Best Emergency Loans for Bad Credit in October 2025

The type of emergency loan you need comes down to what you can qualify for and how much you need to borrow. If you need a couple hundred to get by until your next payday, try a cash app with low fees or a BNPL app. If you need a few thousand dollars or more, a personal loan or BNPL may be your best bets. There are also a few other options and ways to avoid a loan entirely, in some cases. 

We'll cover what to know to get the money you need now — without having to borrow repeatedly to make ends meet.

Compare personal loan rates for bad credit

Best emergency loans for bad credit

The best loans for bad credit are personal loans. They're less expensive than most other bad-credit loan types, offer higher loan amounts, lower monthly payments, and can help you rebuild your credit. 

What is an emergency loan for bad credit?

An emergency loan for bad credit is a type of loan that you can get quickly, even with a low credit score. Emergency loans can include conventional types of borrowing, such as personal loans and credit card advances, as well as riskier and more expensive options such as payday loans, pawnshop loans, and car title loans.

Since a low credit score limits your options for borrowing, the types of loans that are available to you are likely to come with high interest rates and fees. Some types of loans might even be bad financial options, even though they don’t typically require a credit check. 

Emergency loan types: How much, how expensive, and how fast

How do emergency loans for bad credit work?

There are a few options for loans for borrowers with low credit scores.

• Personal loans: A personal loan is a type of installment loan. You receive a lump sum of money upfront and repay it, plus interest, in agreed-upon amounts on a monthly schedule. These loans often have better rates than other options, but may be difficult to qualify for if you have a poor credit history.
• Credit card advances: Credit cards sometimes allow you to withdraw cash at a bank or ATM — this is called a cash advance. These withdrawals are often limited to a certain percentage of your total line of credit, generally have a higher interest rate than a normal credit card purchase and come with expensive fees.
• Employee cash advance: If your employer allows it, you can borrow small amounts from an upcoming paycheck. Although laws prohibit employers from profiting from a payroll advance, you could have to pay fees to help cover administrative costs. 
• Cash advance apps: Typically, cash advance apps don’t have an APR, but may instead charge subscription fees or fast funding fees, depending on the app. Some apps may encourage voluntary tipping.
• Payday loans: These are short-term loans for small amounts, usually due to be repaid in full on your next payday. They often come with extremely high interest rates and fees — 400% APR is a common rate. These loans have a bad reputation, and have been regulated or outright prohibited in many states.
• Pawnshop loans: Some pawnshops offer short-term loans secured by material assets, such as sporting goods, jewelry, or electronics. The size of the loan is based on the assessed value of the item used as collateral, which the pawnshop holds until the loan is repaid. If the borrower defaults, the pawnshop keeps the item. A combination of interest, fees, and short repayment terms makes the typical pawnshop loan an expensive way to borrow money.
• Car title loans: These loans are also high-cost, short-term loans, but instead of being tied to your paycheck, they’re tied to your car's title. If you don’t repay the loan in full when due, the lender may be able to repossess your car, which makes these loans a risky proposition.

How to compare emergency loans for bad credit

When analyzing your options for emergency loans, here are some of the most important factors to consider:

Look at funding times 

The time it takes to get your funds can vary widely depending on the type of loan and the lender. Some lenders offer same-day funding, but others may take a few business days to get the money to you. Unfortunately, lenders that offer same-day personal loans typically require good credit or better. 

Compare APRs

Annual percentage rate (APR) measures the annual cost of borrowing, combining both the interest rate and any upfront fees. APRs for poor credit tend to be high, so compare your loan options to find one that is competitive and that you can afford. 

Consider fees

Many personal loan lenders charge origination fees that can range from 0% to 15% of the loan amount and are typically deducted upfront. With options like cash advances and payday loans, fees can make borrowing very expensive. Make sure you count these expenses when considering the total cost of borrowing.

Look at loan amounts

If you have a low credit score or carry a lot of existing debt, it may be difficult to borrow the loan amount you need, and you may be offered a smaller amount instead. Compare lenders to see if one will lend you the amount you need.

Compare repayment terms

Some options, like payday loans, have very short repayment terms of just a couple of weeks, while personal loan repayment terms typically last 2 to 7 years. Credit card cash advances can take months or years to repay. Generally speaking, the shorter the repayment term, the higher your monthly payment will be and the less interest you’ll pay (though this isn’t always the case, especially with payday loans and other extremely high-APR options).

