Fiona Personal Loan Review
Whether you’re making a big purchase or just refinancing some existing debt, a personal loan could help. But comparing the best loan options could take days, unless you use an online marketplace, such as Fiona, which lets you compare personal loan offers side by side within minutes.
Like all lending marketplaces, Fiona has advantages and disadvantages. Let's take a close look to see whether Fiona could help with your personal loan shopping.
Table of contents:
- What is Fiona?
- How does a Fiona loan work?
- Other financial products from Fiona
- Fiona loan fees
- Getting started
- Is Fiona safe?
- Customer support
- Pros and cons
- Is Fiona for you?
What is Fiona?
Fiona is an online lending marketplace and loan comparison tool based in New York City. In 2019 alone, Fiona originated more than $600 million in personal loans.
The site uses built-in algorithms to offer real-time, pre-qualified personal loan rates from about a dozen different lenders. Since it connects you with multiple loan offers simultaneously, Fiona could save you time and money.
Even Financial, a leading search and comparison engine for financial companies, launched Fiona in 2015 to help consumers find the right financial products. Due to its relationship with Even Financial, Fiona has several major lending partners, including Marcus by Goldman Sachs, SoFi, LendingClub, Avant, and LightStream. Fiona has received praise from the likes of The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones and Crowdfund Insider.
Fiona at a glance
- Founded: 2015
- Owned by: Even Financial
- Purpose: Connecting borrowers with personal loans
- Maximum loan amount: $250,000
- APRs: from 3.99% and up, depending on your credit and the lender you choose
- Loan terms: 6 to 144 months
- Minimum credit score: none; 620 for best results
- Cost to use: None
- Other products: Life insurance, student loan refinance, credit card comparisons
(Rates updated as of 10/13/22)
How does a Fiona loan work?
Fiona does not fund any personal loans; rather, it works as an aggregator for personal loan lenders, connecting people looking for personal loans with lenders that can offer the best deals.
You'll need to submit an online form to review your personal loan options. From there, Fiona uses its matching technology to compare loan offers behind the scenes and pair you with excellent options.
After you receive your loan offers, you can compare them and decide which one is best for you. Once you choose an offer, you'll follow up with the lender to close on the loan. You can back out at any point if you decide you'd rather not borrow after all.
Formally applying and closing on your loan happens with the actual lender, not with Fiona. Your monthly payments also go to your lender and not Fiona. Fiona only connects you with lenders and then backs out of the process.
Other financial products from Fiona
Along with its personal loan program, Fiona can help you find various other financial products. Below are some of the other types of borrowing you can search and compare through Fiona.
Credit cards
If you’re looking for a new credit card, Fiona can help you find the right one. Using the same technology it uses for personal loan shopping, Fiona can show you credit cards you’d pre-qualify for and then help you compare interest rates.
You can also search by annual fees or rewards programs, such as cashback or airline miles. There are even secured cards available for people with poor credit.
Student loan refinancing
Fiona can also help users find better rates for their student loans. To begin, enter the amount you owe on your student loans. Fiona then gives you your estimated monthly payment and provides loan refinancing offers. You can compare the terms and interest rates to find the best refinancing loans to help manage your student loan debt.
Side Note: If you have public student loans, refinancing with one of Fiona's lending partners would turn your debt into private student loan debt. This means you could lose government-sponsored features, such as income-driven repayment plans and forbearance options.
High-yield savings accounts
Everyone needs to learn how to save money, and Fiona wants to help you find the best savings accounts. The name of the game with savings accounts is an annual percentage yield (APY). The higher the APY, the more you earn in interest on your savings. Fiona can help you find the savings accounts with the highest APYs so you can earn the most from your savings.
It also shows you other considerations, such as fees, so you can weigh the pros and cons of these accounts. This feature helps you find the best savings account for your circumstances.
Life insurance policies
Fiona can even help you compare life insurance policies from leading insurers, such as Lincoln Financial, Prudential, Protective, Pacific Life and Banner Life. The insurance quotes come from Leaplife, another Even Financial partner. You just need to answer a dozen or so questions about your age, health and financial life to see a variety of life insurance quotes.
Fiona loan fees
You may be wondering how much a service as convenient as Fiona’s will cost. Believe it or not, Fiona won’t cost you a penny.
Fiona earns money from its lending partners, which means Fiona’s services are entirely free for you.
You might argue that Fiona's lending partners would just pass the fee along to borrowers in the form of a higher interest rate. But, in a marketplace as competitive as personal loans, lenders can't afford to offer inflated rates.
In fact, the rates and terms you'll get through Fiona will most likely match the rates and terms you'd get if you worked with a direct lender. So, you really can use Fiona, along with most other lending platforms, free of charge.
Rates and fees from lending partners
The fees and interest you pay on your loan go to the lender, not Fiona. Partner lenders offer loan amounts ranging from $1,000 to $250,000.
These personal loans are unsecured, which means you don't have to put up collateral. Because they aren’t secured by property that it can seize and sell, unsecured loans tend to have higher interest rates than auto loans or mortgages.
The APRs for the loans available on Fiona can range anywhere from 3.99% and up, and repayment terms range from six months to 144 months. Your rate and terms will vary according to which lender you choose. Your credit score also significantly impacts your ability to borrow with competitive rates and terms.
Depending on your lender, you may have to pay an origination fee, late fees or ACH/check refund fees. Origination fees can be anywhere between 1% and 6% of the overall loan amount. On a $10,000 loan, a 6% origination fee would cost you $600.
