I walked through the application to uncover how the platform works, what information you'll be asked for, and where borrowers should proceed with caution.
By: Jon McDonald
Editor: Lillian Guevara-Castro
Reviewer: Ashley Fricker
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When you need money fast, you don’t always have great options. And in my case, that hasn’t always led to the best decisions. Once, when I was short on cash, I spent the day loading up my car with old weights I had lying around my garage, and drove an hour to sell them to a scrap metal buyer.
I pinched my finger underneath one of the weights while taking it out of the car, only narrowly avoiding what could have been an expensive doctor’s visit. As my reward, I made barely enough to fill my car up with gas on the way home.
If you need more than just a few bucks (think hundreds or thousands), your options can be even more limited. Traditional banks and lenders are likely to turn you away if you have bad credit, and payday loan providers could cost you much more than what you borrow due to sky-high interest rates.
But loan networks like LendingStore.com are geared toward those with bad credit. LendingStore.com can help match you with a lender who will work with you — and understands your situation.
I took LendingStore.com for a spin and found an easy-to-use interface that brings lots of willing lenders together in one place so you can see your options. But, as I’ll cover in this review, you should still do your homework before accepting any loans.
And I’m here to be your personal tutor.
LendingStore.com basically acts as a matchmaker for lending partners, which is a relatively common model in this space. When you apply for a personal loan with LendingStore.com, you’re not applying directly with a lender.
Instead, this loan network looks to connect you with lenders who work with borrowers who have your financial profile.
You’re essentially providing your personal information in exchange for using LendingStore.com to quickly connect with potential lenders.
If you do match with a lender, you finish applying through its dedicated site and manage your loan there, rather than through LendingStore.com. It’s also on you to carefully review your offers, rather than just taking the first loan that comes your way.
Through LendingStore.com, you can potentially get connected with a lender to receive anywhere from $100 to $5,000. Smaller loan amounts ($100-$500) could cover a surprisingly high utility bill or keep your refrigerator stocked until your next payday.
But be careful about using loans that small to bridge gaps between paydays. They could come with higher interest rates and might not be much different from payday loans, which could lead to a cycle of debt.
That money is still coming out of your next paycheck. So you could find yourself lighter in the wallet in two weeks and be thinking about yet another loan.
One perk of this platform is that you might qualify for funding in as fast as 15 minutes, which is certainly a plus if you need money quickly. But if you don’t qualify for funding that quickly, you could still receive it the next business day, which might still be fast enough.
Still, it’ll depend on your circumstances, the loan amount, and your bank.
The specific costs depend on which lenders you get matched with, if any. For qualified customers, LendingStore.com notes that the APR ranges from 5.99% to 35.99%, which is in line with some competitors.
Yet there’s no guarantee that you’ll fall in that range, so you might end up facing a very different APR that could get expensive fast.
The credit score implications also vary by lender, but there’s a good chance that these lending partners will do a hard credit check, which can temporarily drop your score.
LendingStore.com has strict security protocols, including advanced 2048-Bit encryption and regular security checks via TrustedSite.
From a privacy standpoint, though, you should understand that applying for a loan through this platform generally means your information will be shared with third-party lenders, other financial services companies, and various marketing companies.
From there, you’d have to opt out of receiving messages from each of these third parties. But if you need money fast, you probably want to receive plenty of options.
In that case, getting emails, texts, and/or calls from lenders may expand your choices.
The main qualifications to get a loan through LendingStore.com are pretty straightforward, though much depends on specific lender partner requirements.
Typically, though, you need to:
Certain lenders might have stricter qualification requirements, such as a certain income or credit score. In general, though, there doesn’t seem to be a minimum credit score needed to qualify.
As the site clearly states, it’s open to those of all credit situations, whether good or bad.
Keep in mind, though, that qualifying for a loan based on the bare minimum requirements might mean you end up with a high APR offer that isn’t worth it.
Also, once you get an offer through LendingStore.com, the full qualification process isn’t over. The lender you connect with may need to verify additional information, check your identity, or see proof of your income.
The application process is pretty straightforward and takes just a few minutes to fill out. And LendingStore.com lets you get right to the form so you don’t have to waste any time.
Note: I did not submit an application for a loan during this process. This account is purely for informational purposes.
Here is a look at everything I filled out:
To start the process, I selected how much I wanted to borrow, which ranges from $100 to $5,000. After clicking “Get Started,” I chose my home state so LendingStore.com knows right off the bat if its network serves my location.
Next, I enter my first name, last name, email address, and the last four digits of my Social Security number. Lenders need this info to verify that I am a real person and a U.S. resident.
The next set of screens asks for my mobile phone number, date of birth, and whether I owe $10,000 or more in credit card debt.
If I have more than $10,000 in credit card debt, that might restrict the number of lenders that’ll work with me.
At this stage, I if I am an active-duty military member or a dependent, which is a question lenders must ask to comply with federal laws like the Military Lending Act.
I then enter my full address, select whether I rent or own my home, and how long I have lived there. This helps the network figure out how stable my living situation is and what my monthly housing costs look like.
The next screen asks me if I’m interested in an auto title loan. At first, it seemed a little random, but if I answered, “yes,” I may be able to include a vehicle as collateral to unlock more cash or better interest rates. That made a lot more sense.
Then, the form starts getting into my employment and income, starting with whether I’m employed, self-employed, or receiving benefits. Since I selected “employed,” the next screen asks how long I have been with my current employer.
Next, I enter how often I’m paid, my total monthly income, and select my next pay date from a calendar. This allows lenders to calculate how long it’ll take to repay my loan balance.
