Wells Fargo Personal Loan Review: Rates, Options, And Public Opinion

If you are looking to fund a big purchase or to consolidate a loan at competitive interest rates, then the Wells Fargo personal loan may be a good choice. The bank gives unsecured personal loans as low as $2,000 and as big as $100,000.

The bank offers personal loans for almost anything. Although the best interest rates for Wells Fargo personal loans are reserved for the bank’s checking account holders, non-customers are not barred from getting a loan with this bank. Find out if Wells Fargo personal loans are the right solution for your funding needs.

What Is a Wells Fargo Personal Loan?

Wells Fargo is one of the few big banks that give unsecured personal loans. From this bank, you get anywhere from $2,000 to $100,000 depending on your credit history and current income sources. The bank offers loans to both customers and non-customers and its payment periods range from 12 months to 60 months.

Wells Fargo Personal Loan Specs

Fees

One of the outstanding facts about personal loans from Wells Fargo is that there are really very minimal fees. The bank does not charge application, origination, or repayment fees. Other companies will charge fees for these types of loans, typically ranging from one to six percent of the loan amount. The bank does charge a $39 fee for late payments as well as $39 for returned payments. It is therefore important to pay on time to avoid these fees.

Interest Rates

Current interest rates for Wells Fargo personal loans are between 7.24 percent and 24.24 percent APR. The reason for this wide variation in interest rates stems from the fact that people’s credit scores and histories differ.

The APR for these loans is fixed and it won’t vary over the period of the loan repayment. People who qualify for the bank’s checking account can get a discount of 0.25 percent off the APR. Other ways you can attempt to reduce the interest rate is by co-applying with someone with a solid credit score and history.

Income Requirements

There is technically no minimum credit score requirement to apply for a Wells Fargo personal loans. The bank does, however, review up to 30 factors to weigh your credit-worthiness. These include your credit history, income, banking relationships, and credit score. Wells Fargo does not specify how you can get good rates from the company but it claims that over 5 percent of their approved applicants qualified for their best rate.

How to Apply

You can apply for a Wells Fargo personal loan either by phone, in person, or online. Phone applications are done by calling 1-888-667-5250. If you are applying online, you need to click the “Apply Now” button on the Wells Fargo website under the Wells Fargo personal loans page. Existing customers of the bank do not need to physically visit the branch to complete the processing but people who are not customers need to.

Documents and details you will need to complete this application include your name and other personal details, social security number, phone, email, physical address, and income and employment info.

Fees

The bank does not have application or origination fees. The bank’s late payment fee and returned payment fee for personal loans are both $39.

How It Compares

We picked a few similar products available on the market to see how they compare.

• Toronto-Dominion Bank
• U.S. Bancorp
• Santander Bank

Wells Fargo Personal Loan

Fees $

The bank doesn’t charge origination or application fees but charges $39 for late payments.

Interest Rate   3 Stars

Interest rates vary from 7.24-24.24 percent depending on personal history.

Loan Options   5 Stars

Wells Fargo personal loans can be requested to use for virtually anything. This includes loans for college tuition, paying student debt, real estate, and more. The bank’s minimum loan amount is $2,000 and the maximum loan amount is $100,000. This makes the Wells Fargo personal loan favorable to both high and low net worth individuals.

Public Opinion     3 Stars

There is no shortage of customer reviews about the process, customer service, rates, and fees of the Wells Fargo personal loan. The reviews are mostly positive for this bank.

Loan Terms      3 Stars

Loan terms range from 12 to 60 months.

PROS

• The funds can be available the same day
• No origination fees
• Low interest rates for people with good credit scores
• Good for debt consolidation

CONS

• Average customer service
• The bank does a hard credit check when processing which can affect credit score

www.wellsfargo.com

Toronto-Dominion Bank

For existing customers of Toronto-Dominion (TD), getting a personal loan from the bank makes a lot of sense. Although you don’t have to be a customer to apply for a personal loan, the bank’s policies favor people who are already customers of the bank. The bank only gives loans to people with good credit scores (FICO score of at least  680), and the rates for this bank’s loans are rather high. Like Wells Fargo, the bank offers a 0.25 percent APR discount on the loan amount for existing customers. The bank offers secured and unsecured loans.

The bank only gives loans to people who are located in an area it serves. This means that you can only get a loan from this bank if you live in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, and Washington DC. Loans by this bank are repaid monthly. You can apply for a TD Bank loan online, through an in-branch visit, or over the phone. It takes about two days to get the funds. Like Wells Fargo, this bank does a hard credit check when you apply.

Fees $

For personal unsecured and secured loans from this bank, the bank charges a late payment fee, which is the lesser of 5 percent of the minimum payment due or $10. However, it has no origination fee, checking processing fee, and no prepayment penalty. The bank does charge a $25 annual fee for the unsecured personal line of credit loans.

