Residents of Puerto Rico certainly have more limited options in terms of credit than residents of the mainland USA. Puerto Rico is served by local institutions who tend to be very conservative in their lending, and almost all mainland credit providers will exclude Puerto Rico from the list of elegible areas they cover for consumer lending. Business credit is somewhat more flexible, but we will cover that in a separate post. This post is specifically talking about what options a consumer in Puerto Rico has to obtain a personal loan.

What is a personal loan?

A personal loan is the generic term used for what is typically an unsecured loan taken by an individual. These typically range from $5,000-$50,000 (though some lenders go as high as $100,000), feature terms from 1-5 years, and have no collateral pledged by the borrower.

Who provides personal loans

In the mainland US, the market is very well served by a set of novel FinTech players who cover all sectors of the market.

In Puerto Rico, there is one FinTech player domiciled here, eLoan, but they actually serve the mainland market and do not lend in Puerto Rico.

Loans from local banking institutions

The first place you should turn to for a loan are the local banking institutions. Following a protracted economic recession on the island dating back to 2006, banks have consolidated into 3 main financial institutions. This has both positive and negative consequences, the positive being that the remaining banks are stronger and healthier financially, but on the negative side that means less options for the consumer and likely less access to credit for most people. Below we have a list of the three main banks:

Loans from specialty lenders

Personal loans from traditional banks generally come with favorable interest rates and terms, but are typically only available for individuals with good to excellent credit. There are other institutions that specialize in personal loans for individuals whose credit needs some work. Below is a sample of those institutions:

  • Island Finance
  • America’s Leading Finance
  • TitleMax Title Loans
  • Borinquen Title Loans