Happy Money Personal Loans Legit? Should you get a $5,000-$40,000 Personal Loan From Happy Money?
We’re going to walk through everything you need to know about Happy Money personal loans. We’ve spent years in the lending industry and we track dozens of lenders. We want to bring offer that experience to you so you can decide whether you want to use Happy Money to consolidate your debt, make a big purchase, or cover a monthly shortfall.
Happy Money is a financial services platform.
They actually are not the lender. They connect credit unions and other lenders with people looking for a loan. Since the loans are made by credit unions, they have to follow credit union requirements.
Let’s start with the question of how much you can borrow from Happy Money.
Their minimum loan amount is $5,000 which is one of the higher minimums for personal loans. That means that Happy Money is probably not the place you want to go if you just need to cover a monthly shortfall. If you are looking for even more money, Happy Money’s maximum loan amount is $40,000. That’s a little lower than a lot of companies which will lend as much as $50,000.
The terms of a Happy Money personal loan ranges between 2 and 5 years.
Those are pretty standard terms for loans of this size. Happy Money does not charge a prepayment penalty on their loans, though, so you should always do your best to pay the loan off early. You can save a lot of money on interest by making extra principal payments in the first year of the loan.
Is it hard to get a personal loan from Happy Money?
Happy Money is more transparent about who can qualify for their loans than most other lenders. You will need a credit score of 640 or better. I suspect most of their borrowers have credit scores in the good-to-excellent range, or above 680. But they will look at more than just your credit score. They will need to see that you have no delinquencies on your credit file. All of your current accounts need to be in good standing. They will also at your overall credit history, debt-to-income ratio, payment history, credit card utilization, your amount and type of income, and other financial information that can be found in your credit report.
If you think you might struggle to get approved on your own, Happy Money will not allow you to include a cosigner on the loan. That means that your application must stand on its own.
Now let’s look at the APRs of a Happy Money installment loan.
Their minimum APR is 11.72%. If you are borrowing more than $15,000, the minimum is 12.45%. The maximum APR that they will charge is 17.99%. That is one of the lowest maximum APRs in the industry. That probably reflects the fact that their lenders are credit unions. But, that might mean that it could be tough to be approved by them.
Happy Money will charge an origination fee of between 1.5% and 5.5%. I generally think that an origination fee above 5% is getting to be on the high side, so I am pleased to see Happy Money cap out at 5.5%. An origination fee is a percentage of the borrowed amount and comes out of the proceeds of the loan. Say you borrow $10,000 with a 5% origination fee. That fee is $500 dollars. So, you will receive $9,500, but will still need to repay the $10,000. The fee is included in the APR, so if you have a loan with a low APR but a high origination fee, it’s still a low-cost loan. But, you don’t get a reimbursement of the origination fee if you pay the loan off early. So, all things being equal, it’s better to have a lower origination fee.
If you are using the loan to consolidate credit card balances or other debt, Happy Money will directly pay off those other creditors with the proceeds of the loan for you. Happy Money puts particular focus on the fact that they help people pay off their credit card debt. This is a good feature to offer. Not only is it convenient for the borrower, it probably helps make it easier to be approved. Why? Well, when a lender will do that it shows that they understand that the new loan will replace your other debts and not just stack on top of them. This means that the new loan won’t make your debt-to-income ratio worse. Offering this service shows that Happy Money is serious about debt consolidation.
If you are late on a payment, Happy Money will not charge you a late fee. I think it’s great when a company doesn’t charge late fees. It means that they aren’t trying to increase the cost of borrowing in different ways. They understand that people generally don’t need the threat of a late fee to make their payments. Most people just want to meet their obligations and pay off their debt. Late fees can add financial strain that gets in the way of those goals, rather than encourage them. In that same spirit, Happy Money lenders will not charge prepayment penalties, bounced check fees, or failed ACH fees.
What can you use a Happy Money personal loan for?
Happy Money does not restrict what you can use the personal loan on. They focus their website on the idea that their loans are ideal for credit card consolidation. And, it might be that it is easiest to be approved for one of their loans if you are consolidating. But, you can use their loan for other things as well, like: financial emergencies, medical bills, major purchases, and home improvement projects. They probably would not be a good option for just covering a monthly shortfall since their minimum loan amount is $5,000.
Let’s summarize Happy Money’s personal loans.
Happy Money has a larger minimum loan amount than most other lenders, so they aren’t going to be the go-to place for minor financial hurdles. They have very competitive APRs. And they lend to people with at least fair credit, but more likely people with Good-to-Excellent credit. Unfortunately, they will not allow you to include a cosigner if you struggle to get approved on your own. They show they are a customer-focused company by offering direct debt payoff for people using their loan to consolidate credit card debt. I love the fact that they don’t charge additional fees.
I think Happy Money is a great overall lender for personal loans. But, it will entirely depend on what they would offer you. That’s why we always recommend that before you accept a loan, you shop around. Every lender has a different algorithm for approving people. One might deny you while a better lender gives you an offer. You owe it to yourself to get the best deal you can. If you can, get two or three approvals before you decide who to go with. 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 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 Happy Money’s personal loans that we didn’t address, leave a comment below and we’ll try and get it answered. If you found this information useful, please like this video and subscribe to our channel. It really helps us out. Thanks for watching.
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