Interest Rate   3 Stars

The bank’s rates for unsecured personal loans range from 8.99 percent of 15.99 percent if taken with auto-pay. An unsecured personal line of credit loans attracts interest rates of 9.50 to 14.50 percent APR while secured personal loans attract a variable APR rate of 6.92 percent.

Loan Options   2 Stars

TD Bank has a generous personal loan offering including both secured and unsecured personal loans as well as personal lines of credits. The bank offers loans from $2,000 to $25,000.

Public Opinion    4 Stars

The bank gets mostly favorable ratings from current and former customers.

Loan Terms      3 Stars

Like the Wells Fargo personal loan, loans from this bank have terms that range from one to five years.

PROS

• Discounts for existing TD Bank customers
• No origination and application fees
• No income requirement
• 0.25 percent APR discount when you use auto-pay
• No prepayment penalty

CONS

• High interest rates
• Doesn’t give loans to people with poor credit scores and histories
• Only available in a handful of East Coast states

U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp only offers personal loans and lines of credits to their existing customers. The loan terms are especially favorable to Silver, Gold, and Platinum checking account holders with excellent credit scores. This bank precludes non-customers from applying and states that applicants should have a U.S. Bancorp deposit account for at least 120 days before being eligible to apply. Customers can unlock lower rates (2 percent APR less) by enabling automatic repayment. When customers take a personal loan from this bank, the bank also waives maintenance fees on Gold checking accounts.

In addition, customers can qualify for an extra 1 percent APR discount if they state that the personal loan is going to be used for a green home improvement or energy efficient purchase. These discounts, however, are not applicable to lines of credit. There is little information about rates by this bank but rates are generally over 7 percent. In addition to the bank requiring personal loan applicants to have been customers for at least 120 days, the bank requires proof of annual income, as well as a credit score above 660 to process a personal loan. It takes the bank one to five business day to release the funds.

Fees $$$

Personal loan applicants must pay a $50 origination fee and 1 percent of the loan amount for prepaying the loan balance before the first year is over. Their personal line of credit does not have an annual fee. There are late fees and returned payment fees that are typically between $25 and $38 for the personal loan and unsecured line of credit.

Interest Rate   3 Stars

There is little info about interest rates for this bank but they start at 7 percent.

Loan Options   2 Stars

The bank gives out unsecured personal loans form $3,000 to $25,000 and $5,000 to $25,000 for an unsecured personal line of credit.

Public Opinion    3 Stars

There are mixed reviews for Bancorp personal loans. Most reviews tend toward the favorable side.

Loan Terms      3 Stars

The bank offers terms of 1 to 5 years.

PROS

• Generous discounts when you use auto-pay
• Discounts for loans for environmentally friendly purchases

CONS

• Origination fees and penalties
• Only available to U.S. Bancorp customers

www.usbank.com

Santander Bank

Santander Bank is one of the financial institutions that offer loans to non-bank customers in the Northeast. The bank gives unsecured loans for almost anything if you meet the bank’s requirements. While some banks only give loans to existing customers, this bank offers loans to the public. However, the best rates are reserved for the bank’s customers who pay using auto-pay. Such customers stand to take 0.25 percent APR off from the rate.

The bank only gives loans to residents of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maine Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington DC.

Fees $$

This bank has no origination fee. Personal lines of credit attract an annual fee between $25 to $50.

Interest Rate   3 Stars

Interest rates at this bank range from 6.99 percent to 16.99 percent. Personal lines of credit have variable rates of 9.49 percent.

Loan Options   2 Stars

This bank gives personal loans and lines of credit from $5,000 to $35,000. Loans can be used for debt consolidation, home repairs, and purchases.

Public Opinion    2 Stars

There are lots of negative customer reviews about Santander Bank personal loans.

Loan Terms      3 Stars

Like the Wells Fargo personal loan, loans from this bank have terms of 1 to 5 years.

PROS

• Low rates for existing customers
• Not required to be a bank customer to get a loan
• Debt consolidation possible

CONS

• Credit check required for this loan
• Can’t be completed online
• High APR
• Poor customer ratings
• Only gives loans to people in the Northeast U.S.

www.santanderbank.com

Conclusion

We believe that Wells Fargo personal loans are a good choice for most borrowers. Although the rates are not the best, they are very competitive, especially for people with good credit score and histories The bank’s personal loan offerings are not exclusively for existing customers, but the best rates are reserved for existing Wells Fargo Bank customers with good credit histories. Customers can save 0.25 APR off the rate if they agree to repay using auto-pay. But unlike most other banks on this list, Wells Fargo has branches in all U.S. states.

The bank’s customers also have the advantage of being able to apply and get the loan without physically visiting the bank’s branch.  The bank has no origination or application fees and its $39 late payment fees are not very high compared to industry averages. We like the fact that borrowers can receive the funds the same day, making the company a good choice for people who need cash for emergencies. Wells Fargo also has the biggest upper limit loan amount of any bank on our list. This makes it a favorable option for high net worth individuals who want personal loans.

We believe that Wells Fargo is the best personal loan lender on our list and we give the bank of 4 out 5.