Our promise. We provide a buying advantage with verified reviews and unbiased editorial research.
About Happy Money
Happy Money works with community-based lending partners to offer personal loans. With one of its Payoff Loans, you can combine multiple credit card balances and repay them as a single fixed monthly payment. You can borrow between $5,000 and $40,000 with an APR between 5.99% and 24.99%. To be approved for a Payoff Loan, you need to have a 550 FICO Score or higher and no current credit delinquencies.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Can save you money on interest
- Relatively low credit score minimum
- No prepayment or late fees
Cons
- Requires 3+ years of credit history
- Loans not available in MA or NV
Bottom Line
A Happy Money Payoff Loan can consolidate multiple credit card debts into one fixed monthly payment. Just make sure your new APR is lower than your old ones if you want to save money.
What is Happy Money?
Happy Money is a financial technology company that sets people up with personal loans from its lending partners, which include Alliant, First Technology Federal Credit Union and Teachers Federal Credit Union.
Happy Money’s primary product is the Payoff Loan, a personal loan designed to help people consolidate their credit card debts. Happy Money offers these loans ranging from $5,000 to $40,000. However, there are exceptions to these limits — the minimum loan amount in New Mexico is $5,100; in Maryland, the minimum loan amount is $6,100. Loans are not available in Massachusetts or Nevada at the time of publishing.
How does Happy Money work?
To get started with Happy Money and a Payoff Loan, you should check your rate online. This takes as little as three minutes, and it won’t hurt your credit score because Happy Money only needs to run a soft credit inquiry at this point.
Happy Money looks at your credit score, income and savings to determine what loan options to give you. These options have different maximum amounts, monthly payments, interest rates and repayment lengths so you can choose the loan that fits your needs.
To complete your loan application, you must verify your information and electronically sign your loan documents. The approval process usually takes roughly three to seven business days.
To be approved for a Payoff Loan, you’ll need a FICO Score of 550 or higher, and you can’t have any current credit delinquencies. Happy Money also considers your:
- Debt-to-income ratio
- Credit history
- Open and satisfactory lines of credit
- Credit utilization
If you’re approved, the funds will either be deposited into your bank account or go straight to your credit card company. Most funds are transferred in two to five business days, but it can take longer in some cases.
You can pay back your loan using automatic payments, manual online payments or checks. Happy Money also has an online member portal you can use to monitor your payments, track your progress and contact customer support.
Happy Money rates
Happy Money Payoff Loans come with fixed rates between 5.99% and 24.99%, depending on your credit score, credit usage, credit history, loan amount, loan term and state of residence. If you’re borrowing more than $15,000, the minimum APR is 6.99%.
You'll also have to pay a one-time origination fee between 0% and 5% of your loan amount when the loan is issued. This fee comes from one of Happy Monday’s lending partners, and it's based on your loan amount, your term length and how good your credit is.
Happy Money FAQ
How much can I borrow from Happy Money?
Depending on your credit history, you can generally borrow anywhere from $5,000 to $40,000 from Happy Money. However, some states have different loan limits. If you’re in New Mexico, the minimum amount you can borrow is $5,100, and the minimum loan amount is $6,100 in Maryland.
Does Happy Money affect my credit?
Happy Money can affect your credit score in both good and bad ways.
Checking your rate with Happy Money won’t affect your credit because the company only runs a soft credit inquiry at this stage. However, if you apply and are approved for a loan, Happy Money will conduct a hard credit check, which can impact your credit score.
Once you have your loan, Happy Money reports your payments to the three main credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). This can be positive or negative.
Paying on time usually has a positive impact on your credit score. Happy Money borrowers who paid off at least $5,000 of credit card debt saw their credit scores increase by an average of 40 points within four months of getting a Payoff Loan. However, missing payments on your loan could negatively impact your credit score.
What credit score do you need for Happy Money?
To be approved for a Happy Money loan, you need a minimum FICO Score of 550.
Are Happy Money and Payoff the same?
Happy Money was formerly known as Payoff. While it has officially updated its name to Happy Money, Inc., you may still run into places where it refers to itself as "Payoff" or "Payoff by Happy Money" online.
Is Happy Money legit?
Yes, Happy Money is a legitimate personal loan company. It has helped more than 208,000 people get over $3.7 billion in personal loans. Happy Money’s Payoff Loan is a good option if you have multiple credit cards and want to save money on interest by consolidating your debt. Just make sure the rate you get from Happy Money is lower than what you’re currently paying on your credit cards.
» MORE: Is Happy Money legit?
Happy Money Reviews
A link has directed you to this review. Its location on this page may change next time you visit.
- 4,307,388 reviews on ConsumerAffairs are verified.
- We require contact information to ensure our reviewers are real.
- We use intelligent software that helps us maintain the integrity of reviews.
- Our moderators read all reviews to verify quality and helpfulness.
Reviewed July 1, 2023
While the loan we received did help to consolidate a few bills, it is ultimately NOT worth it. This company does NOT process your payment on the date you make it, and sometimes waits a full 5 days before they actually find time in their busy schedules to do so. They say they process next business day, but that has not been our experience.
