Axos Bank Personal Loans: 2024 Review

Axos Bank is an online bank that offers personal loans for borrowers with excellent credit (credit score of 720 or higher). You can apply for a loan on Axos’ website and receive funding in a day or two after approval.

Axos lets you pre-qualify and use its loan to refinance an existing personal loan, but it charges an origination fee and there are no co-signed or joint loan options.

» MORE: Best bank loans

Table of Contents

Axos personal loans at a glance

Where Axos personal loans stand out and fall short

How to use Axos Bank personal loans

Axos Bank personal loan customer reviews

Do you qualify for an Axos personal loan?

How to apply for an Axos personal loan

Compare Axos Banks to other lenders

How we rate Axos personal loans

Axos personal loans at a glance

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Where Axos personal loans stand out

Soft credit check: Axos lets borrowers pre-qualify for a personal loan with a soft credit check. This means you can view your potential loan terms, including what interest rate you may receive, without affecting your credit score. Though many online lenders offer this feature, not all banks do.

Fund loans within two days: According to Axos, approved borrowers should receive their loan funds the same or next business day..

Refinance options: Borrowers can use an Axos loan to refinance an existing personal loan from another lender. If you qualify for a lower rate, refinancing can help you save money and pay off the debt faster.

Rate discount available: According to Axos, if you open an Axos checking account while applying for a personal loan, you’ll receive a rate discount of 0.5 percentage points, which lowers the amount of interest you’ll pay on the loan. Select a 36-month loan repayment term, and you can qualify for a rate discount of 0.25 percentage points.

» MORE: Best personal loans for excellent credit

Where Axos personal loans fall short

Charges origination fee: The lender charges an origination fee up to 2% of the loan amount, which is subtracted before you receive the funds. Origination fees are rare among banks and add to the overall cost of your loan.

» COMPARE: Best personal loans with no origination fee

No co-sign or joint loan option: Axos borrowers cannot add a co-signer or co-borrower to their application. These options can help borrowers qualify and receive a lower rate or higher loan amount.

» MORE: Lenders that offer co-signed personal loans

High minimum interest rates. Axos charges a higher minimum interest rate than most other providers we review, meaning the total cost of the loan may be higher than if you chose another lender.

Limited customer support availability. If you want to speak to a customer service representative, hours are limited to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, Monday through Friday. Many other lenders we review have a wider selection of hours for customer support.

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How to use Axos Bank personal loans

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Axos Bank personal loan customer reviews

As of August, 2024, Axos Bank has 1.8 stars on Trustpilot, a website that collects consumer reviews. In their reviews, consumers reference difficulties using the mobile app and communication issues with customer service representatives. The lender’s mobile app received 3.1 stars across 6,000 reviews on Google Play and 4.7 stars across 13,000 reviews on the Apple App Store.

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Do you qualify for an Axos personal loan?

To apply for an Axos personal loan, you must:

• Be 18 years or older.

• Have a Social Security number.

• Provide a driver's license or state-issued ID.

• Provide proof of income.

Here are Axos’ minimum requirements to qualify for a loan:

• Minimum credit score: 730.

• Minimum monthly income: None. This lender accepts income from employment, alimony, retirement, child support, Social Security payments and disability payments.

• Maximum debt-to-income ratio: 50%, including mortgage payments.

• Minimum number of accounts on credit history: 4.

• Axos Bank’s average borrower snapshot

  Here are details about Axos’ average borrower, according to the lender:

  • Average credit score: 780.

  • Average gross annual income: $100,000.

  • Average debt-to-income ratio: 35%.

  • Average loan amount: $25,000.

  • Average loan term: Five years. 

  • Most common loan purpose: Home improvement or debt consolidation.

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How to apply for an Axos personal loan

Here are the steps to apply for an Axos loan.

1. Pre-qualify on Axos’ website. You’ll be asked how much you want to borrow, what the funds are for, and the desired repayment term, as well as some personal information like your name, birthdate and contact information. Then, the lender will ask for information about your income, employment, and whether you own your home before you can preview loan offers. There’s no hard credit pull at this stage.

2. Preview loan offers and accept the one that fits your budget. Once you accept a loan offer, you’ll submit a formal personal loan application. This could require more documents, like W-2s, pay stubs and bank statements, to confirm the information you gave during pre-qualification. Axos will also do a hard credit check when you apply, so your credit score could temporarily dip.

3. Stay on top of your loan payments. Axos reports payments to two of the three main credit bureaus (Equifax and Experian, but not TransUnion), so on-time payments will help build your credit, 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 Axos to other lenders

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

Similar to Axos, LightStream and Discover accept borrowers with good to excellent credit (690 credit score or higher).

LightStream

» MORE: Read our review of LightStream

Discover

» MORE: Read our review of Discover

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How we rate Axos 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:

• 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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