While you don’t need a perfect credit score in order to get approved for a personal loan, the higher your credit score, the more likely you are to get loan terms that are more favorable for you, like no fees and a lower interest rate. (Have a bad credit score, Select rounded up a list of the best personal loans for bad credit.)

“Being unemployed does make the process more challenging. From the lender’s point of view, they want to lend money to an individual who they believe can pay the funds back,” she says. “So if you’re in a situation where you don’t have money coming in, it may be challenging for you to pay them back. Read more