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Comment by t0mbstone | Hacker News Reader

Speaking as someone who has multiple loans from SoFi (consolidated credit card debt, and then re-financed a couple of times as my credit score improved), getting a loan from them was remarkably painless.

Their online application was easy to use, and once it was approved, an electronic deposit for the amount simply appeared in my bank account a couple of days later. The interest rates were low, the terms were easy to understand, and there were no gotchas like front-weighted interest or unexpected fees.

If another company exists that will happily give me a hassle-free, unsecured loan for $50,000 at 5-6% interest, via an easy to use online form, and then deliver the funds in only a couple of days... please, by all means, let me know!

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[1] https://www.avant.com/

[2] https://www.upstart.com/

[3] https://www.lendingclub.com/

[4] https://www.prosper.com/

[5] https://www.marcus.com/us/en

A couple of those companies don't specialize in student loan refinancing.

SoFi started as a student loan refinancing institution for low-risk professional pools with Stanford and Harvard alumni. As someone who refinanced their student loans recently with SoFi and shopped around, I can tell you I got the best rate from SoFi.

You seem adamantly opposed to SoFi though. Despite the unfounded accusations in your rant, why are you?

Personally, I don't know if "has the best rate" is strong enough to warrant the moniker, "a new kind of finance company," but that's just me.

So your problem with Sofi is their marketing motto?

If we literally judge every financial company by their slogan, then we'll be here a while.

Well, your only defence of the company against the parent of this thread was that they got you the best rate after shopping around. I'm pretty sure that "they don't have the best rate" is not an issue that the parent poster takes with the company, so I find it kind of odd that this is your rebuttal.

Ok, but what does that have to do with SoFi's slogan?

The real criticism is that they take out the repayers and leave the govt with the defaulters aka privatize the profits and socialize the losses. it will eventually undermine the student loan program.

That is not unique to SoFi by any means.

Seems like the right answer here is to make the government not accept refinancing that doesn't pay back all the loan?

https://www.earnest.com is a nearly identical company as well.

There's https://www.bestegg.com too, they send me like 1 mailing a week and I get mailings from other very similar companies, as well as established banks, several times a week.

I do not know if it's a saturated market yet but it sure seems like it.

I currently have ~$10,000 in credit card debt at 0% interest, no I don't want to refinance that, thank you! (I got the money sitting in a CD when the interest free period runs out.)

> If another company exists that will happily give me a hassle-free, unsecured loan for $50,000 at 5-6% interest,

If there aren't any, that should tell you something. Their business is not likely sustainable. Good for you if you got those terms, and there aren't any hidden surprises, but that rate with no security seems well below what prudent lending demands.

Their business is not likely sustainable.

The interest that banks give on your deposited cash is essentially zero, so even 5-6% leave a decent margin. Not everyone aims to make 25% a year, quite a few want to retain their wealth. This can be a tiny % of their allocation.

(Yeah, I know not all is paid back, salaries, heating bill and all.)

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