Achieve Personal Loans: 2024 Review

Achieve, formerly FreedomPlus, offers personal loans that work well for consolidating large amounts of credit card or other unsecured debt. The lender offers personal loans for borrowers with fair, good and excellent credit scores (630 and up). Its average borrowers have good credit and strong household incomes.

Table of Contents

Achieve loans at a glance

Where Achieve personal loans stand out and fall short

How to use Achieve personal loans

Achieve personal loan customer reviews

Do you qualify for an Achieve personal loan?

How to apply for an Achieve personal loan

Compare Achieve to other lenders

How we rate Achieve personal loans

Achieve personal loans at a glance

• Disclosure from Achieve

  Personal loans available through Achieve Personal Loans (NMLS ID #227977) are originated by Cross River Bank, a New Jersey State Chartered Commercial Bank, Equal Housing Lender. Loan applications are subject to credit review, underwriting criteria, and approval. Loans are not available in all states and available loan terms/fees may vary by state. Loan amounts range from $5,000 to $50,000. For loans $35,000+ must have a minimum 660 credit score. APRs range from 8.99% to 29.99% and include applicable origination fees that vary from 1.99% to 8.99%. Repayment periods range from 24 to 60 months. Example loan: four-year, $20,000 loan with an origination fee of 8.99%, a rate of 15.49%, and corresponding APR of 20.77%, would have an estimated monthly payment of $561.60 and a total cost of $26,966.26. To qualify for a 8.99% APR loan, a borrower will need excellent credit, a loan amount less than $12,000.00, and a term of 24 months. Loan Consultants for Achieve Personal Loans are available Monday-Friday 6 AM to 8 PM AZ time, and Saturday-Sunday 7 AM to 5 PM AZ time.

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Where Achieve personal loans stand out

Multiple rate discounts. Achieve offers three ways to get a rate discount:

• Co-borrower discount: Borrowers who get a joint loan with a qualified co-borrower reduce their APR by nearly 4 percentage points on average.

• Retirement savings discount: Borrowers who are able to show proof of sufficient retirement savings in a 401(k), individual retirement account (IRA), Roth IRA or thrift savings plan (TSP) can get an average rate discount of about 1.5 percentage points.

• Direct creditor payoff discount: Borrowers using their Achieve loan for debt consolidation can reduce their rate by more than 3.5 percentage points on average if the loan proceeds are sent directly to their creditors. To qualify for the discount, borrowers must use at least 85% of the loan to pay off existing debt.

Direct payment to creditors for debt consolidation. Borrowers who use Achieve personal loans for debt consolidation can have loan proceeds sent directly to their creditors, streamlining the process. The best debt consolidation lenders offer this feature, but few include a discount for using it. It can take two to three business days for the funds to reach other creditors, according to Achieve. Keep an eye on those accounts until they’re paid off to avoid missing a payment while you wait.

» MORE: Best debt consolidation loans

Joint loan option. Loan applicants may improve their chances of approval or get a low interest rate when by adding a co-borrower to the application with better credit or higher income.

Fast approval and funding. Achieve says it can approve or decline an application an hour after receiving it, as long as all necessary documents have been sent. Once a borrower is approved, typical funding time is the next business day.

Flexible payment options. Borrowers can choose their payment date before signing a loan agreement and change the date twice in a calendar year, or six times throughout the life of the loan. This is a helpful feature if you switch jobs, for example, and get paid on a different date.

Access to a dedicated loan consultant. Applicants can work with a dedicated loan consultant over the phone for additional support throughout the loan process. The lender says its loan consultants look at a potential borrower’s whole financial situation to help determine if a personal loan is right for them.

Where Achieve personal loans fall short

Origination fee. Achieve charges an origination fee from 1.99% to 6.99%. The fee is deducted from the loan before funds are sent to the borrower, reducing the total loan amount. When selecting a loan amount, borrowers should factor in the origination fee to ensure they receive their desired amount of money.

» MORE: Best loans with no origination fee

High minimum loan amount. Achieve has a minimum loan amount of $5,000, which doesn’t make it a viable choice for smaller expenses. Many lenders' minimum loan amounts start at $1,000 or $2,000. Consider other lenders if you need a smaller personal loan.

No mobile app. Unlike many other online lenders, Achieve does not offer a mobile app for borrowers to manage their loans.

