Fiona

The Good

• Easy-to-use website
• Soft pull – does NOT impact your credit
• Good national coverage
• Coverage across the entire credit spectrum

Fiona is a relatively new financial website that is not a direct lender itself.  It is a matching service that looks at a consumer’s information and then attempts to match that user with a company or lending partner most likely to approve the individual and at a competitive rate.  Fiona, founded in 2015,  is created and powered by Even Financial and based in New York. So despite being a new website, the matching algorithms are well tested. Easy-to-use website The slogan of Fiona is “Finance made friendly,” and indeed, the most striking aspect to the site is the clean design and aesthetics.  It is intuitive, easy-to-navigate, and easy-to-read.  It also does not try to do everything for everyone.  Currently, the site matches consumers to just three types of services:

• Personal loans
• Credit cards
• High yield savings accounts

If you are looking for a different type of service, go elsewhere.  But if you need one of these categories, check out HiFiona.com Soft pull – does NOT impact your credit It’s predominantly displayed on the homepage, but worth reiterating: using Fiona will not impact your credit score. You can read more about what a hard credit pull is vs a soft credit pull and how that can impact credit, but the bottom line is that you credit score will not go down (even temporarily) by comparing financial products on Fiona.  That said, personal loans are the only financial product on Fiona that conducts a soft pull.  For savings accounts and credit cards, consumes do not enter any personal information so no credit pull of any sort is conducted.   Keep in mind that once you are directed to the lending company’s website, you may need to enter additional information.  That company will then conduct a “hard credit pull” to confirm your credit score, but this is mandatory for all personal loan providers with competitive interest rates. Good National Coverage Again, this is most applicable to personal loans because many lenders only operate in certain states (whereas credit cards and savings account providers typically operate in most states).  It can be a real pain to find a personal loan that is at a competitive rate, does not have prepayment penalties, and is good for the state in which you reside.  Even the largest lenders like Avant do not operate in all 50 states.   Fiona works with a large number of personal loan providers, so they can operate in every state.  However, some states are better represented than others.  It’s worth checking out no matter what state you live in, but in our research, consumers in the following states were best served:

• Alabama
• California
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Missouri
• New Mexico
• Ohio
• Oregon
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Utah
• Washington

Keep in mind that regardless of where you live, most personal loans will require a minimum FICO score of about 580 though. Any lower than that, and you are getting into the payday loan territory. High Likelihood for Approval Because Fiona is an aggregator with multiple lenders in its network, the probability that they can find a lender willing to work with you is fairly high.  Again, this assumes a minimum credit score of 580 and no recent bankruptcy or defaults.  But after you input your information, Fiona scans multiple lenders to see which one pre-approves you.  So the company that you are direct to is likely to approve you, assuming you were truthful with the information on the application form.  if you have a credit score of about 650 or better, they will be able be able to show you some very good options from lenders.  They work with some of the best lenders in the business and effectively vet them, so if they show you a rate, you could be assured that it’s from a solid lender. Because Fiona conducts a pre-approval on your behalf, this means that the rate you see is the actual rate (or very close to) the rate that you are going to pay.  They don’t do any of the bait-and-switch tactics you often see where a teaser rate turns out to be much higher.

The Bad

• Not the end lender itself

Most, if not all, of Fiona’s available lenders are those who lend to a minimum FICO score of 580.  That’s the absolute minimum and does not mean you will automatically be approved. The mid-600 range or better is ideal to get approved and at an interest rate you can afford.  For borrower with a score below 640, we’d recommend LendingPoint or OppLoans, depending on the state that you live in. Also, remember that Fiona is not the lender itself.  It is a comparison service to help you find the right lender, but if you have questions about that loan, customer service issues in the future, or trouble paying it back, don’t call Fiona.  It’s the lender’s customer service that will help you – Fiona does not really have a customer service department, per se.  This is not necessary a bad thing – it’s just something to keep in mind should you need to talk to a customer service representative in the future.

The Summary

If you have a credit score of 650-850 and are looking to find a personal loan, credit card, savings account, or consolidate other debt at higher interest rate, check out Fiona.  They can match you with a lending partner that will get you approved quickly without need to spend a lot of time searching online.