This disclosure explains our relationship with the lenders and partners in our network, how we earn money, and what the terms on a loan offer may look like. Sunsets Loans operates a free loan-request and matching service. We are not a lender, we do not make credit decisions, and we do not broker or arrange loans on any lender's behalf.
We want you to understand these points before you submit a request, so you can weigh any offer you receive with a clear picture of who is involved and what they are paid to do.
We are not a lender
Our service collects loan requests and passes them to independent lenders and lending partners; it does not issue loans, approve or deny applications, set rates or fees, or service loan accounts.
Every loan offer you see comes from a lender, and that lender alone decides whether to approve you and on what terms. If you accept an offer, your loan agreement is a contract between you and the lender. Questions about that agreement, your payments or your account should go to the lender directly. Our overview of the request process shows where our role ends and the lender's begins.
How we are compensated
Partners in our lending network pay us when we deliver a loan request to them or when a request results in a match, and those payments are how we keep the service free to borrowers.
Compensation arrangements vary. Some partners pay per request delivered, others pay only when a loan is funded, and amounts can differ from partner to partner. Partners may also pay for advertising placements on our website. We do not receive any payment from you, and no portion of your loan proceeds or repayments comes to us.
How compensation may influence which offers appear
Compensation may affect which lenders receive your request and the order in which offers are presented, so the offers you see may not include every lender or every product available in the market.
Our network does not include all lenders, and the lenders who do participate are not all shown to every user. A lender's eligibility criteria, your state and the details of your request also shape which offers appear. Because of this, it is worth comparing any offer you receive with options from your bank, a local credit union or other lenders before you sign. Compensation does not change the APR, fees or terms that a lender sets for you.
No fee to use our service
Submitting a request, receiving offers, comparing them and declining them are all free, and you are never obligated to accept a loan from any lender we connect you with.
We will never ask you to pay an upfront fee to be matched, to improve your odds of approval, or to release loan funds. A request for payment before a loan is funded is a common warning sign of a scam; if anyone claiming to represent our service asks for money, please contact our team right away.
APR, terms and a representative example
Lenders in our network commonly offer APRs of about 5.99% to 35.99% and repayment terms of about 3 to 36 months on loans of $500 to $5,000, with the exact figures set by each lender.
Your APR depends on factors such as your credit history, income, debts, state of residence and the amount and term you request. Shorter terms are more common for smaller amounts, and longer terms for larger ones. Where a lender deducts an origination fee, that fee is built into the quoted APR; late fees and returned-payment fees may also apply under the lender's agreement.
Representative example (estimate): with a 24.00% APR, a $2,000 loan on a 12-month term carries payments of about $189.12 per month, bringing total repayment to roughly $2,269.43, of which about $269.43 is the finance charge. Your actual terms may differ and will be shown by the lender before you sign.
Failing to repay a loan on time can lead to late fees, collection activity and negative reporting to the credit bureaus, which can lower your credit scores. Lenders disclose their own policies on late and missed payments in the loan agreement. You can see how APR and fees combine in our guide to personal loan rates.
Credit inquiries
A lender reviewing your request may first pull a soft credit inquiry, which leaves your scores untouched, and may then pull a hard inquiry once you accept its offer and move forward.
By submitting a request, you authorize the lenders and partners who receive it to obtain information about you from consumer reporting agencies, as permitted by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. A hard inquiry may lower your scores by a small amount for a period of time. Lenders may also verify your identity, income and bank account through other data sources.
State availability
Loan products, amounts, rates and terms are not available in every state, and some lenders in our network do not lend to residents of certain states at all.
State laws set rules on interest rates, fees, loan sizes and terms, and lenders adjust their offers to meet them. If you live in a state that a lender does not serve, your request will not be sent to that lender, and in some cases no lender in our network may be able to make an offer.
Editorial independence of our guides
Our educational guides are written and edited independently, and lenders and partners do not review, approve or pay for the content of any guide before it is published.
Compensation from partners does not determine what our writers recommend. Guides describe costs as estimates, point out drawbacks and alternatives, and sometimes suggest not borrowing at all. If you notice something in a guide that seems inaccurate, please let us know through our contact page so we can review it.