SeedFi Credit Builder Prime
REVIEW

How Does SeedFi Credit Builder Prime Work?

SeedFi is a credit builder loan that differentiates itself from others by charging no interest rate (ie 0% APR). It is also structured in a way that makes more intuitive sense. Like all other credit builders, SeedFi does not perform any credit checks that you will definitely be approved when you sign up with SeedFi.

Signing up with SeedFi requires you to commit at least $10 a month when you get paid. SeedFi will open 2 accounts for you, a SeedFi Savings Account and a SeedFi Line of Credit. You are encouraged to enroll in their Autosave program.

Before each of your paycheck, SeedFi will fund your SeedFi Savings account with money borrowed from your line of credit. This creates a short-term interest free debt. When you get paid, you simply pay back the line of credit. Now the money is the savings account is yours and your line of credit is paid off. You then simply repeat this cycle.

Your line of credit account, it's balances and status are reported to all three major credit bureaus every month. Once you have saved $500, you can access it. You can continue to save up more or simply call it quits.

According to SeedFi, you do not have to make monthly payments and they tout their plan as being flexible. You simply have to keep your account active. Their definition of active means that you have to make a payment once during the first three months and once every 6 months thereafter. You just have to bear in mind that if you do not pay monthly, it will take a longer time to unlock your $500 savings or rather it will take a little longer to reach that savings goal.

SeedFi claims that the average person increased their credit score by 41 points after 6 months with SeedFi. It is also worth noting that SeedFi has another program called Borrow and Grow where it is a combination of an actual loan where you can access your cash and a credit builder account.

Competition

Credit Builder Loan	APR	Loan Amounts	Min Monthly Payment
SeedFi Credit Builder Prime	0%	$500 Increments	$10
Self Credit Builder	15.97%	$520 - $1,663	$25
Credit Strong	Varies	$1,000, $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000	$15

There are a few credit builders loans available in the market today. They include firms like Self, Credit Strong. Firms like Self are more than credit builders because after making a few payments, you could use the "savings" and start a secured credit cards. The credit builder from Credit Strong comes with a few "packages" with different principal amounts and maturities. All credit builder loans also do not check your credit and do not have any hard inquuires.

Despite the different bells and whistles offered by others, SeedFi distinquishes itself from the pack by not charging an interest rate on their credit builder loan. That means that every penny you contribute is yours and none goes to interest payments. This makes SeedFi the most cost effective credit builder loan compared to it's peers.

Pros: Much to Like

• Interest Free (ie 0% APR) - Unlike other credit builder loans, SeedFi does not charge any interest. This makes them very unique in the credit builder loan space.


• Access to Savings Account after you saved $500 - SeedFi gives you access to your savings account once you have saved $500.


• Low Minimum Monthly Payment Plan - At $10/month, SeedFi has probably the lowest monthly payment plan among other credit builder loans.


• Reports to all three credit bureaus - SeedFi reports to all three credit bureaus when you pay back your line of credit account and allows you to build up your savings account interest fee.


• Autosave Program - SeedFi allows you to automate the whole savings process with their autosave program.

Cons: Very Little to Dislike

There is really nothing negative about the SeedFi Credit Builder Prime program that I can think of at the moment.

Our Take: Arguably the Best Credit Builder Loan?

There are a handful of credit builder loans available for those with no credit or bad credit to build or rebuild their credit. SeedFi did not get in early in the game. However, they have given existing players stiff competition by not charging any interest for their credit builder loan. Yes, the APR is 0%. Hence, whatever you pay into your savings account is all yours. This should put to rest the sceptism that many have of credit builder loans, which is that you are better off saving money in your own bank account because what you save is all yours even though credit builder loans give you the advantage of building your credit while you save (albeit at a cost).

Furthermore, they allow you to build in $500 cycles. You can stop there at $500 or continue for another cycle.

To sum up, based on our review and evaluations, we have decided to give the SeedFi Credit Builder Prime a 4.7 star out of 5 for it's lack of interest charges and transparent way which your savings account and unsecured line of credit is set up. The only reason why I hesitate to give it a full 5 star is because there is no perfect product so I'll leave myself a little room just in case I find something that I do not like.

If you are looking at a credit builder loan to either save up for a security deposit for a secured credit card or simply to add another line of credit to your credit report, then SeedFi is an excellent choice because they do not charge interest.