Your Dreams, Our Support – Personal Loans Made Easy
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Personal Loan Eligibility, Interest Rates and Documents
A personal loan is unsecured credit — you pledge no property, gold or deposit against it. Because the lender has no security to fall back on, the decision rests almost entirely on two things: your ability to repay, shown by income, and your willingness to repay, shown by your credit history. That is why two applicants with identical salaries are routinely quoted very different interest rates.
Personal loans are typically used for medical expenses, a wedding, home renovation, education costs or consolidating expensive credit card dues. They are not the cheapest money available — a secured loan against property or gold almost always carries a lower rate — but they are the fastest, and they do not put an asset at risk.
Who is eligible
Criteria vary between banks and NBFCs, and each lender applies its own internal scorecard. The ranges below reflect what most Indian lenders ask for.
| Criterion | Salaried applicant | Self-employed applicant |
|---|---|---|
| Age | 21 to 60 years at loan maturity | 25 to 65 years at loan maturity |
| Minimum income | ₹15,000–₹25,000 net monthly, higher in metro cities | Filed ITR showing stable annual profit |
| Work stability | 6–12 months in the current job; 2 years total experience | 2–3 years in the same business |
| Credit score | 750+ gets the advertised rates. 700–749 is usually approved at a higher rate. Below 700, approval becomes selective and pricing rises sharply. | |
| FOIR / debt-to-income | Existing EMIs plus the new EMI should stay under roughly 50–55% of net monthly income | |
What determines your interest rate
Personal loan rates in India generally run from about 9% to 36% per annum. That is a very wide band, and where you land inside it is decided by a handful of factors:
- Credit score — the single largest lever. The gap between a 780 and a 690 score is often 4–6 percentage points.
- Employer category — lenders grade employers; government, PSU and listed-company employees are priced better.
- Income and existing obligations — how much room is left in your monthly cash flow after current EMIs.
- Relationship with the lender — an existing salary account or a clean repayment record often earns a concession.
- Loan amount and tenure — very small or very long loans are sometimes priced higher.
Rates quoted here are indicative market ranges, not an offer. Your actual rate is set by the lender after assessing your profile.
Loan amount and tenure
Most lenders sanction between ₹50,000 and ₹40 lakh, with tenures from 12 to 60 months, occasionally 72 or 84 months. Tenure is a trade-off worth understanding: a longer tenure lowers the monthly EMI but raises the total interest you pay over the life of the loan. Use the EMI calculator above to see the effect before you commit — the difference between a 3-year and a 5-year tenure on the same amount is often substantial.
Documents you will need
| Category | Accepted documents |
|---|---|
| Identity | PAN card (mandatory), Aadhaar, passport, voter ID or driving licence |
| Address | Aadhaar, passport, utility bill or registered rent agreement |
| Income — salaried | Last 3 months' salary slips, 6 months' bank statements, Form 16 |
| Income — self-employed | Last 2 years' ITR with computation, audited financials, 6–12 months' bank statements, business proof |
| Other | Passport-size photographs, employment certificate where asked |
Fees and charges to check before signing
The interest rate is not the whole cost. Before you accept a sanction letter, confirm each of these in writing:
- Processing fee — commonly 0.5% to 3% of the sanctioned amount, plus GST.
- Prepayment or foreclosure charge — often 2–5% of the outstanding principal; some lenders waive it after a lock-in period.
- Part-payment rules — whether they are allowed at all, and how often.
- Late payment penalty — both the fee and the effect on your credit report, which lasts far longer than the fee.
- Insurance bundled with the loan — sometimes added by default; ask whether it is optional.
If your application was rejected
Rejection is rarely about the number alone. Lenders read the full credit report, and the most common blockers are errors rather than genuine defaults — a loan you cleared years ago still showing an outstanding balance, an account marked settled when you paid in full, the same loan reported twice by two lenders, or enquiries from applications you never made.
Every rejected application also leaves a hard enquiry on your report, so applying repeatedly in the hope that one lender says yes makes the next application harder. The sequence that works is the opposite: read the report, correct what is wrong, then apply once to a lender whose criteria you actually meet.
Your credit score is free from CIBIL, Experian, Equifax and CRIF High Mark — we do not sell it. What we do is analyse the full report the way an underwriter reads it, and dispute the entries that are wrong with the bureau and the lender until they are corrected.
Personal Loan FAQs
Most lenders look for 750 or above to offer their advertised rates. Between 700 and 749 you will usually be approved but at a higher rate. Below 700, approvals become selective and pricing rises sharply. A score is not a pass mark though — lenders read the full report, so a 760 score with a recently settled account can still be declined.
It is possible, but the rate will be high and the sanctioned amount low. Before accepting those terms, it is worth checking whether the score is accurate. A large share of low scores are dragged down by reporting errors — closed loans still showing a balance, accounts wrongly marked settled or written off, or duplicate entries. Correcting those costs far less than paying several extra percentage points for five years.
No. Checking your own report is a soft enquiry and has no effect on your score, however often you do it. What does affect your score is a hard enquiry, which is recorded when a lender checks your report because you applied for credit. Several hard enquiries in a short period signal credit hunger and can lower your score.
For a salaried applicant with complete documents and a clean credit report, approval in principle often comes within 24 to 72 hours, and disbursal within a few working days. Self-employed applications take longer because income assessment involves ITRs and financial statements. Missing or inconsistent documents are the usual cause of delay.
A longer tenure lowers the monthly EMI but increases the total interest paid, sometimes considerably. Choose the shortest tenure whose EMI you can comfortably sustain alongside your existing obligations. Missing EMIs to chase a shorter tenure is far more damaging than paying some extra interest, because a default stays on your credit report for years.
The rejection itself is not recorded on your credit report, but the hard enquiry that preceded it is, and it stays visible to the next lender. Rather than applying again immediately, obtain your credit report, identify what caused the decline, and fix it. Repeated applications in quick succession make each subsequent one harder to approve.
Before You Apply
Turned Down for a personal loan? Your Credit Report Is Usually Why
Lenders do not decline a personal loan because of a three-digit number alone. They decline it because of what the number is built on — and a surprising share of that information is simply wrong.
A corrected report can be the difference between rejection and approval — and between a high interest rate and a fair one, on the same income.
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