Avant vs. Best Egg Personal Loans (2026): Which Is Better for Your Needs?

Quick Summary: Avant and Best Egg offer online personal loans, but to largely different borrower types. Avant is best known for serving middle-income borrowers with riskier financial profiles, and may be helpful if your financing options are limited by fair-to-poor credit. Best Egg is best if you’re looking for a secured loan, need to borrow a large amount or could qualify for its lowest interest rates. 

MoneyLion offers a service to help you find personal loan offers. Based on the information you provide, you can get matched with offers for up to $100,000 from our top providers. You can compare rates, terms, and fees from different lenders and choose the best offer for you.

Detailed Comparison: Avant vs. Best Egg 

Interest Rates & APR 

Your annual percentage rate (APR) tells you what you’re paying in fees and interest to borrow each year. It’s expressed as a percentage, and generally speaking, the higher that number, the more you’ll pay. Lenders typically offer their lowest (and best) APRs to people with excellent credit and strong financial profiles.

Avant offers fixed APRs on unsecured loans from 9.95% to 35.99%. That range is high, though Avant services middle-income borrowers, often with fair or even poor credit, so its rates reflect some risk. 

Best Egg’s fixed APRs are lower, but also more complicated. Its best rates are reserved for its secured loans, which let you put up either a vehicle or an owned home’s permanent fixtures as collateral, with APRs from 5.99% to 29.99% and 10.99% to 29.99%, respectively. The trade-off is that a lender can seize your collateral if you fail to pay a secured loan as agreed. 

Best Egg’s unsecured loans offer APRs ranging from 6.99% to 35.99%. That lower starting APR could save you significantly, so long as you have good enough credit to qualify. This chart illustrates how Avant and Best Egg’s APRs can impact a 5-year, $8,000 personal loan. 

Loan Amounts 

Avant offers unsecured loans ranging from $2,000 to $35,000. Best Egg offers unsecured loans between $2,000 to $50,000, home-secured loans from $5,000 to $50,000 and vehicle-secured loans from $5,000 to $100,000.

That makes Best Egg the more flexible lender when it comes to borrowing limits. However, if you’re looking for a large-dollar, unsecured loan, you’ll need to pursue a lender like LightStream or SoFi, which both offer loans up to $100,000. If you need a small-dollar, unsecured loan, you’ll need to consider a lender like PenFed credit union, which has a $600 minimum borrowing amount.

Borrowing minimums for Avant and Best Egg may vary by state. 

Repayment Terms 

Best Egg’s repayment terms range from 2 to 7 years, but its longest terms are reserved for secured loans and its shortest term applies only to vehicle-backed financing. 

Best Egg unsecured loan terms range from 3 to 5 years, while Avant’s unsecured loan terms range from 2 to 5 years. That makes Avant slightly more flexible for loan terms, though it’s hard to compare the two from a cost perspective, given Avant’s higher APRs.

This chart, however, illustrates how different loan terms can impact a $5,000 loan using both lenders’ maximum 35.99% APR. 

As you can see, the shorter loan term could increase your monthly payment by $66, but the longer loan term could increase your total borrowing cost by $1,159. 

Fees & Costs 

Avant charges administrative fees, also known as origination fees of up to 9.99%. Best Egg’s origination fees range from 0.99% to 9.99%, with all loans of 4 years or longer incurring a minimum origination fee of 4.99%. 

Both lenders deduct these fees from your loan proceeds ahead of funding, but require you to repay the full loan amount with interest.  Avant offers borrowers who pay a fee of over 5% the opportunity to receive a partial refund if they repay the loan in full before its final due date.

Neither lender charges prepayment penalties. However, Avant charges several ancillary fees, including a $15 returned payment fee and a $25 late payment fee after a 10-day grace period. These fees might vary by state regulation.

Eligibility & Approval 

Both lenders assess traditional signals of creditworthiness, including income, employment stability and your debt-to-income ratio, but Avant generally has more lenient standards. It requires a minimum credit score of 550, which is considered poor or subprime across major scoring models.  

Best Egg, meanwhile, requires a minimum credit score of 640, which most models consider fair or below average. However, you’ll need a minimum score of 700 (i.e., good credit) and a minimum yearly income of $100,000 to qualify for its best rates and terms.

Neither lender allows co-borrowers or joint applications to bolster approval odds. Both have state restrictions. 

Avant loans are not offered in:

• Hawaii

• Iowa

• Maine

• Massachusetts

• New York

• Vermont

• Washington

• West Virginia

Best Egg loans are not offered in:

• Iowa 

• Vermont

• West Virginia

• Washington, D.C.

Application & Funding Experience 

Both Avant and Best Egg let you check rates and approval odds without a hard credit inquiry, which otherwise could ding your credit score. They both have well-rated mobile apps on Android and iOS that let you manage your loan. Best Egg’s app also lets you monitor your credit.

Avant and Best Egg advertise similarly speedy funding times, essentially 1 day after full loan approval, with waiting periods dependent on your bank and the exact timing of your approval. Most borrowers receive their funds within 1 to 3 business days.

Best Egg outperformed Avant in J.D. Power’s 2025 Consumer Lending Satisfaction Study with a score of 686 to 661. It also has a slightly higher Trustpilot score. However, Avant has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, while Best Egg has an A rating.

Pros & Cons 

Best For: Who Should Choose Which 

Avant and Best Egg have similar loan terms, origination fees and maximum APRs, but there are some clear-cut differences between the two. Here’s when to choose one vs. the other.

Choose Avant if: 

• You have thin or poor credit. 

• You have an otherwise so-so financial profile. 

• You’re more concerned with qualifying than with lower rates.

• You live in Washington, D.C., where Best Egg loans are unavailable.

Choose Best Egg if: 

• You want a secured loan. 

• You’re willing to put up collateral to secure a lower APR.

• You have good-to-excellent credit and can qualify for lower APRs.

• You’re looking to borrow over $35,000.

• You live in a state where Best Egg lends, but Avant loans are unavailable. 

Final Recommendation & Next Steps 

Avant and Best Egg might look similar on paper, but they’re known to serve different borrower profiles. Avant provides personal loans with above-average APRs and fees to people with middle incomes and fair-to-poor credit. Best Egg sometimes considers borrowers with fair credit, but reserves its most competitive terms for people with strong scores and healthy financial profiles. Ultimately, you might want to prequalify with each lender, along with other top lenders to get a better idea of the offers available to you. 

FAQs 

Is Avant or Best Egg better?

Avant is better if you have poor credit, as Best Egg has a higher minimum credit score requirement and more stringent lending standards that could preclude you from qualifying for its loans. Best Egg could be better if you have good-to-excellent credit, as it offers lower starting APRs and fewer fees. 

Is it hard to get approved for a loan with Avant?

While approval at Avant isn’t guaranteed, it does have lower minimum credit requirements than many personal loan providers and, as a result, could provide a comparatively easier path to financing. 

What is the alternative to the Avant loan?

Alternatives to Avant loans include Upgrade, Upstart, OneMain Financial and Prosper, which also offer financing to people who might struggle to get approved by traditional lenders. You can also try improving your credit by paying down balances, building a long, positive payment history, and disputing credit errors to expand your personal loan options. 

Sources

• Avant.com - Personal Loans Official Website

• Bestegg.com - Personal Loans Official Website

• Lightstream.com - Personal Loans Official Website

• SoFI.com - Personal Loans Official Website

• PenFed.com - Personal Loans Official Website

• JDPower.com - Consumer Loan Satisfaction Stagnant as Financial Health of Customers Declines, JD Power Finds