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How to use Achieve personal loans

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Achieve personal loan customer reviews

As of July 2024, Achieve has 4.8 stars on Trustpilot, a website that collects consumer reviews. Customers mention the company’s easy loan process and excellent customer service. The lender also has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

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Do you qualify for an Achieve personal loan?

Most lenders have basic requirements to apply, and some have financial requirements or recommendations to qualify. To apply for an Achieve personal loan, you must be a resident of a state where Achieve’s loans are available and provide a Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

Here are Achieve’s minimum requirements to qualify for a loan. (Meeting these requirements doesn't guarantee approval.)

Achieve’s borrowing requirements

• Minimum credit score: 640. Achieve uses Experian FICO 8 credit scores to evaluate loan applications.

• Minimum annual income: None.

• Maximum debt-to-income ratio: 70%, including a mortgage payment or other housing expense.

• Minimum credit history: 3 years across 2 accounts.

• Acceptable income sources: Full-time or part-time job, self-employment, alimony, retirement, child support, Social Security payments or disability benefits.

• Achieve’s average borrower snapshot

  • Average credit score: 710.

  • Average annual income: $135,000.

  • Average loan amount: $24,000.

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How to apply for an Achieve personal loan

Here are the steps to apply for an Achieve loan.

1. Pre-qualify on Achieve’s website. You’ll be asked how much you want to borrow and what the funds are for, as well as some personal information like your name, birthdate and email address. The lender will also ask about your income — plus your co-applicant’s income if you’re applying for a joint loan — and whether you own your home. There’s no hard credit pull at this stage, so your credit won’t be affected. If you meet Achieve’s requirements, the lender will show your potential loan amount, rate, repayment term and monthly payment amount.

2. Compare loan offers and formally apply. Compare Achieve personal loan offers with pre-qualified offers from other lenders to find the best deal. If you accept a loan from Achieve, you’ll submit a formal personal loan application. This could require documents, like W-2s, pay stubs, tax documents and bank statements, to confirm the information you gave during pre-qualification. Achieve will also do a hard pull of your Experian credit report when you apply, which will cause your credit score to dip.

3. Receive loan proceeds. Achieve says it will make an approval decision within an hour after receiving an application. Funds are typically disbursed by the next business day, and the lender deducts the origination fee from the loan amount before sending the money. If you’ve chosen to send funds directly to another creditor for debt consolidation, the creditor should receive the money within two to three business days.

4. Stay on top of your loan payments. Achieve reports payment to all three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), so on-time payments will help build your credit score, but missed payments will hurt it. Setting up automatic payments and keeping an eye on your budget are two ways to manage your loan payments.

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Compare Achieve to other lenders

Personal loan lenders offer different rates, loan amounts and special features, so it pays to weigh other options. The best personal loan is usually the one with the lowest APR.

Like Achieve, Happy Money and Best Egg are both strong debt consolidation lenders and accept borrowers with fair or good credit scores.

Happy Money

» MORE: Read our review of Happy Money

Best Egg

» MORE: Read our review of Best Egg

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How we rate Achieve personal loans

NerdWallet writers rate lenders against a rubric that changes each year based on how personal loan products evolve. Here’s what we prioritized this year:

• Personal Loan Review Category Definitions

  Affordability (25%)

  An affordable loan has low rates and fees compared to other similar loans and may offer rate discounts.

  Customer experience (20%)

  A good customer experience includes allowing borrowers to choose and change their repayment date, a fully online application process, a mobile app to manage the loan and a customer service team with wide availability.

  Underwriting and eligibility (20%)

  The lender reviews borrowers’ credit reports and credit history and tries to understand their ability to repay a loan. It offers loans in most states and doesn’t restrict eligibility by requiring a pre-existing relationship.

  Application process (20%)

  Borrowers can pre-qualify to check their potential rate, loan amount, repayment term and APR without affecting their credit score. They can easily find answers to questions about the personal loan on the lender’s website. The application process is fast enough to allow funding within a couple of days or less.

  Loan flexibility (15%)

  A flexible loan is one that offers a wide range of loan amounts and repayment term options. It includes common features like additional loan types and direct payment to creditors on debt consolidation loans.

  Discretionary

  A lender’s star rating can be reduced if the lender is sued by a state or federal regulator for unfair consumer practices or has been accused by a reputable source of suspicious business practices.

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