Getting started
Fiona’s personal loan process is straightforward and takes only a few minutes. To get started, you’ll need to be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and have good-to-excellent credit. If you meet all these requirements, you can proceed with a lending request.
The application process begins on Fiona’s homepage. You'll need to complete a form you’re your personal information so the platform can check with its lending partners for pre-qualified rates. You'll need to provide the following data in the application form:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Your estimated credit score
- Address
- Phone number
- Employment status
- Whether you rent or own
- Annual income before taxes
- Loan purpose (debt consolidation, home improvement, large purchase or credit card refinance)
- Desired loan amount
Customer reviews report Fiona’s form feels cluttered compared with other loan marketplaces. Other loan marketplaces use an interview-style questionnaire rather than a single-page format. However, some users may prefer Fiona's more direct approach.
After receiving your application form, Fiona conducts a soft credit pull to confirm your identity and credit score. This credit pull will not lower your score but will still allow the platform to show you accurate rates on loan offers.
Fiona then shows your qualifying offers, sorted by APR. You can filter and sort the offers by several factors, such as additional fees or loan terms.
If Fiona does not return any loan offers, check with the platform's customer service representatives about a possible system error. It's also possible your credit profile did not qualify you for a loan with any of Fiona's loan providers. If you don't have a minimum credit score of 580, this is likely the problem.
After choosing a loan offer, click “Continue” to continue with the borrowing process. You'll be directed to the relevant lender’s website to continue your application and close on the loan. Before closing, expect to submit your Social Security number and consent to a hard credit pull.
Is Fiona safe?
Fiona recognizes the importance of data security. The platform has measures in place to protect your privacy from hackers and other cybercriminals.
Financial security measures
The service uses 256-bit encryption to protect your data. Fiona takes security a step farther with its unique Programmatic Compliance tool. This tool scans partner sites’ web pages to find security problems that may raise red flags.
For example, this tool may detect information that conflicts with state and federal regulations, which would put your data at risk. It flags the issue and triggers a Fiona staff member to make a judgment call on what this means in the big picture. This could help you avoid closing a loan with an untrustworthy lender.
Fiona's lending partners are top-notch loan companies providing the best personal loans in the industry. They'll also protect your financial data.
Sharing application data
Lending marketplaces, by their nature, share your data with several different lenders. That's the whole point of the service: You fill out one application, and the data goes to a variety of financial services companies.
Fiona says it will not share your data with third-party companies, and it lives up to this promise. However, Fiona doesn't consider its lending partners third-party loan companies.
Bottom line: Your application on Fiona could lead to dozens of phone calls from various financial institutions that know you're in the market for a personal loan. These calls won't go on forever. You can just say you're not interested and move on with your life.
But this wouldn't be a legitimate review if we didn't point out this potential drawback. If you have an alternate phone number, such as a landline you seldom answer, consider listing that number on your application rather than your primary cell number.
Customer support
If you're having trouble finding the right loan with Fiona, there's a customer support team in place to help you get answers.
You can reach the team through email (help@hifiona.com) or phone (800-614-7505). Fiona's team can help with any issues with the site, trouble filling out information or any questions you have about finding a personal loan.
Once your loan is closed, Fiona does not provide any further support. You are required to go through your lender for any assistance with your loan.
Fiona's site also has a FAQ section and an educational blog. The blog is a unique feature that helps explain personal loan details and tells you about the behind-the-scenes process.
Fiona’s customer support does more than guide you through the platform. The staff wants you to feel more informed as you go through the loan shopping process.
Fiona personal loans pros and cons
There are plenty of online loan marketplaces out there, so it’s important to know the benefits and limitations of each. Let’s review some of the pros and cons of using Fiona to shop for a personal loan.
Advantages
- Easy-to-navigate website: True to its slogan “Finance made friendly,” Fiona's site is user friendly and intuitive. You only need to fill out one form to get pre-qualified loan rates. You can also search by factors such as loan purpose, loan amount and credit score.
- Doesn’t affect credit score: Fiona uses a soft credit pull to verify your information, which doesn’t affect your credit score. This is great for people who are shopping around and want to see what Fiona offers. If you’re flirting with taking out a personal loan and want to check interest rates, you won’t take a credit hit by using Fiona.
- Other products available: Many online marketplaces are unilateral, but Fiona isn’t. You can search for more than just personal loan rates on Fiona's site. You can also browse credit cards, student loan refinancing products and high-yield savings accounts.
Disadvantages
- Origination fees: You won't pay Fiona any fees, but depending on the lender, you may have to pay additional fees to borrow. Some Fiona lenders may charge origination fees, late fees or processing fees to cover a lower APR. Keep this in mind as you browse loan offers.
- Telemarketing calls: As Fiona shares information with its lender network, you may have to field spam calls and emails for a while. Lenders seeking your business may even keep calling after you've closed a loan with a different lender.
Is Fiona for you?
Fiona is an excellent tool for people wishing to compare multiple personal loan offers quickly. It is available to individuals with any credit score but is best for those whose score is above 620. It is possible to borrow with a score as low as 580, but you may get only one offer. If you're looking for a loan for debt consolidation, home improvements or to make a large purchase, Fiona can help you search for the best rates and terms.
Update: This article has been updated to reflect current rates and practices of Fiona.
Disclaimer: This story was originally published on March 19, 2020, on BetterCreditBlog.org. To find the most relevant information concerning Fiona Personal Loans, please visit their website: https://fiona.com/products/loans