 TITLE: Can I Trust Online Personal Loan Lenders? CONTENT: How to Find a Trustworthy Online Personal Loan Lender\n-----------------------------------------------------\nYou may want to start with well-known online lenders or lenders that are offshoots of banks, as these companies rely on their reputation and lending business to survive. For example, you may be familiar with large online-only lenders, such as Avant, LendingClub, Payoff and Prosper, or big banks that offer online personal loans, such as Discover and Marcus by Goldman Sachs.\nIf you're not familiar with a company, or even if you know the name but want to do extra due diligence, take a few steps to verify that it's trustworthy:\n*   **Check the Better Business Bureau (BBB).** Look for the company's rating and any unresolved complaints.\n*   **Look for news stories about the company.** You may find announcements about the company's successes, failures or outstanding lawsuits. These can help you determine which companies you want to work with.\n*   **Read online reviews.** You can often find reviews that discuss the pros and cons of different companies. The content of a review may help you make up your mind when choosing between lenders with similar offers.\n*   **Ask friends, family and colleagues.** While your financial situation may be different from theirs, asking those close to you for recommendations of companies they've used and trust can go a long way to making you more comfortable. You'll still need to do your own research, though, to ensure the company is sound.\n*   **Check its federal registration.** Lenders and loan brokers have to register in every state where they offer loans, and you can often find the page where they list their state licenses by searching the lender's name plus \"license.\" You can then check the license number on your state's website.\nThere are also warning signs that the website or person is running a scam rather than a legitimate company. Watch out for these red flags:\n*   You're asked for an upfront payment\n*   You're guaranteed to be approved for a loan\n*   You can't verify the company's license or find good reviews online\n*   You feel pressured to quickly accept the terms\n*   You can't find the lender's offices when searching online\n*   You receive an unsolicited call, email or text asking if you want to borrow money\n*   You don't see \"https\" in the website's URL—the \"s\" stands for secure\nThere are many legitimate and trustworthy online lenders. If you come across a red flag, or something seems too good to be true, it may be best to move on. END