The personal loan market is making a resurgence after slowing during the pandemic, according to a report released today by J.D. Power. The firm’s 2022 U.S. Consumer Lending Satisfaction Study said that competitive rates, easy access and a variety of options have driven widespread consumer adoption of personal loans.
Study organizers pointed to four key takeaways from the results. Personal loans often provide lifelines for the financially vulnerable (38% of personal loan customers) to address debt, lower interest rates on current debt and lower monthly payments on existing debt. Loans lead to consumers using other financial products, with 61% of loan customers likely to use their lender again. Advertising also plays key role in driving new customers to loan products, with 47% of consumers saying that an ad prompted them to consider a personal loan. Additionally, the study found variation in how men and women respond to specific brand experiences. At the individual brand level, overall lender satisfaction varied by at least 25 points (on a 1,000-point scale) between men and women among more than half of the lenders in the study and by more than 50 points for nearly one-fourth of the brands.
Marcus by Goldman Sachs received the highest overall customer satisfaction ranking for consumer lending, with a score of 776 on a 1,000-point scale, followed by U.S. Bank (757) and American Express (754).
