Typically Tranquil Personal Loan App Ranking Suddenly Does The Digital Shimmy

What’s all this, then? Changes in PYMNTS Provider Ranking of Personal Loan Apps?

We don’t normally employ salty language but … holy moly.

Admittedly, there are pressures weighing on all players the space, from rates to loan repayment terms to how personal loans are originated. FinTechs and legacy brands making the jump to digital lightspeed are heating things up, and we’re seeing it in a normally placid ranking.

Maybe we’re making too big a thing of it. We’ll let you decide.

The Top 5

Claws still dug in at No. 1, MoneyLion is still king of this app jungle. The firm is jumping through flaming regulatory hoops ahead of its planned merger with Fusion Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), this year.

From the expected to the totally unforeseen, it’s the Upgrade consumer credit app, upgrading itself a dizzying four chart positions in one cycle to enter the Top 5 at No. 2. Wow. It may have something to do with Upgrade morphing from alt-credit into financial services earlier this year.

Changes at the top of the charts seem to have set off a series of shifts right down this shortest of app rankings after months of calmly unchanging scores and ranks.

For example, SoFi moves down a spot to No. 3 on the heels of its own SPAC plans.

No change, ironically, for the Avant app at No. 4 for another cycle. Depending on who you ask, “avant” is taken from the Italian “avanti” meaning “let’s go.” There’s your dose of irony. Also, Avant’s CEO recently told PYMNTS that near-prime consumers aren’t as risky as incomplete data suggests, which is bound to have wide appeal — and assure your ranking position.

Now for another unexpected switch-up. LendingTree falls two spots in the new rankings, closing the Top 5 at No, 5. The company made a strategic investment of $80 million in banking and investment service Stash in Q2, which may (or may not) be having an impact on its ranking.

The Top 10

It’s a short trip to the end of the Provider Ranking of Personal Loan Apps after the Top 5 as only seven providers are making the cut on a month-to-month basis.

At No. 6 this cycle it’s the PaySense app, dropping one chart position, and out of the Top 5. It may very well be back above the line next time we meet here.

That leaves the FlexWage app at what’s become its anchor spot at No. 7 — and closing out what we call optimistically call “the Top 10” — because if we build it, they will come.

Until next time remember … personal loans are personal. Let’s keep it that way.