Prosper Personal Loans Review, May 2025

Prosper is a peer-to-peer lending platform that connects borrowers seeking unsecured personal loans with investors. Despite the investor marketplace element, the borrower experience is similar to what you’d experience from a traditional personal loan lender. You apply online and, upon approval, can have the funds in your bank account as soon as the next day. 

However, Prosper personal loans won’t be the best fit for all borrowers. We’ll cover how the lending process works, how Prosper compares with other lenders, and evaluate the pros and cons of borrowing with Prosper.

Compare personal loan rates

Who are Prosper personal loans best for?

Prosper personal loans won’t be the best for everyone, but they can be a great fit for fair credit borrowers and for investors. 

Best peer-to-peer lender

Prosper was the first peer-to-peer loan lending platform in the U.S. and is the only true P2P lender remaining today. For individual borrowers, P2P lending can mean better approval odds, especially if you have fair credit. For investors, P2P lending can present an opportunity to help borrowers while earning a return.

Prosper evaluates individual borrowers and assigns them a risk tier based on their financial profiles. Investors can then choose which borrower(s) to fund, based on their tier, or can choose one of three auto invest mixes for a more hands-off approach. The higher the risk assessment, the higher the potential return for investors, and the higher the interest rate for borrowers. 

Once the borrower begins making monthly payments on the loan, contributing investors receive interest payments proportional to their investment in the loan.

Great for fair credit borrowers

While many banks and credit unions require good or better credit, Prosper approves borrowers with credit scores as low as 640, making it a good option to consider if you’re in the fair credit range (580-669 FICO score) and are having trouble getting approved for personal loans elsewhere. 

However, if you have good or better credit, another lender may offer a lower annual percentage rate (APR) and a lower origination fee (or no origination fee at all). 

Pros and cons 

Prosper loans have several advantages and a few drawbacks. Here’s what you should know.

Pros

• Open to fair credit borrowers: Borrowers can get approved with credit scores as low as 640.
• High maximum loan amount: The maximum loan limit is $50,000, which can cover a wide range of personal expenses. 
• Many approved loan purposes: The loans can be used for a wide range of purposes, from home improvement to debt consolidation. 
• Fast funding: Loan funds can be available in as little as 1 business day.
• Accepts co-applicants: Prosper offers joint personal loans with a qualified co-borrower.

Cons 

• Origination fees: Origination fees up to 9.99% are taken out of the loans before they’re issued. However, if you repay the loan early, any amount of the origination fee above 5% of the original principal amount is eligible for a refund. 
• No discounts: Prosper doesn’t offer rate discounts for autopay or direct pay.
• Not available in all states: The loans aren’t available to borrowers in Iowa or West Virginia. 

How to qualify for a Prosper personal loan

Prosper has an online prequalification process that allows you to quickly check your eligibility without hurting your credit score. That’s the easiest way to see if it’s a fit. However, the company also provides the following borrower eligibility guidelines. 

Credit score and financial history

Prosper’s minimum credit score is 640. Eligibility also depends on your financial history, although specifics aren’t mentioned. 

If you apply with a co-applicant, they should have at least fair credit, at least one open trade on their TransUnion credit report, and no bankruptcy filings within the last 12 months. 

Income and employment

Prosper considers monthly income and monthly expenses, but no specific requirements are given on how much you have to earn. Lenders typically consider your monthly income and debt to gauge the monthly payment amount you can afford.

Prosper personal loan purposes

Prosper offers personal loans for a wide range of purposes. When you fill out the prequalification form, you can choose from options including:

• Debt consolidation
• Home improvement
• Auto, motorcycle, RV, boat
• Household expenses
• Large purchase
• Medical/dental
• Taxes
• Vacation
• Special occasion
• Other

The majority of Prosper’s personal loans (69.8%) are taken out for debt consolidation, according to the company’s 2024 prospectus. Home improvement is the next most common specified purpose (10.2%), followed by financing medical or dental procedures (2.8%). “Other” accounts for 17.2%. There aren’t many mentions of restrictions, except that you can’t use the loan funds to finance postsecondary educational expenses. 

Prosper personal loan fees and penalties

Along with Prosper’s more lenient eligibility requirements come origination fees, but you won’t have to worry about early repayment penalties. 

Loan origination fees

Prosper charges origination fees that range from 1% to 9.99%. These are one-time fees that get deducted from the loan amount upfront. For example, if you get a loan for $20,000 and it has a 5% origination fee, Prosper would deduct $1,000 and send you the remaining $19,000. You’d then repay the whole $20,000, plus interest. 

Early repayment penalties

Paying off a personal loan early often reduces your interest costs. As a result, some lenders charge early repayment fees. However, Prosper doesn’t. You can pay off your loan at any time throughout your term without a penalty. You’ll also be eligible for a partial refund of the origination fee if you were charged more than 5%.

How Prosper compares to other lenders 

Prosper is one of the more flexible personal loan lenders in the market. Here’s how it compares to two other lenders, Avant and Upstart. 

How to contact Prosper

If you need to get in contact with Prosper, you can do so through the following channels:

• Phone: Call 866-615-6319, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT.
• Submit a request: Submit a request for support through an online form.
• Email: Email customer support at [email protected]
• Support Center: Search for answers through articles and the FAQ section.

Prosper’s support channels tick all the standard boxes. However, the company doesn’t provide a live chat service or weekend support for personal loan customers. 

About Prosper personal loans

Founded in 2005, Prosper was the first peer-to-peer (P2P) personal loan lending platform in the U.S. Prosper has facilitated more than $899 million in personal loan funding and more than $20 billion in investor funding.

When you get approved, the initial loan is made by an industrial bank, WebBank. From there, the loan is listed in the Prosper marketplace, where investors can purchase all or part of it. Investors who buy in are repaid, plus interest, as you make your loan payments to Prosper. The experience is like a typical personal loan for the borrower, but investors participate on the backend as a way to earn returns.

Rating Prosper personal loans

Credible evaluates personal loan lenders based on factors such as customer experience, minimum fixed rate, maximum loan amount, funding time, loan terms, and fees. Credible’s team of experts gathered information from each lender’s website, customer service department, in-house resources, and via email support. Each data point was verified to make sure it was accurate at the time of publication.

Learn more about how Credible rates lenders by exploring our personal loans lender rating methodology.