How Much Can I Get From A Personal Loan?

Sometimes you need extra cash for planned or unplanned expenses, and that’s when a loan can come in handy. A personal loan can be used for a variety of reasons, such as home improvements or debt consolidation, but the amount of money you can borrow and the terms for repaying the loan are typically based on your finances.

Let’s take a deep dive into how much you can get when you take out a personal loan, and we’ll also explore the factors that go into that amount.

In general, most lenders allow borrowers to take out $1,000 – $50,000. The amount you’re approved for, however, can depend on certain factors in your finances.

Rocket Loans^SM offers personal loans from $2,000 – $45,000.

What Is The Maximum Personal Loan Amount?

How much you can get a personal loan for may vary by lender. The highest amount ever approved for a personal loan is generally $100,000, but that’s extremely rare and only under certain circumstances. As already noted, most lenders cap the personal loan limit at somewhere around $50,000.

As mentioned above, factors related to your financial situation can influence your loan amount. These factors can include the ones we’ll discuss in the sections below.

Your Income

How much you earn can play a huge role in how much you can afford to borrow. Many lenders will require you to provide them with your annual salary so they’ll know whether you can comfortably handle your monthly loan payments. Lenders can reach this conclusion by looking at your debt-to-income ratio (DTI), a percentage that will provide insight into how easily you’ll be able to make your monthly payments.

With DTI, a lower percentage is always preferred. Anything above 36% could seriously hurt your chances of qualifying for a loan. Thankfully, you can lower your DTI by making more money, eliminating debt, or both. For instance, you could pay off a credit card, mortgage or student loan. Or you could get a raise at work. Either way, it will no longer be as difficult to qualify for a larger loan amount.

Your Credit Score

Your credit score shows a lender how reliable you are at paying off debt. Think of it like a grade in school – the higher the score, the better off you’ll be. Borrowers with a high credit score and an excellent credit history will appear less risky to lenders. Your interest rate and annual percentage rate (APR) are also dependent on your credit report, and a higher credit score can net you a lower rate.

The generally accepted minimum score for a personal loan is 650, so it’s wise to take some steps to improve your credit if you have bad credit and need a loan.

Your Loan Type

Most personal loans are unsecured, meaning you’ll be judged primarily based on your credit score and DTI. If those numbers aren’t favorable enough to land you the amount you need, you could potentially get more cash by putting up an asset as collateral.

A secured loan could yield a higher loan amount, but you risk losing your collateral if you fail to make your monthly payments or even fall behind on them.

Your Co-Signer

A co-signer is someone who agrees to add their name to the borrower’s loan application and be financially responsible by law to repay the loan if the borrower defaults on it. Having a co-signer – who is typically in a better financial situation than the borrower – can assure a lender that the loan will be repaid one way or another, which could get you a higher loan amount. Rocket Loans doesn’t currently offer the option to co-sign on loans.

Be sure to consider all the possibilities before co-signing a loan. You could put your finances at risk if the borrower falls behind on their payments.

To get an estimate for how much you can borrow, calculate your interest rate and loan term against your desired amount. Current rates are 4% – 36% for personal loans, making it hard to predict your rate with a range that wide.

For example, let’s say you want to take out a personal loan for $10,000 with an interest rate of 7% and you need your monthly payment to be around $200. You can use the personal loan calculator to figure out which term will fit your budget.

As you can see, the longer loan term will have a lower monthly payment but also a higher amount of total interest. To stick to your budget and reduce the amount of interest you’ll pay, you could choose the 60-month term.

You could also try to offset the amount of interest you’ll pay by securing the lowest rate you can qualify for. You can get prequalified with a few lenders and compare several loan offers to find the best option.

Try it out on our personal loan calculator and see what your monthly payments could look like. Knowing how much you can afford per month can help you decide which loan term might work best.

How much money you can borrow with a personal loan will likely depend on a combination of factors that include your income and credit. You can calculate an estimate based on potential rates and terms, but the best way to know how much you can borrow is to get prequalified with a lender.

Looking for a prequalification? Get started with a quote from Rocket Loans.