Impact

LendUp's Commitment to Social Impact

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LendUp’s mission is to provide anyone with a path to better financial health. We build technology, credit products and educational experiences for the 56% of Americans who are often shut out of mainstream banking because of poor credit and income volatility.

But what is financial health? According to the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a leading voice for economic empowerment, "financial health comes about when your daily systems help you build resilience and pursue opportunities".

LendUp seeks to uphold these principles in a number of ways, from helping customers build resiliency and boost their financial knowledge, to, where available, pursue opportunities to build and improve credit.

To ensure we’re delivering on our mission, we relentlessly pursue research, partnerships and measurement that inform our customer impact and provide opportunities for improving their long term financial health. Among our efforts:

Extensive Research

  • Rigorous quantitative and qualitative customer research
  • Research and testing informed by behavioral economics best practices
  • Research and thought leadership with some of the nation’s leading nonprofits in financial health and economic opportunity, such as the Aspen Institute and the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI)

Partnerships

  • Non-profits like Balance connect our customers to free credit counseling resources on a suite of financial topics, like budgeting, savings, debt, student loans, mortgages, and more
  • B Corps like SpringFour connect our customers to nonprofit resources right in their local communities, which can help them reduce monthly costs and increase savings
  • Financial innovators, such as Digit and Self Lender, help interested customers connect to automated savings and additional credit building opportunities

By the Numbers

LendUp Borrower Snapshot

  • 70%

    of LendUp customers report having monthly income fluctuations, with one in three reporting a fluctuation of $200 or more per month

  • 550

    median Vantage credit score of new LendUp loans customers

  • 628

    median Vantage credit score of new LendUp credit cards customers

  • 98.5%

    of customers likely wouldn’t have access to a rewards credit card 1

  • 66.5%

    of customers likely wouldn’t have access to a retail credit card 2

Creating a Better Option for Borrowers

  • Over 5 million

    loans requested

  • $200 million

    saved in interest and fees versus traditional small-dollar lenders 3

  • 32%

    of customers have taken LendUp financial education courses

  • 2 million

    number of LendUp education courses taken

Income Volitility & Credit Challenges Across the U.S.

  • 40%

    blame an irregular work schedule for volatile monthly incomes, with paycheck amounts varying by more than 30% paycheck to paycheck 5

  • 56%

    of Americans have what is generally described as a “subprime” credit score 6

  • Nearly half

    of all U.S. families can’t cover a $400 emergency with their savings 7

  • 1 in 3

    have been denied or offered less credit than they requested 8

  • 40%

    of those desiring credit “faced a real or perceived difficulty in accessing” it 9

  • 2.5

    number of months/per year that low to moderate income families have incomes 25% below their average 10

  • 44%

    of US households live without an adequate safety net 11

  • 5000%

    the equivalent apr of bank overdraft fees 12
  1. Based on LendUp loan customers with 690 or higher FICO & NerdWallet
  2. Data based on FICO of 640 or higher of LendUp loan customers & The Nest
  3. Source: LendUp data
  4. Source: LendUp data
  5. Source: Aspen Institute
  6. Source: Assets and Opportunity Scorecard by CFED
  1. Source: Federal Reserve
  2. Source: Forbes
  3. Source: Forbes
  4. Source: US Financial Diaries
  5. Source: Assets and Opportunity Scorecard by CFED
  6. Source: Pew Trusts