Avant Personal Loans Review: Quick Loans, but at a High Cost

4.6 _/5

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Personal Loans

• Quick funding
• Offers smaller loans
• Don’t need excellent credit

• Expensive interest rates
• High loan administrative fee
• Not available in some states

Loan amounts	$2,000 – $35,000
APR range	9.95% – 35.99%
Term lengths	24 – 60 months
Fees	Administration fee: Up to 9.99% Late fee: $25 Returned payment fee: $15

If your credit isn’t the greatest but you still need to borrow money, Avant is often one of the first lenders to pop up in a Google search. Avant personal loans may be relatively quick to get, but they come at a high cost.

Table of Contents

1. What is Avant?
2. How do Avant personal loans work?
3. Am I eligible for an Avant personal loan?
4. Pros and cons
5. Customer experiences
6. How to apply for an Avant personal loan
7. Alternatives

What is Avant?

Avant is a fintech company founded in 2012 and based in Chicago, Illinois. It’s not actually a true lender; instead, it offers servicing, support, and underwriting for WebBank, the company that actually provides the funds for your Avant personal loan. In addition to its personal loan, Avant also offers an equally-expensive credit card.

How do Avant personal loans work?

Avant offers a similar personal loan experience to other online lenders. There isn’t really anything different or special about the way its loans work, aside from a few minor points that can be useful in some cases.

Take loan amounts, for example. Avant personal loans range from $2,000 to $35,000 in size, which falls within the lower range of most other online lenders, which often offer loans of $50,000 or more. That makes Avant a perfect fit for things like:

• Extensive auto repairs
• Large emergency veterinary bills
• Consolidating credit card debt or payday loans
• Small to medium-sized home repairs and upgrades

The smaller size of Avant’s personal loans is useful when you consider the rates it charges for its loans, too. A $35,000 loan for the max term lengths (60 months) and APR (35.99%) would charge $40,865 in interest over its life—more than the original amount you borrowed. Smaller loan amounts help limit the high cost of borrowing. 

Am I eligible for an Avant personal loan?

Many lenders are upfront with their lending requirements, but Avant is not. It only offers two clues about what type of eligibility requirements you’ll need to get approved for a loan:

• Credit score: Avant states that most of its customers have a 600 to 700 credit score, although it doesn’t specify whether it’ll accept lower credit scores, too. 
• Bank account: You must have a current checking or savings account for Avant to deposit your loan proceeds into.

We reached out to Avant to get more information about its loan eligibility requirements; however, the company did not respond. 

Pros and cons

If you’re considering an Avant personal loan, here’s a quick summary of the most important info in comparison with other borrowing options:

Pros

• Quick funding

  If you’re approved for an Avant personal loan, you could receive your loan funds as soon as the next business day. 

• Offers smaller loans

  Loan amounts start at $2,000, which is less than many other online lenders and perfect for smaller loan needs. 

• Don’t need excellent credit

  A typical Avant personal loans customer has a “fair” (580 to 669) to “good” (670 – 739) FICO credit score.

Cons

• Expensive interest rates

  Avant personal loans charge up to 35.99% APR, which is higher even than most credit cards

• High loan administrative fee

  On top of the high rates, you may owe an “administrative fee” of up to 9.95% to fund your loan. It’s taken out of your loan funds, so you’ll get a much smaller cut.

• Not available in some states

  Avant doesn’t offer personal loans in the following eight states: HI, IA, ME, MS, NY, VT, WA, or WV

• Doesn’t disclose loan requirements

  The lender doesn’t really provide any information about what kind of income, citizenship, or other qualification requirements you’ll need to meet. 

Customer experiences

Many of the online reviews and notes from actual customers discuss the credit card that Avant also offers. The complaints that customers have about its credit cards tend to mirror those of the few personal loan reviews available, however: that it’s expensive, and customer service often leaves a lot to be desired. 

That said, many people really appreciated that Avant personal loans were quick and easy to apply for. When time is of the essence, that can make a big difference. 

Here’s the overall consensus from major review websites about Avant’s qualities as a lender:

Source	Rating	Number of reviews
Google	4.5/5	3,466
Trustpilot	4.5/5	31,099
Better Business Bureau	1.07 /5	293

Avant is also ranked 12th out of 17 lenders by J.D. Power, which is below average.

How to apply for an Avant personal loan

Avant’s claim to fame is that it makes getting a personal loan easy—and for the most part, that’s true. Here’s how a typical application works:

1. Fill out a quote form: Complete a quick and simple form on its website by clicking “CHECK YOUR LOAN OPTIONS.” You’ll need to enter your contact information, income details, and requested loan amount. 
2. Compare loan options: Avant will do a soft credit check to see what kinds of loans, if anything, it can offer you. This doesn’t impact your credit. It’s also wise to check your rates with other personal loan lenders at this time, too. 
3. Complete application: If you choose one of the Avant personal loan options, you’ll need to supply a few more details as well as additional financial documents. Avant states this should only take a few extra minutes. 
4. Get a loan decision: Avant will conduct a hard credit inquiry at this time, which may temporarily lower your credit score. According to the company, you should receive a final loan decision within a few minutes. 
5. Receive your funds: Avant will take a slice out of your loan funds for its “administrative fee” and deposit the remainder into your bank account, often by the next business day. It may still take a few days before you can see and use the money, depending on your bank’s deposit policies and when the transfer is processed. 

Alternatives

No matter how quickly you need the money, it’s always a good idea to shop around. Avant personal loans are relatively expensive, and just a few extra minutes of work could save you many hours down the road. Here are some of Avant’s top competitors:

• Oportun: If you’re having a hard time getting approved with other lenders, try Oportun. It’s more open to applicants with adverse credit profiles, although it came in dead last for customer satisfaction on J.D. Power’s annual personal loan lender survey. 
• Universal Credit: This lender charges similar rates and fees for its personal loans, but it offers a wider range of loan options: anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000. Universal Credit charges a higher base APR than Avant does, however. 
• Earnest/MoneyLion: You can compare multiple loan options at once with either Earnest or its lending marketplace partner, MoneyLion. This can save you a lot of time and doesn’t cost you anything extra.

How we rated Avant

We designed LendEDU’s editorial rating system to help readers find companies that offer the best personal loans. Our system awards higher ratings to companies with affordable solutions, positive customer reviews, and online transparency of benefits and terms.

We compared Avant to several personal loan lenders, using hundreds of data points from company websites, public disclosures, customer reviews, and direct communication with company representatives. We weighted, scored, and combined each factor to produce a final editorial rating. This rating is expressed on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest possible score. Our take is represented in our rating and best-for designation, recapped below.