Find out if secured loans are available

If you’re struggling to get approved for an unsecured personal loan, a secured personal loan could help you qualify. Only a few lenders offer them (such as Reprise and OneMain Financial), and note that the collateral you use to secure the loan is at risk if you default.

Seek lenders that allow cosigners

If you can find a cosigner with a good credit score and positive financial history to help guarantee your loan, you may qualify for better rates. Finding a qualified co-applicant for a joint personal loan, where you share access to the loan and responsibility for repayment, could help in similar ways. However, not many lenders offer personal loans with cosigners or joint personal loans (with exceptions including OneMain Financial and Reprise).

Check Out: How To Compare Personal Loans

Personal loan rates for bad credit

People with bad credit scores, generally defined as FICO scores below 580, typically pay higher personal loan APRs than people with better credit. Credible personal loan data indicate that prequalified APRs above 30% are common.

It’s important to remember that a prequalified rate is an estimate, not an offer of credit. Rates and terms of a loan offer may differ from prequalification results.

Personal loan rates by loan purpose

If you need an emergency loan for a specific purpose, what APR could you expect to pay with a FICO score below 580? The following table shows examples of average interest rates for potential emergency loans, based on Credible personal loan data:

Pros and cons of personal loans for bad credit

Pros:

• Get the money you need: The biggest upside of getting a loan is that you can take care of your emergency needs.
• May help you build credit: If you get a personal loan or a credit card cash advance and are able to make your payments in full and on time, that may help you boost your credit score. Your payment history on account types, including credit cards and installment loans, makes up 35% of your FICO score, the most commonly used credit scoring model.
• Low APRs: Even the highest personal loan APRs (typically up to 36%) are much lower than APRs associated with payday loans and some cash apps (up to and over 400%). 
• Low monthly payments: Unlike other types of emergency loans, personal loans offer monthly payments spread over many years — which can make them more affordable than a loan you have to pay back in two to six weeks.
• Large loan amounts: Relative to other emergency loans, personal loans offer much larger loan amounts, which could ease your financial struggles for a longer period and help you avoid repeat borrowing.

Cons:

• Difficult to qualify for: Personal loans are the best form of borrowing if you have bad credit, but they're also the hardest to qualify for.  
• Late payments will hurt your credit: Unlike cash apps and payday loans, personal loan lenders generally report to credit bureaus. This means that late payments could cause your credit score to drop further.
• Secured loans risk your collateral: If you need to get a secured loan to qualify and can't make payments, the lender could take your collateral. 
• Slower funding: Relative to short-term, no-credit-check loan types, personal loans typically take longer to fund — often one to three business days. 

Eligibility criteria for bad credit loans

While each lender and type of loan will have different standards for borrowers, here are some of the basic criteria to expect:

• Age requirement: State laws determine at what age you’re eligible to borrow, but most states and lenders say you have to be 18 years old to enter into a legal contract.
• Employment status: Most lenders will require that you have a job and present proof of employment.
• Monthly income: This may seem like the same thing as employment status, but it can include annuities, pensions, other retirement income, and public assistance such as Social Security Disability Insurance.
• Existing debt obligations: You may hear the phrase “debt-to-income ratio” also known as DTI, when you’re talking to a lender — this is how much of your pretax monthly income goes to debt payments each month. DTI is used to determine if you can reasonably borrow and repay more money.
• Credit score: Your credit score is a number assigned to you based on your financial history. FICO uses your payment history, the length of your credit history, the mix of credit that you carry, how much debt you carry, and new credit inquiries to determine your score.

Check Out: What Are the Requirements for a Personal Loan?

Methodology

Credible evaluated 32 lenders across 1,216 data points to find the best emergency loans for bad credit. We focused primarily on lenders with minimum credit score requirements below 580 that also offer funding as soon as the next day. We chose the best lenders based on the following weighted categories:

• Rates and fees: 18.75%
• Eligibility and options for bad and no credit: 17.5%
• Availability: 12.5%
• Loan amounts and terms: 10%
• Customer satisfaction: 10%
• Customer service: 10%
• Efficiency and fund delivery: 10%
• Discounts: 7.5%
• Credible proprietary data: 3.75%

Credible’s team of experts gathered information from each lender’s website and from our partners directly. We also considered each of our partner lenders’ statistics over a 12-month period — including average funding times, average credit scores for approved applicants, and average rates. Each data point is verified by a senior editor to make sure it’s accurate at the time of publication. 

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

Disclosure: Some lending partners that participate in Credible’s comparison marketplace offer loans to borrowers with scores as low as 550. Borrowers with low scores will have fewer lending options than borrowers with higher credit scores.