Personal Loan Detailed Comparison Across 11 Criteria: Citibank Personal Loan vs Wells Fargo Personal Loan
We’re going to compare personal loans from Citibank and Wells Fargo. 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.
The first thing we are going to look at is the loan amounts that Citibank and Wells Fargo offer for personal loans.
Citibank offers loans as low as $2,000 and Wells Fargo will not lend less than $3,000. 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 Wells Fargo will lend as much as $100,000. So, Wells Fargo wins on the higher end.
Citibank’s terms go up to 5 years, while Wells Fargo will lend up to 7 years. Seven years is a long time to carry debt, but if you are borrowing a $100,000, you might need a term that long. 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 personal loans.
Citibank’s lowest APR is 10.49% and Wells Fargo’s is 7.49%. 7.49% is about as low as I have seen things these days, so Wells Fargo gets highlighted. Citibank’s maximum APR is 20.49% which is pretty good, actually. Wells Fargo’s maximum is 23.24%. So Citibank gets credit for the lower top rate. Neither bank will charge an origination fee on their loans.
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. Wells Fargo offers a “relationship” discount. That’s just marketing-speak for customers who are signed up for autopay from a Wells Fargo account.
Both Citibank and Wells Fargo 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 guess. The only way to know for sure would be to apply.
Anyone can apply for a Citibank loan, but Wells Fargo restricts their personal loans to people who have had a Wells Fargo account for at least 12 months. No matter what else you like about them, that might eliminate them from consideration for you.
Citibank won’t accept a cosigner on their personal loans, but Wells Fargo will. A cosigner is someone who agrees to pay off your loan if you fail to repay it. If you can qualify for the loan that you need, there is little reason to entangle a loved one in the process. But, if you have a spouse or loved one that has a stronger credit profile than you do, add them as a cosigner might make all the difference in getting the loan you need. It’s good that Wells Fargo offers this option.
If you want to use the personal loan to consolidate credit card balances or other loans, both of these companies will directly pay off your other debts for you from the proceeds of the loan. That’s convenient, but it also shows that they know that the 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.
However, Citibank will not let you use the loan to consolidate any Citibank-issued credit cards. Wells Fargo does not appear to have this limitation.
If you are late on your payment, Citibank will not charge you with a late fee, but Wells Fargo will. In fact, they charge the highest late fee I have seen from any of the lenders that we track. Some lenders will charge other fees as well: things like failed payment fees, paper check fees, things like that. Neither one of these companies have any of these fees.
Citibank does have a curious policy that says that if you default on one of their loans, your interest rate could increase 2%. Citibank does not define what default means to them, but the lending industry usually defines a default as 90-day past due. So, keep an eye on the fine print of their loan agreement.
So, let’s summarize what we’ve see from Citibank Personal Loans and Wells Fargo Personal Loans.
Both Citibank and Wells Fargo have a lot of green. They are both 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 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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