About Our Personal Loan Request Service

We are a loan-matching service: one secure request form passes your details to lenders in our network so they can decide whether to offer you a personal loan, and on what terms.

Our team is based in Annapolis, Maryland. We build and maintain the request form, the comparison tools and the guides on this website. We do not hold deposits, issue credit, set interest rates, approve applications or collect loan payments. Every one of those jobs belongs to the lender that makes you an offer.

People often find us while searching for stride loans, stride financial options or reviews of a quick way to cover a car repair, a vet bill or a gap between paychecks. Whatever brought you here, the role is the same: we help you reach lenders, and the lenders do the lending.

Our mission is to make small-dollar borrowing easier to compare and easier to understand, so people can see the real cost of an offer before they commit to anything.

Shopping for a loan of a few thousand dollars can mean filling out the same application again and again, with little idea of the rate until the very end. We think a borrower deserves three things up front:

• One request instead of many. You enter your information once, and lenders in our network can review it.
• Plain-language costs. Our guides explain APR, origination fees and total repayment with worked examples that use estimates, not promises.
• A real choice to say no. Submitting the request is free and creates no obligation. You can decline any offer.

You complete one request form, lenders in our network review it, and any lender that wants to work with you shows its offer, including APR, term and fees, before you accept.

1. You tell us how much you need, what it is for, and basic details about your income and identity.
2. We pass that request to lenders in our network that serve your state and loan amount.
3. If a lender makes an offer, you review its terms on the lender's own page or agreement.
4. If you accept and sign, the lender sends funds, often the next business day, depending on the lender and your bank.

A full walkthrough, including what each lender may verify, is on our How It Works page.

Lenders and partners in our network may compensate us when we refer a request or when a borrower is matched, and submitting a request never costs the borrower anything.

We never charge an application fee, a matching fee or a membership fee. Any cost you pay, such as interest or an origination fee, is set by the lender and shown in its offer. Compensation from partners can influence which offers appear and the order in which they appear, which is why we publish a full advertiser and lending disclosure. Read it before you rely on any single offer.

Every guide is written for borrowers, checked against current lender terms, and labels figures as estimates, because the final rate and payment always come from the lender that reviews your request.

• Payment examples are calculated with the standard amortization formula and identified as estimates.
• We do not accept payment from lenders to change what a guide says about cost, risk or alternatives.
• We point out cheaper options, such as a credit union loan or a payment plan, when they may fit better.
• We correct errors promptly and update pages when lender terms in our network change.

Our writers and editors

• Dana Whitlock, Senior Personal Finance Editor. Dana has spent eleven years writing about consumer credit, budgeting and borrowing costs, and edits every guide on this site for accuracy and plain language.
• Marcus Ellery, Credit & Debt Writer. Marcus worked eight years as a credit union loan officer before writing full time about credit cards, consolidation and how lenders read an application.
• Priya Nandakumar, Household Budget Writer. Priya covers small-business cash flow and family budgets, with a focus on planning for vet, repair and startup costs without overborrowing.

We will never promise approval, charge you to submit a request, pressure you to accept an offer, or claim to be the lender behind a loan you receive through our network.

Loan availability, amounts and rates vary by state and by lender. Typical offers in our network run from about 6% to 35.99% APR with terms of 3 to 36 months, and some lenders in some states may charge more. A lender may run a credit check as part of its review.

You can reach us by email at [email protected], by phone at (888) 353-4256, or by mail at our Annapolis, Maryland office, and we reply to most messages within about one business day.

Questions about a loan you already have, such as a payment date or balance, should go to your lender. For everything about the request form, your data or our content, see the contact page.