If my initial loan request was a bit high for my income tier, I’ll also see a screen that asks if I want to lower my requested loan amount to improve my matching odds.
The form opens up a text box where I type in my official company name, followed by my employer’s work phone number, my driver’s license number, and my full Social Security number (I only typed in the last four digits earlier).
This allows lenders to verify my employment and identity, which is designed to prevent fraud.
The next six questions are all about my bank account. This gives LendingStore.com information about whether I’m banked or unbanked, obviously, but more importantly, details on where my funds can be deposited.
The first question is simply, “Do you have a bank account?” At this stage, the site lets me know that most lenders require a bank account to deposit my funds. The next question is whether I have a checking or savings account, and another note that tells me lenders prefer a checking account.
I also answer how long my checking account has been open and if I have direct deposit (which lenders prefer). After that, I add my bank’s routing and account numbers so the money can be deposited quickly into my account if I’m approved later.
Before submitting, I get to review all of the information I entered on one screen. It includes my general info, income details, and bank account numbers all in one place.
Then, I can click “See My Lending Options” to submit the form. The platform ran me through a few processing wheels while it sent my information out to its network.
But within 15 seconds, the screen updated to show that a lender was ready to work with me. If I were in the market for a loan, I would have clicked “Review My Loan Offer” to visit the lender’s website to see my final rates and terms.
If you’re really struggling to find a loan and you have a pressing need for cash, LendingStore.com could be a good fit. For example, maybe you have a steady job, but you don’t have any savings, and you need to move right away due to an issue with your current housing.
In that case, getting a personal loan could be well worth the cost if you’re confident you can pay it off quickly.
But if you have some time, you might be better off doing some comparison shopping online for lenders who can work with your credit situation. For example, instead of using a high APR loan to pay off credit card debt, which could potentially trap you in a debt cycle, you might be better off trying to negotiate a debt settlement.
You also might have better luck getting a loan from a credit union if traditional banks have turned you down.
LendingStore.com doesn’t lend money, so you’ll need to finalize the process with the lender if you choose to move forward. If you get an offer, LendingStore.com transfers you to the lender’s website, where you can review the specific loan terms.
Remember that you don’t have to accept any loan offers you receive. Perhaps you’re just curious about what you can qualify for and want to compare loan terms among different platforms.
But if you decide to move forward, then you would finalize the offer by submitting an official application. At that point, the lender will perform a hard credit check, and you may need to provide additional verification before you sign any loan documents.
If you don’t get approved by the lender, and remember, LendingStore.com isn’t approving or denying you, that lender typically has to send you an adverse action notice within 30 days, detailing why you got denied.
With that info, you could make adjustments and eventually reapply through LendingStore.com to get new offers. Or you might try going directly to the lender that rejected you. For example, maybe you need to wait a few months until you have more credit history before reapplying.
That said, if you don’t get any offers through LendingStore.com, you might try reapplying there, too, when you make any relevant changes to your finances. For example, maybe you can wait until you get a raise, thereby boosting your income and helping to qualify for offers.
Granted, if you’re using a service like this, you probably need the money fast. So, rather than waiting until your credit situation improves, you might be better off just applying elsewhere or seeking funding through other means to keep you out of debt.
I just wouldn’t recommend selling old weights to a scrapyard; that is probably more trouble than it’s worth.
If you use a loan network like LendingStore.com, you might be trading upfront efficiency for long-term nuisances, like getting lots of marketing messages, or worse, getting caught in a debt hole you can’t climb out of if the loan interest costs end up being too high.
Because the initial form only results in a soft credit check, you can still use LendingStore.com to check your options, even if you ultimately don’t go through with one. And the downsides of this platform are likely going to be the same no matter what network you use.
At a high level, many personal loan providers look alike, especially when comparing networks like LendingStore.com vs. their competitors.
So, the overarching features might not jump out at you, but you may find bigger differences in actual loan offers available through these competitors.
| Feature | LendingStore.com | Upstart | 24/7 Lending Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network Size | Loan network model, exact size unknown | 100+ | Loan network model, exact size unknown |
| Min Credit Score | None stated, seems to partner with a broad range of lenders for essentially all types of credit situations | Depends, but has partners focused on bad and no credit history applicants; considers other factors besides credit score | Depends, but has partners focused on serving those with bad credit; no credit history applicants likely need a co-signer |
| Loan Range | $100-$5,000 | $1,000-$75,000 | $1,000-$35,000 |
| Fees | 5.99% to 35.99% APR for qualified customers | 6.2% – 35.99% APR | Varies by lender |
| Turnaround Time | Potentially 15 minutes | Potentially next business day | Potentially within 24 hours |
As this data shows, there’s a lot of variability in personal loan offers. So much depends on your situation, rather than just being based on what a provider offers.
If the broad strokes seem right, e.g., the available loan sizes align with what you’re looking for, and there’s no clearly stated minimum credit score that disqualifies you, it could be worth considering applying through a few different platforms to see your offers. And that’s especially true if their loan request forms only result in a soft credit check.
If you’re struggling to find a loan elsewhere, you might be willing to at least apply through LendingStore.com to see potential offers. It works with lenders who cater to people who have (or have had) credit challenges.
You don’t have to take any offers, but you can first weigh the APR, loan amount, and other terms to see what you may qualify for. And if your finances are in bad shape, I’d always recommend visiting your local credit union to see what credit-builder options it has.
Credit unions can offer terms that lenders in networks like LendingStore.com can’t match. But if you’re open to sharing your data and seeing what’s available without a hard credit inquiry, LendingStore.com can get you answers quickly.
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