Very confused, Denied SoFi with 768 EX FICO

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
So I don't know about personal loans with SoFi...

But when I wanted to refi my student loans with them my income needed to be over 100k. I have no idea if that's relevant here. Maybe call them for clarification?

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I've read/heard the exact same thing about income requirements with SoFi, which is why I never even bothered plethora of mailers I get from them. Plenty of other Banks out there who do not have this particular requirement.

So i wouldn't let this denial take up too much of your time or thoughts OP, it's just one of their quirks.

If you don't really need the loan, I would definitely wait for higher scores to get better rates. But I would look at CU's or your Bank, they tend to have lower rates than random online Loans and can be customized for you. Also should be aware that the lower the amount you borrow, the higher the rate is. Or so I've seen. My guess is because if a Bank gives you a loan for $5K @ 4%, they're not gonna make much off of you. Espcially if paid back sooner than the terms. I was going to borrow $10K but the APR was higher than I got for borrowing $15K. And since I'd be paying it off early, I would save even more.

As for diversification, do you not have an exising Auto Loan? That will satisfy the "installment" mix on your CR, so I wouldn't take out a loan simply to try and boost your score a few points. If you do need a loan to pay off higher rate cards, that's another story. 

If you allow things to age a little longer and keep utilization down, you should see 780+ fairly soon. 

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Good to know about the high income requirement. I will keep that in mind that I need a better job haha. Also getting a larger loan than I need would be great but the loan I got just to have another account on my credit had a loan origination fee of 6% so I got the lowest amount possible. I basically paid a $125 in fees for a loan for 60 days which is not the brightest idea but every credit place I talked to said I need more accounts and this was an easy way to add one on all bureaus. I also do not have an auto loan because I'm currently overseas. It's difficult to keep building my credit while being over here because some banks and many credit unions want you to physically go into branches for lending which I completly understand. Online lending makes this much easier in my situation even though I don't have a need for the loan. I've actually considered companies like Self Lending that is normally for rebuilding credit just to add more accounts on my history (Any thoughts about this?). Sorry I took awhile to respond I actually have my account banned because I was accessing FICO forums from overseas and they normally block these IP addresses. I had to contact support to gain access again.

@Kidcat wrote:

I had a personal loan from them and my FICO score at the time was lower than yours for sure.  They have an internal score, and from what I recall income plays a huge factor.  I think they are looking for $100k plus income.  That's my recollection.

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Okay I will be sure not to take this denial to hard then. Thanks for the information as this is a great to know data point.

[CreditCuriosity]

Yes SOFI likes high income and plays a big role in approval/denial from what i have seen.  I was able to pre-qualify for a personal loan with them but it was like 9 or 10% with a 800 score and 6 figure income.  I went with lightstream and they gave you a loan in the 5% range.  Way better company to deal with in my experience, but they are conservative as well.  Although if you have a good profile i would look at them.  They take assets and other things into consideration as well.

[Anonymous]

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

Yes SOFI likes high income and plays a big role in approval/denial from what i have seen.  I was able to pre-qualify for a personal loan with them but it was like 9 or 10% with a 800 score and 6 figure income.  I went with lightstream and they gave you a loan in the 5% range.  Way better company to deal with in my experience, but they are conservative as well.  Although if you have a good profile i would look at them.  They take assets and other things into consideration as well.

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Wow, yeah I just looked at their site and it seems much better. Maybe I will consider that for my next option. I think the reason I didn't check them before is because they don't offer a pre qualify option. Now I'm a bit worried about taking a hit to get denied so I think I'll wait till I'm closer to that 800 point mark.

[CreditCuriosity]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

Yes SOFI likes high income and plays a big role in approval/denial from what i have seen.  I was able to pre-qualify for a personal loan with them but it was like 9 or 10% with a 800 score and 6 figure income.  I went with lightstream and they gave you a loan in the 5% range.  Way better company to deal with in my experience, but they are conservative as well.  Although if you have a good profile i would look at them.  They take assets and other things into consideration as well.

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Wow, yeah I just looked at their site and it seems much better. Maybe I will consider that for my next option. I think the reason I didn't check them before is because they don't offer a pre qualify option. Now I'm a bit worried about taking a hit to get denied so I think I'll wait till I'm closer to that 800 point mark.

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@Anonymous if you go through nerdwallet website they do offer a pre-qualify through them as they have some special relationship.  Just google Lightstream Nerdwallet will have a review and a pre-qualify link that you can use for a SP

[Anonymous]

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

Yes SOFI likes high income and plays a big role in approval/denial from what i have seen.  I was able to pre-qualify for a personal loan with them but it was like 9 or 10% with a 800 score and 6 figure income.  I went with lightstream and they gave you a loan in the 5% range.  Way better company to deal with in my experience, but they are conservative as well.  Although if you have a good profile i would look at them.  They take assets and other things into consideration as well.

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Wow, yeah I just looked at their site and it seems much better. Maybe I will consider that for my next option. I think the reason I didn't check them before is because they don't offer a pre qualify option. Now I'm a bit worried about taking a hit to get denied so I think I'll wait till I'm closer to that 800 point mark.

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@Anonymous if you go through nerdwallet website they do offer a pre-qualify through them as they have some special relationship.  Just google Lightstream Nerdwallet will have a review and a pre-qualify link that you can use for a SP

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Thanks, I have a nerdwallet account already so I'll check it out.

Also, if anyone is interested I found a way to get your free Transunion FICO 8 score for people that do not have credit cards or bank accounts that offer it. If you do the pre qaulification for a personal loan on prosper.com and are denied they will send you an email with your free FICO 8 score and the reason for denial.

