$30,000 Citibank Personal Loan versus $50,000 Santander Personal Loan. Getting The Right Personal Loan For You.
We’re going to compare personal loans from Citibank and Santander. We’ve spent years working in the lending industry and we track dozens of lenders. We want to break down these two lender so you can see which one might be better for your situation.
Just a quick note about each of these companies. Citibank is the retail banking division of Citigroup, the fourth largest bank in the United States with total assets of $1.68 trillion dollars. That’s a lot of zeroes. Santander is a Spanish bank that has $67 billion in deposits in the United States and has branches in these ten states. Both of these banks offer personal loans. Let’s check out how they compare.
The first thing we are going to look at is the loan amounts that they offer. Citibank offers loans as low as $2,000 and Santander will not lend less than $5,000. So, if you are looking for just a little bit of money to cover an emergency, Citibank offers a little more flexibility on the low end. If you are looking for a more substantial amount of money, Citibank will lend as much as $30,000, but Santander will lend as much as $500,000. So, Santander wins on the higher end.
Citibank’s terms go up to 5 years, while Santander will lend between 3 and 7 years. Seven years is a long time to carry debt, so you will want to be careful not to be enamored by a low monthly payment that will keep you paying interest much longer than you should. Just remember, regardless of what your term is, make extra principal payments in the first year. That will save you a lot of money on interest in the long run.
Now let’s look at the cost of the two loans. Citibank’s lowest APR is 10.49% and Santander’s is 7.99%. 7.99% is one of the lowest in the industry right now, so Santander gets highlighted. Citibank’s maximum APR is 20.49%. That’s not the best out there right now, but it’s actually pretty good. Santander’s maximum is 24.99%. So Citibank gets credit for the lower top rate.
Neither bank will charge an origination fee on their loans. In terms of context, I would say about half of all lenders don’t charge an origination fee. It’s great that they don’t charge an origination fee; it means that the full cost of the borrowing is wrapped up in the interest rate. That’s good because it means that the best way of saving money on the loan is to make extra principal payments.
They both offer some discounts, too. Citibank offers a discount if you sign up for autopay for your monthly payments. They also offer a discount to their priority customers, but I am not sure whether that is valid for most people because to be a priority customer, you have to have a certain amount of money in Citibank accounts. If you have the money to be one of those customers, you probably don’t need to take out a loan. Santander also offers a discount for signing up for autopay, but it isn’t as generous, so we’ll highlight Citibank in this category.
Both Citibank and Santander lend to people with Good-to-Excellent credit. I would think you would struggle to get approved if your credit score was below 670, but that’s just a guideline. Most lenders don’t make a decision on credit score alone. They build proprietary algorithms that use things like debt-to-income ratio, payment history, income, and other data. The point, though, is that these lenders are going to be rather restrictive.
Neither Citibank nor Santander accept cosigners on their personal loans. A cosigner is someone who agrees to pay off your loan if you fail to repay it. If you have a spouse or loved one that has a stronger credit profile than you do, adding them can improve your chances of being approved, getting more money, or a lower rate. Unfortunately, neither of these lenders offer that option.
If you want to use the personal loan to consolidate credit card balances or other loans, Citibank will directly pay off your other debts for you from the proceeds of the loan. It’s convenient when a lender will do that, but it’s good for another reason. It shows that the lender understands that the new loan will replace other debts and not stack on top of them. That means that the new loan shouldn’t change your debt-to-income ratio. That should make it easier to be approved by them. Santander will not directly pay off your other debts, but I put an asterisk there because they will take into account the debts that you are consolidating when you apply. Still, I’ll highlight Citibank.
Speaking of consolidation, Citibank will not allow you to consolidate any balances on Citibank credit cards. So, if you have a problem with Citibank credit card balances, Citibank might not be the best option for you. Santander does not have this restriction.
Let’s summarize what we’ve discussed about the personal loans offered by Citibank and Santander.
Both Citibank and Santander have their fair share of green cells. I think both would be pretty good lenders. Of course, for many people, the most important two things are whether they can get the money they need at the lowest possible price. In that case, the most important thing might be who would give you the best deal in your particular situation. That’s why we always recommend that before you accept a loan, you should shop around. Find the best deal. At The Yukon Project, we’ve tried to make shopping around easy. If you visit our marketplace page, you can apply to any one of our other featured lenders. Behind the scenes, we will check your rate with up to 40 other lenders. Our partners use a soft credit check, so applying won’t hurt your credit score. We will show you all of the approved offers so you can pick the loan that’s best for you.
If anyone was wondering, here is how you pronounce Santander: Sahn’-Tahn-Dare’
If you have any questions about either of these lenders that we didn’t cover, leave a comment below. If you found this video useful, please like it and subscribe to our channel. Thanks for watching.
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