Detailed Comparison of $5,000 to $100,000 Personal Loans from LightStream Personal Loan and Truist Personal Loan.
We’re going to compare personal loans from LightStream and Truist. We’ve spent years working in the lending industry and we track dozens of lenders. And we strive to help make the financial world understandable.
Before we jump into the details between LightStream and Truist personal loans, I need to say a little bit about these two companies. Truist is a bank that has branches in 15 states from New Jersey to Texas and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. You do not need to be an existing Truist customer to apply for a personal loan, but if you are, you can apply over the phone. LightStream is a financial services technology company that is owned and operated by Truist Bank. Yup, you heard that right, LightStream is just a division of Truist. But, that doesn’t mean that a personal loan from Truist is exactly the same as a personal loan from LightStream. In fact, they are managed differently. So, let’s figure out how they’re different and break down which one might be better for your situation.
The first thing we are going to look at is the personal loan amounts that LightStream and Trust offer.
LightStream doesn’t offer loan less than $5,000, so they aren’t going to be the option for filling a short-term emergency. Truist doesn’t lend less than $3,500. That’s still higher than a lot of lenders, so if you are looking for just a little bit of money, you might want to look elsewhere. But, Truist has the lower amount, so we’ll highlight that brand. If you are looking for a more substantial amount of money, both LightStream and Truist lend up to $100,000. Since that’s about as high as any personal loan goes, we will highlight both of them.
LightStream’s terms range from 2 to 12 years. Twelve years is the longest term I have seen from the lenders we track. That is a long time to be in debt. If you can avoid it, you don’t want to be paying interest that long. If you do feel like you need to take a loan that has a term that long, you should be particularly aggressive about making extra payments in the first year of the loan. Doing that will save you a lot of money in interest over the course of the loan. Truist lends for terms that are a bit more traditional: between 2 and 5 years.
Common to a lot of banks, LightStream and Truist cater to people with Good-to-Excellent credit. I am guessing that you would struggle to get approved by either of these brands if your credit score was not higher than 660. But, that’s just a guideline. It’s important to remember that lenders don’t make a decision based on credit score. They build their own algorithm for deciding who to lend to. Really, the only way to know whether you would be approved with your specific credit profile is to apply.
Now let’s look at the cost of the two loans. LightStream’s lowest APR is 9.39% and Truist’s is 9.62%. That really isn’t much of a difference, but lower is lower, so I will highlight LightStream. LightStream’s top APR is 25.99% while Truist tops out at 17.40%. So, Truist handily wins the top number. 17% is actually quite a low top number. That is usually a clue to how stringent a lender will be on who they accept.
Neither LightStream nor Truist will charge an origination fee on their personal loans. Just in terms of context, I would say about half of the lenders out there do not charge an origination fee.
LightStream will accept a cosigner, but they call them co-applicants. Truist does not 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 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 LightStream offers this option.
LightStream does not charge any fees if you are late on your monthly payment. It is not at all clear whether Truist charges any late fees, however. It is a bit of a yellow flag that they are not more clear about their processes. That is uncommon for a bank. Usually banks are the most upfront about their policies because they are so tightly monitored by regulators.
That lack of clarity continues over whether Truist will directly pay off your other debts with the proceeds of the loan if you use them to consolidate. LightStream clearly states that they will not. I like it when companies will do that because they understand that the loan is meant to replace your other debts and not just stack on top of them. The fact that neither of these brands will do it probably means that it would be harder to get approved with them if you want a loan for the purpose of consolidating debt.
LightStream does offer a 0.5% discount if you sign up for autopay when you accept the loan. Truist does not offer any discounts.
Let’s summarize what we’ve learned about personal loans offered by LightStream and Truist.
Interestingly, LightStream has considerably more green cells than Truist does. They have more features and they are a little more clear about their policies. I find it unusual that Truist isn’t more clear than they are. Banks are often the most transparent lenders because they are so closely scrutinized by federal regulators. So, I find it a bit of a yellow flag that Truist doesn’t share easy answers to pretty standard questions about their personal loans. As is often the case, the most important issue is whether you can get the money you need at the lowest possible price. If one of these brands will do that, you should probably go with them. But, here’s the thing: every lender has a different algorithm for whether to accept you and what rate to offer you. Even though LightStream is owned by Truist, they have a different lending algorithm. That’s why we think it is so important that before you accept a loan, you shop around. You should see if you can get 3-4 offers before you decide who to go with. That will ensure you’re getting the best offer you can possibly get.
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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