Edly Income-Based Loans: 2024 Review

Edly features

Edly offers loans to undergraduate juniors and seniors, as well as graduate students, enrolled in an eligible major at one of the 1,700-plus schools that Edly partners with. Edly requires 84 payments once you meet the minimum income threshold, and it offers a grace period of four months for loans without a co-signer. 

One benefit of Edly is its commitment to helping borrowers find the right solution for them. Edly and its lending partner, FinWise Bank, say that they will provide disclosures to students allowing them to compare its loan product with more traditional student loans. This can help borrowers decide whether an Edly’s product is truly right for them, compared with a potentially cheaper student loan.

Edly Income-Based Loans: In the details

Pros and cons of Edly student loans

Edly’s loans can be a good option if you only need to borrow a small amount to fill in any gaps, but its loans have some limitations worth considering. 

Edly student loan requirements

To be eligible for Edly’s student loans, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident.
• Be enrolled at least half-time.
• Be attending a qualified institution and program.
• Meet Edly’s credit and income requirements.

Additionally, no-co-signed student loans require borrowers to be juniors, seniors or graduate students. Co-signed loans are available to the above plus sophomores. Edly’s student loans aren’t available to residents of Colorado, Vermont, Maine, West Virginia and Iowa.

Who is this loan good for?

Edly is a good choice for borrowers who need a small amount of money to fill in gaps in their funding. Edly’s lifetime cap for traditional programs is $25,000 ($15,000 per academic year and $10,000 for summer semester) and $20,000 for certificate programs. Borrowers who expect to enter a field with a high income may want to consider a traditional lender since Edly’s payment cap is high: 2.5 times what you initially borrowed.

Interest rates

Your payments are based on your annual income and can change annually. Edly’s loan products all have the same effective APR range of 5.8 percent to 23 percent. 

Fees and penalties

Edly charges a late fee equal to 6 percent of your payment or $25, whichever is less, if you miss your due date by five or more days. It also charges a $25 returned check fee and a $25 non-sufficient funds fee.

Repayment terms and grace period

Edly requires 84 months of payments once you've graduated. According to a representative, the maximum repayment timeline is 12 years.

Edly provides a four-month grace period after graduation on its no co-signer loan. It also allows for hardship forbearance upon a job loss or drop in income — though interest still accrues.

Co-signed student loans, however, require borrowers to make payments while in school, which can be as low as $25 and are based on the amount borrowed. You may apply for a co-signer release after six consecutive, in-full, post-graduation payments.

Payments on a no co-signer loan from Edly won’t begin until you earn at least $30,000 a year. Repayment is also capped at 2.5 times what you initially borrowed. This means that if you borrowed $10,000, you would no longer be required to make payments once you’ve repaid $22,500.

Customer service

You can contact the Edly customer service team by calling 888-469-3359 (Ext. 1) from Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST. You can also get in touch via email at students@edly.info, fill out the online contact form on Edly’s website or utilize the live chat feature.

How to apply for a loan with Edly

Edly’s application process is entirely online. According to the website, it takes less than three minutes to go through the preapproval and application process.

Here’s how to apply with Edly:

1. Click “Get Started” to see if you meet the eligibility criteria. You’ll be asked basic questions about your education, like your school name, major and anticipated graduation date. This will allow you to see your potential rates and terms with only a soft credit check.
2. After seeing your prequalified terms, you’ll need to go through a hard credit pull to receive your final loan terms.
3. If you accept your final loan terms and sign the loan document, Edly will verify your transcript and send the information over to your school for certification and disbursement.

How Bankrate rates Edly

Methodology

The Bankrate team evaluated over 20 lenders to select our top picks for the best student loans. To do this, Bankrate considers 14 factors, including loan amounts, fees, repayment terms and options, as well as fixed and variable APR ranges. Then, lenders are rated using our vetting system known as the Bankrate Score, which focuses on three main categories.

• Availability: We looked at minimum and maximum loan amounts, as well as the lender’s eligibility requirements, co-signer option, degrees covered and state availability. Lenders that offered the most flexibility as well as nationwide servicing and that offered financing for a variety of programs ranked higher in this section.
• Affordability: Fixed and variable interest rates, fees, penalties and discounts were measured in this category. Lenders with the lowest rates, fewer fees and multiple discounts got the higher scores.
• Customer experience: Our team looked at the ease of the application process, as well as online account management tools, customer support hours, app availability, repayment options and grace periods offered by the lenders. This allowed us to determine the lenders’ ability to satisfactorily serve customers.

Editorial disclosure: All reviews are prepared by Bankrate.com staff. Opinions expressed therein are solely those of the reviewer and have not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. The information, including rates and fees, presented in the review is accurate as of the date of the review. Check the data at the top of this page and the lender’s website for the most current information.