How is the interest rate decided?

The most important determinant of the interest rate is applicant's profile. We use statistical models and incorporate all the information you provide in your loan application to decide the lowest interest rate we can offer you.

Below are some broad highlights on what we look at in an application:

1. Current Employment or Employability: If you are currently employed full time or have a job offer that you’ve accepted, it is a strong positive for your application. It shows that you have the ability to pay a loan. If you don’t have a current job offer, we look for clear signs of employability in the near future. The higher your chances of employability, the lower your risk.
2. Education/Work Experience: A good education and work experience increase your chances of employability (including GPA). We look at your educational and professional background in detail using our data models.
3. Financial Behavior: This is the second most important aspect we look at. If your spending and saving behavior has been good without any hiccups, it is considered positive for your application. We are trying to understand how you manage your expenses month to month. This is both for debit and credit accounts.
4. Derogatory Fees: We are looking for responsible payment patterns in the past. You should not be consistently charged overdraft fees, insufficient funds fees, or other types of derogatory fees. If you slip or forget a couple of times, we take that into account.
5. Defaults/Collections/Bankruptcies: These are extremely important factors of credit risk. If you have previous accounts in default or collections, they can have a significant negative impact on your overall application. We understand that there could be smaller issues with retail cards like Macy’s, JC Penney, and others. Defaults on these acceptable depending on the circumstances and may not impact your chances of getting a loan significantly.
6. Visa Status: As a foreign national, it is important to maintain a legal visa status for the term of the loan. We offer loans to F-1, OPT, H-1B, O-1, L-1, G-1, TN visa holders. We also consider situations like OPT STEM extension and H-1B renewal.
7. Information Accuracy: We verify all the information you add during the application process. We cross-check details in one document with the same information in other documents. It is important that all the details are consistent as this helps us reduce fraud and further lower interest rates for the borrowers.
8. Credit Check/Credit Score (only for applicants with SSN): We do a hard credit pull for every applicant (even if you haven’t had any credit or don’t have an SSN). This is a standard in the industry and required by credit bureaus. Also, we need to make sure your credit history is sound (however limited it may be).

These are just some of the factors we use in our machine learning algorithms to determine your final rates.