SoFi Reviews - What Is It?

WARNING: DO NOT BUY SoFi Until You Read This Review!
Is it a Scam? Does It Really Work?

SoFi is a lender that promises to help you to refinance your private and federal student loans and to save you about $14K in the process. Besides, the company also offers new mortgages, mortgage refinancing, MBA loans, as well as personal and parent loans. All of these services come with more flexible terms and much lower rates, as well as unemployment protection, career support, and entrepreneur programs. In this way, the lender claims to have funded more than $3 billion in loans. SoFi is a marketplace lender. It means that they lend money to unrelated people without going through a traditional financial intermediary such as traditional financial institution or a bank. Thus, instead of getting a loan through your bank, which is funded by share equity, deposits, debt, etc., the marketplace lender uses money from investors. The advantages of this lender include faster approval times, less stringent underwriting criteria, less paperwork, and much lower interest rates.

A marketplace lender may have some drawbacks such as higher monthly payments and credit scores to qualify. Other options of the kind include LendingClub.com, Prosper.com, Upstart, etc. All of these provide different lending options and come with different online customer reputation. SoFi was founded by Stanford alumni in 2011. To this company, there are some important factors but an applicant's credit score usually doesn't matter much. The most important factors include your free cash flow. The company offers loans of up to $100,000 to well-qualified borrowers. The average annual percentage rate is 8.5%. SoFi differentiates from other lenders with its variable rate and fixed-rate loans. The latter is more popular among customers because they don't wish to have their rate ever changed. Some borrowers choose the variable rate, mainly for short-term loans. Interest rates on this kind of loans tend to be lower than those on fixed-rate loans.

Customer Reviews - Does SoFi Really Work?

SoFi was founded by a group of Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) students six years ago. So they have been around for a while to gather hundreds of online customer reviews. It is important to mention that the company was also named a CNBC Disruptor 50 in 2015. They have been featured in many national publications, including Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, The NY Times, Inc., Reuters, and others. On CreditKarma, the lender's customers gave it an average rating of four stars. Common compliments referenced fast responses, good customer service, ease of use, and low interest rates. There were some complaints too. The most common of them cited difficult application processes and high interest rates. SoFi received an average rating of 8.8 stars from StudentLoanSherpa.com. Common compliments cited fast and easy application, reasonable interest rates and prepayment fees. Some customers noted that qualifying for a loan from this lender is difficult.

Yelp gave the company an average star rating of 2.5. Some customers appeared to be happy with their cooperation; however, these were those frustrated by repeated requests for documentation, long applications, and poor customer service. From a company perspective, this corporation is based out of San Francisco, CA. It had an A-rating with the Better Business Bureau at the time of our research. There were some closed complaints too.

There are many reviews online in which customers report being pleased with flexibility in payments. It means that you can change your payment date. It is a great benefit for busy people. If you lose your job, the company will allow you to apply for temporary suspension of your monthly loan payments for up to one year. While you're taking part in the Unemployment Protection Program, you can make interest-only payments to prevent these from being added to your balance during the forbearance period. People like that the application process is fast and simple. Besides, you can check your rate on the company's website by creating an account and reporting your education and employment. You can also check rates with other different lenders. Here are some of the testimonials provided by real customers of SoFi.

"I like SoFi for many reasons one of which is the competitiveness of their rates. The online process is quick and easy. Besides, you can get pre-qualified without changing your score. My personal loan was approved in a day only. You can refinance student loans too. You will be offered a freeze on commitments in case if you lose your income. It can reduce interest charges and improve your score significantly. This is really encouraging."

"I must say that my experience with Sofi was perfect. I studied the process thoroughly before applying, so it wasn't hard for me at all. The company helped me to in many issues. I could not afford to pay the loan, so they decreased the pre-approved amount for me. They cared for me to get at least something and I am grateful for this. They verify my job they asked me for only two documents: proof of income and my id card. The loan process took me five days. There is no prepayment penalty."

"I got approved at 8.74% on $28k for credit card pay off with a three-year payoff. It took me about 4-5 business days to get the money, which seemed to be fast to me. The customer service was much better than that of other lenders I applied for. I had used my CC to pay off the loan for 10 years. It was easy and I did not even need my wife's income. There were no origination or transaction fee. I am pleased with my experience."

My Final Summary

Qualifying for a loan can be a confusing process with many modern lenders, unlike SoFi. Due to the detailed information on their official website you can study the whole process before you apply for it. In addition, the company offers career support, entrepreneur programs, unemployment protection, as well their investor program. What differentiates SoFi from the competition is that they focus on meeting individual needs of each customer. Besides, this lender appears to have a positive overall online reputation with their customers. Taking into account all of this, the company seems to be a great option if you are looking for a mortgage or student loan, or if you want to become an investor.

Receiving a SoFi personal loan is like joining an elite club, due to the company's members-only networking events and high credit standards. The customers can visit member dinners and social events around the country or take part in an online forum specially designed for career growth and financial advice. If your credit score is more than 660 SoFi may be a good fit for you. The company does not require any minimum credit history, so it can be good for those new to credit. You are going to benefit from such perks as happy hours and career counseling services. Taking into account all advantages and disadvantages of this lender, I do recommend SoFi.

SoFi Pricing and Rates

Applying for a SoFi loan costs absolutely nothing. Once you are approved, there is no application fee. After an initial pre-approval, you will need to choose the most suitable loan and upload and sign your documents. The lender's fixed rate loans start at 3.5% APR, variable rates start at 1.9% APR. There is a 0.25% interest rate reduction if you select automatic bank account deductions.