[Anonymous]

So you're just mostly looking for things to add to your credit mix & report to prop up your credit score?
Since you're in USAA, hopefully that means you are also eligible for joining NFCU. Check out post #47 in this thread:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/The-NFCU-vs-USAA-vs-PenFed-Guide/td-p/5728807

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So you're just mostly looking for things to add to your credit mix & report to prop up your credit score?
Since you're in USAA, hopefully that means you are also eligible for joining NFCU. Check out post #47 in this thread:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/The-NFCU-vs-USAA-vs-PenFed-Guide/td-p/5728807

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Wow, thanks for that. I just applied for an account with them so we will see. Seems like a perfect option for me since paying it down does not shorten the loan length. The only thing is I just started a Credit Strong credit builder account to add an installment loan to my report so I wish I would have seen this first. I took out the $1,000 one and paid it off to ~$300 on day 1 to make the $15 monthly payment for the next 2 years. Either way I still think it's a good option for me to add another account. I'm guessing I'll take a bit of a hit on my score initially but long term it will help me out so I'll probably do it.

[catman60]

First, sorry you've experience this decline. Doesn't appear to make a lot of sense. My experience with SoFi is that their underwriting is extremely strict. The first time I applied I included a $30K pension that had begun paying me two months earlier. I also have a good paying job that I had just started after leaving a similar position for 27 years. SoFi would not include the pension as I had not had it at least 6 months and in their mind it wasn't reliable income. Clearly they don't understand pensions. In any case, the approved me at a higher rate with a FICO of nearly 800. I paid it off in 6 months. A year later I came back expecting a smoother process and hit the underwriting wall again but this time a little less harder. Interestingly, their underwriter also looked at my LinkedIn profile. That's a pretty weird business process if you ask me. I secured a 25K loan at 9.99 percent. Since that time I've paid that loan off. This week, after considerable shopping, I applied at Lightstream. I wanted to consolidate some bills and was offered 25K at 8.99 on 72 months. I intend to pay that one off in 24 months. So, the lesson here is, you really can't figure out SoFi. Strict underwriting and decisions that easily be rationalized. This is my second experience with Lightstream. Approval within a couple of hours, funding the next day to your bank account. The only downside is that they don't pre-qualify with a soft inquiry. Know your scores going in, make sure you have some assets and you likely will have a great experience.

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I attempted to prequalify for a $5,000 SoFi personal loan and was denied. They sent me an email that stated that I have a 768 FICO from EX. After my application I received the message below from them.

Reasons for our decline

We consider many factors when reviewing an application and want to be transparent about our decision.

Minimum score under credit scoring system not met 

We regret that we are unable to accept your loan application. Your score under our credit scoring system does not meet minimum requirements to fund a loan. We have provided several resources below that may help you improve your credit score. Please contact a credit reporting agency (like Experian) if you would like to see your full credit report.

We hope that you’ll find a good option with our partner, Fiona, but you are always welcome to consider reapplying with us when your situation changes. And in the meantime, you might like to take advantage of SoFi Relay to help you track all of your finances in one place.

So I guess I'm curious who would be approved. I'm sorry but if my 768 from EX is denied for being too low of a score I think that is quite odd. It's by no means a perfect score but I don't think that score without other underlying issuses deserves a denial.

No late payments

No derogatory accounts

No Charge-offs

Credit usage is at 1%

5 open accounts

Oldest account 10 years old

average account age 5 years

3 hard hits last 2 years with the most recnt one Feb 2019 and the other 2 over a year old

No public records

No bankruptcy

Resided at current address for 7 years

Income over $50k

Employed same job 7 years

Am I missing something? I cannot reasonably find a reason I was denied. Have other people been approved with SoFi? Maybe you can provide some data points?

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[Anonymous]

I just wanted to share too, I was definitely surprised and was also denied by So Fi for a personal loan of $8,000. I even entered co-borrower information to see if it made a difference. My FICO is 723 (I'm working to raise it) with $55K/year income, no derogatory remarks, 17 year positive credit history. My fiancé's score is mid-700s, and I entered his income as well. Still denied. It was helpful to read others with upper 700 scores were denied too. I didn't feel as bad! 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I attempted to prequalify for a $5,000 SoFi personal loan and was denied. They sent me an email that stated that I have a 768 FICO from EX. After my application I received the message below from them.

Reasons for our decline

We consider many factors when reviewing an application and want to be transparent about our decision.

Minimum score under credit scoring system not met 

We regret that we are unable to accept your loan application. Your score under our credit scoring system does not meet minimum requirements to fund a loan. We have provided several resources below that may help you improve your credit score. Please contact a credit reporting agency (like Experian) if you would like to see your full credit report.

We hope that you’ll find a good option with our partner, Fiona, but you are always welcome to consider reapplying with us when your situation changes. And in the meantime, you might like to take advantage of SoFi Relay to help you track all of your finances in one place.

So I guess I'm curious who would be approved. I'm sorry but if my 768 from EX is denied for being too low of a score I think that is quite odd. It's by no means a perfect score but I don't think that score without other underlying issuses deserves a denial.

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Timb, sorry that happened to you... 

Here's my take... as one of my dear friends who runs a credit repair and coaching service once told me, credit scores won't get you approved for a loan, but they WILL get you denied. 

So, based on your credit score itself, I doubt they denied you for that.  So, your score didn't get you denied - but a score alone won't get you approved.  Based on the wording of their email, especially with your supplemented bit from them about the credit score they obtained, they likely have an *internal* score that denied you, based on all factors of your report - ie, they fed your report into their computer, and out spit a decline.  As others have said, it is likely income related - or perhaps you just aren't in their preferred demographic or something.  Either way, chock it up as an educational experience and go with a good credit union.  There are a ton of them more than willing to give you a 5k or more loan, and MANY of them are well documented on here (Alliant, BECU, DCU, NFCU, etc etc etc)