also notes that if it matches you with a participating bank instead of lending directly, your rate may fall outside its published range. If you’re declined, SoFi asks you to wait at least 30 days before reapplying.

Where SoFi is available

SoFi doesn’t publish a list of excluded states — it states only that restrictions may apply, that the $5,000 minimum can run higher in specific states due to legal requirements, and that rate caps may be lower in some states. That’s different from a lender like Prosper that names the states it skips; with SoFi, you won’t know whether your state changes anything until you check your rate.

How SoFi compares

Against Prosper, the contrast is credit access versus loan size: Prosper states a firm 640 minimum and caps loans at $50,000, while SoFi publishes no minimum and lends up to $100,000, a much larger ceiling for a borrower who clears whatever unpublished bar SoFi applies. Against LendingClub (now Happen Bank) and Upgrade, the biggest practical difference is the floor: both will write a loan as small as $1,000, while SoFi’s $5,000 minimum rules it out for a smaller need. No prepayment penalty is common to all three; SoFi is the one where an origination fee is optional rather than a standard cost of borrowing. If debt consolidation is the goal, all three can send proceeds directly to your creditors, and SoFi’s Direct Pay version comes with a 0.25% rate discount. When debt consolidation actually makes sense is worth reading before you commit to any of the three.

Is SoFi legit? Complaints and reputation

SoFi is a legitimate lender, and more than that, a bank: SoFi Bank, N.A. is a national bank, and its parent company, SoFi Technologies, Inc., is publicly traded under the ticker SOFI. SoFi holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, though it is not BBB-accredited (accreditation is voluntary). The BBB profile we checked lists 2,203 complaints closed there over the prior three years, alongside 379 customer reviews. We didn’t find a specific regulatory action described on the pages we checked, so we’re not reporting one either way.

What the CFPB complaint database shows

We pulled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s public complaint database for SoFi Technologies, Inc. on October 7, 2026. The CFPB publishes every complaint it forwards to a company, along with the issue the consumer selected and how the company responded, so the figures are a record of consumer-filed complaints, not findings of wrongdoing. SoFi answers complaints about every product it offers under one company name, so the total is a bank-wide figure, not a personal loan figure.

• 3,544 complaints in the twelve months ending September 30, 2026, up 36% from 2,604 the year before. That is the second-largest count among the 17 online lenders we track, behind OneMain (3,907), but the overwhelming majority had nothing to do with a loan.
• Checking or savings accounts drew 2,261 of them, nearly two thirds, led by “managing an account” (1,370), “problem with a lender or other company charging your account” (386), and “closing an account” (352). Money transfers added 285, the credit card 222, credit reporting 207, student loans 154, debt collection 89, and mortgages 54.
• Personal loan complaints were 263, up from 180. The issues were “getting the loan” (83), “struggling to pay your loan” (36), “problem when making payments” (33), “charged fees or interest you didn’t expect” (24), and “problem with additional add-on products or services” (19). “Getting the loan” leading the list fits a lender that declines applicants below its unpublished bar: a stalled or declined application is the most common thing people complain about.
• Relief was more common than at most lenders. 257 complaints closed with monetary relief and 34 with non-monetary relief, about 8% of the total, up from 183 and 31 the year before; 3,240 closed with explanation, meaning the company replied without offering relief, and 13 were still in progress. Among the 263 loan complaints, 14 closed with monetary relief and 11 with non-monetary relief, about 10%.
• All 3,544 were answered on time, as were all 2,604 the year before.
• By state, California led with 503, then Texas with 365 and Florida with 321.

For a personal loan borrower, the number to compare is the 263, not the 3,544, and the loan-only relief rate of about 10% is among the higher ones in the group. If a problem is not resolved directly, you can file with the CFPB.

For how SoFi’s record compares with 16 other online lenders over the same twelve months, see our CFPB complaints by lender report.

Bottom line

SoFi is a bank-chartered lender built for larger personal loans — up to $100,000 — at rates that reward a strong credit profile and a shorter term. The trade-offs are a $5,000 minimum and a credit bar SoFi never states, so you won’t know where you stand until you check your rate. If your credit clears that bar and you need more than a few thousand dollars, SoFi’s range and optional origination fee are worth comparing against Prosper, LendingClub, and Upgrade. If your credit sits below what SoFi is likely to approve, start a loan request is a faster way to find out than guessing from a rate table.