Ally Lending Personal Loans Review | Find the best loan for you

Ally Financial, best known for its digital banking services, offers personal loans through its Ally Lending division. Ally started as an auto finance arm of General Motors in 1919. After the financial crisis of 2008, it changed its name to Ally Financial online only. The Ally Lending division was born when the parent company acquired Health Credit Services in 2019.

Ally does not offer personal loans directly to consumers. Instead, Ally Lending operates on what’s called a business-to-consumer model. It offers loans through partners including healthcare providers, home improvement dealerships, retail platforms and auto centers.

Ally Lending offers installment loans for those who want to pay for a service over time rather than in a single lump sum. These loans are made available through home improvement, automotive, retail, and healthcare providers.

Ally Lending offers loans for:

Here’s how the process works: Let’s say you’re thinking about installing new hardwood floors in your home. Instead of asking you to pay for the floors upfront, the installer offers financing through Ally Lending. The cost of your hardwood floor will be divided into smaller monthly payments (plus interest). If you decide to apply, the provider will grant you access to the Ally Lending platform so you can start the process on your own personal device, or you can apply onsite at the provider.

There’s no down payment or application fee required, and you can be prequalified in minutes with no credit impact. From there, you will be presented with some loan options. All options have a fixed annual percentage rate, which varies depending on the terms of your loan and your creditworthiness.

Once you’ve selected a loan, you’ll submit a formal application – all online with electronic signatures – and Ally will perform a thorough credit check. If approved, you will receive an email notification and will receive a billing statement in the mail with instructions on how to set up your account.

In the meantime, Ally will pay the installer of the flooring directly in full, leaving you to repay the loan to Ally.

Ally Lending offers a range of rates and terms for its different types of loans. Here’s how it breaks down:

Because APR ranges vary widely, your credit and the term you choose can have a big impact on what your interest rate will be. Note that for healthcare loans, APR ranges may vary depending on the type of service you purchase.

Borrowers must be US citizens or permanent residents and at least 18 years old. While consumers can take out a loan for someone else, Ally Lending does not allow co-signers.

Beyond that, each loan has its own underwriting requirements, and loan availability may vary by service provider.

For each type of personal loan, the minimum credit score required is 580.

Ally Lending point-of-sale financing is available to eligible businesses in all states. On the consumer side, customers won’t know if a provider offers an Ally loan as an option until they commit to a provider.

Ally Financial has a D- rating with the Better Business Bureau, primarily due to unresolved consumer complaints from former auto loan customers, and it is not a BBB accredited company. Ally Financial also has a Trustpilot rating of 1.3 out of 5. In 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received 2 complaints about personal loans from Ally Financial. In both cases, the company provided a quick response.

Call Ally Lending’s toll-free hotline Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Time. There is no online chat functionality available.

The entire account application and management process with Ally Lending is digital. Once a vendor presents the platform to the customer, prequalification is done in minutes. The client completes the rest of the application online. Once the loan is approved, Ally Lending pays the provider directly. After that, customers manage their loan through Ally’s website, where they can view statements, make payments, and set up automatic payments if they wish.