If they wait and process your payment 5 FULL DAYS AFTER your due date, they will not only send you a text reminding you they are negligent and have not processed your payment, but you will get an email reminder of their incompetency, as well as a collection phone call 4 days after your submitted your payment with "an attempt to collect a debt" - by Karen with an snotty attitude until she realizes they are negligent. Side note: Karen dislikes talking to Mr. Click.
And while they claim they do not report their lack of prompt processing on your credit report until 30 days after, they do have an awesome badge attached to your account reflecting the "Past Due" amount you paid in sufficient time for a competent company to process your payment. Just bite the bullet and either go with a more competent company or start making larger payments on your debts to pay them off sooner. Happy Money is NOT authorized to contact me regarding this review.
Reviewed March 1, 2023
I needed cash to pay down a loan and researched and found Happy Money. It took 2 weeks from my initial day of applying to get the money in my bank account with only a few simple steps. Amazing customer service with clear and concise documentation of what plans and terms agreed to. Online portal to follow payments. Amazing service.
Thanks for subscribing.
You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter! Enjoy reading our tips and recommendations.
Reviewed Sept. 23, 2022
I applied for a Happy Money loan to consolidate debt accrued during a divorce, getting the payments rolling was important to me because I have other things I need to devote the money too. Happy Money approved me right away, but kept me waiting for the entire waiting period of my loan. My loan expired Sept 20, 2022 and they approved me via e mail on Sept 19 in the afternoon, this is after I had sent numerous e mails asking about the status as well as phone calls to customer service to get the ball rolling. They did nothing.
Then I see it's been approved but in my junk mail (where is went directly) due to Numerous e mails being sent to me by Happy Money requesting additional documentation, so my system flagged them as junk, when I called them to ask them why they keep asking for documents they already have and if they needed anything more they said, no, you are in good shape nothing else is needed your loan is in review. Now they tell me I have to start the entire process over with them. We are at this point due to the fact that Happy Money did not do their due diligence and actually contact me via phone or text. All of which they have access to. Very unprofessional company, I would not recommend them to anyone
Reviewed May 24, 2022
Happy Money was able to approve my loan application, but when it went to actually getting the documents it never came. I submitted a ticket and called several times and they said they will fix it. 2 week rolled by and nothing changed. I am glad that I was not pressing to get a loan but can only imagine if someone really need one in a timely manner. I urge you to read review on BBB and other sites. They do not have a good track record and I will not be using them.
We're sorry to hear that your experience with Happy Money did not meet your expectations. One of our member advocates will be reaching out to you directly. Thank you.
Reviewed April 29, 2022
PAYOFF.COM/HAPPY MONEY is the worst, most terrible, slow, incompetent company on earth. Please don’t do one mistake (I did) of NOT reading the 93 negative complaints on BBB and over 300 complaints against PAYOFF. PLEASE read ALL those complaints BEFORE YOU APPLY. IT WILL SAVE YOU TONNES OF AGGRAVATION. They ask for endless streams of documents and their system keeps rejecting documents because they HAVE TO BE in jpeg or PDF form. BUT NOBODY tells you this until you have wasted one week. They do not read documents carefully but keep repeating “action required“ asking YOU to send more documents even BLANK PAGES OF EACH STATEMENT then they reply they need 3 to 7 days to verify those 2 blank pages. Every time you send a document a NEW agent joins the ENDLESS LAYERS of Payoff agents who DO NOT TALK WITH EACH OTHER.
To make matters worse For EVERY DOCUMENT their verification team asks for 3 to 7 days to verify and this 3 to 7 days is NOT total time BUT 3 to 7 days for EACH document. So you waste over one month to receive a denial or some other waste of time "ACTION REQUIRED". PLEASE DO NOT WASTE your time with this useless company. They are probably mining data/personal information. I AM CONVINCED THIS IS A SCAM COMPANY. RUN AWAY FROM PAYOFF, Don’t walk and save yourself time. Money and peace of mind. Payoff/Happy Money is a horrible experience – you have been warned – keep away from payoff/happy money. There are many other loan companies with a 2-day turnaround from start to finish – try OTHERS - I WILL.
Reviewed Oct. 24, 2020
I wanted to consolidate about $14,000 worth of debt and looked into which companies had the best reviews. I decided to talk to Payoff and got a 2 year loan at about 10.99% which is a little higher than I wanted but much better than the credit card apr. They auto deduct the monthly amount on the 15th and everything's been super easy since. I'm now 6 months away from being fully paid off and I couldn't recommended these guys more highly. They are not predatory lenders and they will not steer you into debt consolidation. This is a personal loan that you will pay off your debt with and you will keep your credit cards open if you so desire. Also when covid happened they deferred my payment for a month when I lost my job and offered to extend again if need be. It's been a really great experience start to finish and I will most likely use them again.
Happy Money Company Information
- Company Name:
- Happy Money
- Formerly Named:
- Payoff
- Website:
- happymoney.com
You’re signed up
We’ll start sending you the news you need delivered straight to you. We value your privacy. Unsubscribe easily.