Oportun Personal Loans. All you need to know about Oportun personal loans: $300 to $10,000.

I'm going to cover everything you need to know about OPPORTUNE's personal loans. We spent years working in the lending industry and we tracked dozens of lenders. I'm going to break down OPPORTUNE so you can make a decision whether you would want to use them to consolidate credit card debt, make a purchase, or just cover a monthly shortfall. OPPORTUNE is a publicly traded company that was formed in 2005 to serve the Latino borrowers in the United States. Even today they are one of the only lenders that you can toggle between Spanish and English on their website. OPPORTUNE's unsecured personal loans have a minimum loan amount of $300. So if you just need a little bit of money to cover a minor emergency, OPPORTUNE could be a really good option for you. There are not many places that a borrower can get only $300 and most of those places are payday loans. If you are looking for a more substantial amount of money, OPPORTUNE's maximum loan amount is $10,000. However, OPPORTUNE will not lend more than $6,000 to first-time borrowers. The term length of an OPPORTUNE loan ranges from 12 months to 54 months. The average term of their loans is 41 months. I think that is too long for a loan of this size. Longer term lengths result in a lower payment, but it also means paying interest a lot longer than you should. OPPORTUNE does not charge a prepayment penalty, but some reports suggest that making extra payments defaults to prepaying future payments. That doesn't save you money on interest. You will want to make sure that your extra payments are going towards principal. I need to say one more thing about OPPORTUNE payments. When you see them, you will probably be pleasantly surprised to see how low they are, but you need to know that they aren't monthly payments. They tie your payment to your paychecks, so you will be making payments either twice a month or every other week, depending on how you are paid. When you are deciding whether an OPPORTUNE loan can fit into your monthly budget, keep that in mind. OPPORTUNE also offers loans that are secured by the title to your motor vehicle. Secured loans often allow you to borrow more or at a lower interest rate. And that's what we are seeing with OPPORTUNE. The average loan amount for an OPPORTUNE unsecured loan is $4,007. The average loan amount for one of their secured loans is $7,156. The average APR of their unsecured loans is 32.9%. The average APR for OPPORTUNE secured loans is 28.9%. The average term length of their unsecured loans is 41 months. The average term length for their secured loans is 52 months. So you can see that you generally get better rates, larger amounts, and longer terms if you decide to secure the loan. Generally I prefer unsecured loans. If you run into trouble repaying your loan, you won't want to lose your car as well. It can make a bad situation worse. But if you can save a lot of money, securing the loan could give your finances the breathing room it needs to avoid the next financial problem. If you think you might want a secured option, you might need to look into another lender though. While OPPORTUNE offers its unsecured loans in 44 states, they only offer their secured loans in 6 states. Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas. OPPORTUNE charges origination fees on their loans that go up to 10% of the borrowed amount. Origination fees come out of the proceeds of the loan. While the cost of the origination fee is accounted for in the APR, you don't get a reimbursement on the origination fee if you pay the loan off early. So all things being equal, you want a lower origination fee, especially if you're planning on paying the loan off early. Not all lenders charge an origination fee, but the most important thing is getting a low APR. Generally speaking, I think any origination fee that is above 5% is getting to be on the high side. What credit score do you need to qualify for an OPPORTUNE personal loan? OPPORTUNE claims that they are willing to lend to people with no credit or poor credit, but they don't disclose their customers' average credit scores. Given their policies, I'm guessing that most of their borrowers have credit scores around 640. However, OPPORTUNE will use a soft credit check when you apply, so it won't hurt your credit score just to check to see what they would offer you. When they evaluate your application, they will look at more than just your credit score. They will verify your income and only lend you the amount of money that they think you can afford to repay. They will also look at credit information, both at traditional credit bureaus as well as alternate credit bureaus. They will want to see a history of on-time payments, a low debt-to-income ratio, and accounts that are current. If you think you might need extra help in getting approved, OPPORTUNE will allow you to include a cosigner when you apply. A cosigner is someone who agrees to pay off the loan if you fail to. The cosigner will really only help your application if they have a stronger credit profile than you do. Of course, if you can get the loan that you need on your own, don't include a cosigner. There's no reason to entangle a loved one in the process if you don't need to. If you are late on your payment, OPPORTUNE will charge you a late fee of either $15 or 5% of the late amount. They do give you a 15-day grace period after the due date before they will charge you. They will also charge you $15 for a returned payment if you don't have enough money in your account when they attempt to use an ACH draw to take your payment. Their fees are not high, but you do need to know that about half of OPPORTUNE's competitors don't charge these fees at all. What can an OPPORTUNE personal loan be used for? OPPORTUNE does not restrict how you can use the money, but the most common uses of a loan like this include covering a monthly shortfall, a financial emergency, life events like moving, funerals, weddings, or having a baby, medical bills, home improvement projects, and consolidating debt or credit card balances. Let's summarize OPPORTUNE personal loans. OPPORTUNE primarily offers unsecured loans, but if you live in one of six states you could get a loan that's secured with the title of your motor vehicle. The APR of their loans will most likely fall in the 30% range, but will not exceed 35.99%. They are one of the few lenders that will offer as little as $300, and they max out at $10,000, but if you are a first time borrower you can't get more than $6,000. They do have a rather substantial origination fee that goes up to 10%. They lend to people who have no credit score or damaged credit. If you need a little help they will accept co-signers on their loans. And finally they charge late fees and return payment fees, but neither of them are egregious. OPPORTUNE has lower APRs than many lenders who serve people who have damaged or no credit. That can be great if they will approve you, but there is no guarantee that they will give you the loan amount or the terms that you need. You should always shop around. You owe it to yourself to get the best deal that you can in your situation. Every lender has a different approval algorithm. You could get denied by one lender only to be accepted by a different lender. At the UConn Project we have 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 your approved offers so you can make sure you take the loan that's best for you. If you have any questions about OPPORTUNE that we didn't cover, leave a comment below and we'll see if we can get it answered for you. If you found this information helpful, please like this video and subscribe to our channel. It really helps us out and we appreciate it. Thanks for watching.