Upstart Personal Loans Review

Upstart is an online lending marketplace that partners with banks and credit unions to provide personal loans from $1,000-$75,000. Upstart goes beyond traditional lending metrics to help you find financing that considers many factors, including your education and experience. This means that borrowers with poor, conventional credit scores shouldn't be discouraged from applying.

Upstart also boast quick-approval decisions and fast funding, if you are approved. As for downsides, they charge origination fees of up to 12% of the loan value and only provide options for 3 year and 5 year loans.

Loan Options

• The Upstart platform offers personal loans between $1,000 and $75,000. Your loan amount will be determined based on your credit, income, and certain other information provided in your loan application. Not all applicants will qualify for the full amount. Minimum loan amounts vary by state: GA ($3,100), HI ($1,500), MA ($7,000).

• The only available loan terms at Upstart are 3 and 5 years.

• The Upstart platform does not currently support joint loan applications or the inclusion of cosigners.

Interest & Fees

• APR: The Upstart platform offer loans with fixed rates of 6.3% to 35.99%. The best rates will be reserved for borrowers with excellent credit history, and the full range available varies by state.

• Origination Fees: Loans through Upstart incur an origination fee, deducted from the loan proceeds before you are paid. Upstart no longer publish the range on their own site; NerdWallet report it as 0% to 12%, and the 8.15% in Upstart's own example below gives a sense of the middle.

• Prepayment Penalty: Borrowers do not incur any fees if they wish to pay off their loan early.

• Late Payment: Charged if you miss a payment. Upstart's fee guidance says the amount may be a percentage of the overdue payment or a flat fee "according to your loan terms", without stating either, so the figure that applies to you is in your loan agreement.

• Unsuccessful payment: A fee is charged if a bank transfer (ACH) or check is returned. Each failed attempt may incur another one, and this may be on top of charges imposed by your banking institution.

How long to receive funds?

Upstart publish a measured figure rather than a promise: in June 2026, 65% of their customers had the funds transfer initiated within 24 hours of approval and signing the promissory note. Their help centre puts the usual range at 1 to 3 business days.

Same-day funding is possible but the cut-off is early: sign before 11:50am ET on a weekday and the transfer is generally initiated the same day. The exact cut-off depends on which of Upstart's lending partners you are matched with, which you will not know before you apply, so their support team is the only way to pin it down. When the money reaches you after that depends on your own bank.

Geographical Availability

The Upstart platform accepts personal loan applications from residents of all 50 states plus Washington DC, according to NerdWallet.

Loan Eligibility

Unlike many other lenders, Upstart does not impose a minimum credit score on its prospective borrowers (with some state specific exceptions), though they do exclude applicants lacking sufficient credit history to generate a credit score at any of the major credit reporting agencies. However, they require that prospective borrower satisfy some additional criteria to receive a loan through Upstart.

Income Requirements

Prospective borrowers must have a regular, verifiable source of income of $12,000 or more annually. For information on the types of income that Upstart consider, please see this page.

Are they legit?

Founded in 2012 and based in Burlingame, California, Upstart operates an online lending marketplace that partners with more than 100 banks and credit unions. It is not a lender but rather a facilitator of loans issued by one of its partner lenders. Upstart handles the customer service, application process and loan management, while the actual funds are provided by the bank. Upstart receives compensation from the issuing bank for facilitating the loan, as well as an ongoing fee for servicing the loan. In Q2 2026, 558,014 loans were originated across their platform, totaling $4.2 billion, both up 50% year over year, and they report over 4 million customers on the marketplace as of 30 June 2026. Upstart is publicly listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol "UPST".

Reviews & News

At the time of writing, Upstart had approximately 97% 5-star reviews on Trustpilot from a total of just over 70,000, with an average rating of 4.9/5.

On their A+ accredited BBB profile, they have an average rating of 1.21/5 from 163 reviews, alongside 763 complaints over three years and 264 closed in the last year. The gap between the two scores is the widest of any lender here, and the BBB reviews are a much smaller sample than the Trustpilot ones.

Do They Report to the Credit Bureaus?

Yes. Upstart report monthly loan status and payment history to the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and Transunion. Regular on-time payments in your credit file will likely increase your credit score and improve your chances of qualifying for credit in the future. However, failure to satisfy your repayment obligations could damage your credit score, making it more difficult to borrow again.

Get in touch

You can call Upstart at 650-204-1000 (local) or 1-855-438-8778 (toll-free) Monday-Friday between 5AM-6PM PST and at weekends between 7AM-3.30PM PST. Alternatively, you can email support@upstart.com. If your loan ends up serviced by one of Upstart's lending partners rather than by Upstart, the contact details for it are in your account dashboard.

What we like?

Unique underwriting model: Upstart's use of alternative data means that borrowers with average or poor credit scores may have better chances of approval with them. Although educational information is collected as part of Upstart's rate check process, neither Upstart nor its bank partners have a minimum educational attainment requirement in order to be eligible for a loan. For individuals with good or excellent credit, Upstart's proprietary underwriting model might still score them more favourably than traditional scores, which could translate to better terms compared to the competition.

Check your rate: Borrowers can check their rate on the Upstart website, without any impact to their credit score. When you check your rate, Upstart check your credit report. This initial (soft) inquiry will not affect your credit score. If you accept your rate and proceed with your application, they will do another (hard) credit inquiry that will impact your credit score. If you take out a loan, repayment information may be reported to the credit bureaus. Even if you have an offer elsewhere, it might be worth seeing if loan via the Upstart platform can beat it.

Fast process: Upstart boast high levels of automation, with more than 90% of loans moving from application to funding with no human involvement. This should mean a speedy application process that can be completed fully online, though the funding itself still takes one to three business days.

What we don't like?

Origination fees: Loans through Upstart incur origination fees of up to 12% on the approved loan amount. Origination fees are automatically paid at the time of funding. For example, if you are approved for $10,000 loan with a 5% origination fee, you'll only receive $9,500 in your bank account. Many lenders don't charge origination fees, so you may wish to look elsewhere to avoid them.

Limited terms: Upstart offer loans of either 3 years or 5 years duration. Borrowers looking for shorter loans might wish to explore alternative lenders.

No joint/cosigned loans: Upstart does not support loans with multiple applicants, either joint or cosigned applications. A cosigner or joint applicant can sometimes increase your chance of approval or give you better terms, so it might be worth checking out alternative lenders that provide this option.

Poor BBB customer reviews: Despite excellent Trustpilot scores, Upstart has a very low customer rating on the Better Business Bureau (BBB), where complaints frequently mention customer service issues, billing disputes and problems during the application process.

Summary

With AI-driven underwriting, risk-free prequalification and fast funding, Upstart represents a strong option for most borrowers, especially those with thin credit files or lower credit scores. However, high origination fees and limited repayment term options may push stronger applicants toward more competitive lenders.