Upstart Review
Summary
Upstart is a new player in the space who is competing on smarter underwriting, specifically catering to recently graduated college students who are looking to refinance student loans and have stable careers. You must be an accredited investor to invest in Upstart, which means either: 1) earning an individual income of more than $200,000 or for a married couple earning more than $300,000 per year, for the last two years OR 2) having a net worth over $1 million, not including your primary residence. If you meet that criteria, Upstart's more advanced underwriting techniques make it an attractive alternative to LendingClub or Prosper.Quick Facts
Total Loans Funded
$70 MillionYear Founded
2012Return Per Loan Grade
Loan performance last updated October 13th, 2016
| Loan Grade | Default Rate | Interest Rate | Net Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 0.6% | 5.7% | 5.6% |
| B | 2.2% | 7.2% | 6.5% |
| C | 7.7% | 10.5% | 7.1% |
| D | 16.7% | 15.5% | 7.8% |
| E | 27.3% | 21.6% | 8.3% |
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Upstart Reviews
Upstart looks at other aspects beyond traditional credit data such as employability, earning potential and education for underwriting. Nearly 97% of borrowers from Upstart are college graduates and 71% of them select refinancing credit cards as the purpose of the loan. The average income is near $100,000 and the average FICO is 692.
There are no fees to get started and if one of the loans you invested in gets defaulted on Upstart will return the origination fee. They don’t make a dime off of defaulted loans.
Upstart can approve loans for those with 40% to 50% debt-to-income ratio, which is much higher than many other services, but they only offer three year loans whereas other P2P lenders will also offer five year loan terms.