5KFunds Reviews

5K Funds makes it quick and easy for borrowers to get started comparing loan terms from a variety of lenders, and only requires they fill out a short online form. Unlike most marketplace platforms, however, this may involve a hard credit check.

Here are some details you’ll be needing to provide in your initial application:

• Loan amount
• Basic personal info (name, address, phone, etc)
• Basic Employer information (name, time employed, gross income, etc)
• Bank information
• Social Security Number
• Driver’s License

Once you submit your online application, you’ll be immediately matched with available lenders you pre-qualify for. At this point, you can view the rates and terms lenders are offering based on the information you provided.

We then had to detail our credit card and unsecured debt history and were asked whether we could afford a monthly payment of $250. We then input details about our housing status, whether we owned a car, and our income status. At this point, we were less than 50% through the prequalification questions, and it was apparent that to go through the process, we would need to input more personal details than a marketplace lender would typically expect.

We answered questions about income, including monthly gross amount, next payday date, and employer name and phone number. Next, we were prompted to add our State ID or driver’s license. Again, this is a very uncommon request for personal loan prequalification.

5KFunds followed this with a request for our Social Security Number. We then entered an estimate of our credit score and had to indicate the use reason for the personal loan. Finally, we had to enter details of our bank account type, how long we’ve held the account, and the ABA routing number, account number, and check number where we wanted any loan funds to be deposited. Again, this is far beyond what we have previously seen in terms of entering personal details for personal loan prequalification. We could then finish the form which initiates a hard credit pull.

After waiting a few minutes, the site provided a selection of personal loan lenders with whom we could check APRs and loan terms to see if we wanted to proceed. We then could find a personal loan provider with terms we were happy with.

Unfortunately, we then had to re-enter a lot of our personal information again for the direct lender, which made the process of prequalifying with 5K Funds lengthier than most. Ultimately, we found the 5K Funds application time-consuming and intrusive, asking many personal questions often not needed by other marketplace lenders.