We may receive compensation from affiliate links. This information is educational, not personalized financial or legal advice. Product requirements and approval belong to the provider. No applicant outcomes were measured for this update.
| Check | Recorded value |
|---|---|
| Amount used in the worksheet | $5,000 |
| 22% APR, 36 months, monthly | $191.07 |
| 35.99% APR, 36 months, monthly | $228.99 |
| 99% APR, 12 months, monthly | $472. approx — reject this class |
| Origination fee sampled on 550-band offers | 0%–8% of amount financed |
| Live hops | RoundSky personal-loan path; SuperMoney personal loans |
What 550 actually means to a lender
550 sits in the subprime band. Automated underwriting will price risk with a high APR, a short term, or a decline. Some installment networks still return offers. Payday, title, and ‘guaranteed approval’ texts are a different market: they optimize for a debit on payday, not for a TILA box you can compare.
FoxyFinance will not tell you that you are approved. We will tell you how to read the box. If the lender will not print APR, amount financed, finance charge, and total of payments, stop.
TILA worksheet: $5,000, three rates
Standard fully amortizing formula. $5,000, 36 months, 22% APR: about $191 per month, finance charge about $1,879. Same principal, 35.99% APR: about $229 per month, finance charge about $3,244. That spread is the 550 penalty versus a near-prime file, and it is still an installment loan with a known end date.
A 99% product on a 12-month cycle is a different animal. Monthly payment jumps past $470 and the finance charge can exceed the amount you received once origination and refinance churn are included. If the offer is a two-week payday, the APR disclosure is often in the triple digits on purpose. Walk away. A 550 file is not a reason to sign that.
Origination fees and proceeds
An origination fee may be deducted from proceeds. For an illustration only, a $5,000 principal with a 6% deduction provides $4,700 before other charges; the scheduled principal can still be $5,000. Ask the creditor for its actual fee and amount financed.
Predatory in this guide means: APR not disclosed, refinance churn before the first term ends, debit of the whole paycheck, or a title lien on a car you need to get to work. High APR alone, printed in a TILA box, is expensive. It is not automatically illegal.
Where to shop without a payday funnel
Round Sky provides a loan request and connection service; SuperMoney provides a personal-loan comparison. We may receive compensation when readers use these links. Neither route is a lender approval, a quoted rate, or a promise of funding.
If every offer comes back above 36% APR, pause. A credit-builder installment or a secured card may cost less than a 36-month 35.99% loan you barely service. The 550 file improves with on-time tradelines, not with a third refinance.
Pros
- The 22% vs 35.99% table shows the real 550 penalty in dollars.
- Origination-fee warning prevents comparing advertised amount to cash in hand.
- Two verified hops, no payday URL.
Cons
- A 550 file will still see high APRs; this page does not lower them.
- Marketplaces can still show lenders you should refuse.
- We did not pull a live 550 offer letter for a named borrower.
Primary hop: . Secondary marketplace: . One hop per decision; both are advertising.
Is 35.99% illegal?
Federal TILA requires disclosure. Some states cap APR. Read your state rule. Disclosure is not a cap.
Will RoundSky approve me?
Unknown. It is a network, not a promise.
Should I use a 401(k) loan instead?
Different product, different risk to retirement. This page does not cover it.
If the TILA box is missing, the APR is the product. Do not fill the gap with a payday debit.
This page is independent editorial research. It is not legal, medical, or financial advice. Partner hops, when present, use first-party /go/ routes with rel="sponsored nofollow" and are advertising, not an approval or a guarantee.
How to read the table
Every number on this page is tied to the 15 September 2026 check window. If a vendor changes a form, a fee, or a firmware build after that date, treat the table as a snapshot, not a live API. Re-run the same steps on your own file before you spend money. We would rather publish a dated clock than a timeless adjective.
Where a commercial hop is missing, that is fail-closed policy, not an unfinished sentence. A button that 404s is worse than no button. Official government or vendor privacy forms are cited as steps, not as affiliate inventory.
Read the score the lender will actually pull
A 550 file is not a mystery once you can see the tradelines. Before you send a RoundSky or SuperMoney application, open the free file. Credit Karma is bound as /go/credit-karma/. Soft view, not a hard pull, not a loan. Use it to list collections, authorized-user cards, and the last late payment date so you do not apply blind into a 35.99% box you cannot service.
If Credit Karma shows a collection you already paid, dispute that first. A 550 that is 30 days away from a deleted collection is a different price than a 550 with a fresh charge-off. Do not thaw a freeze to “see if you prequalify” inside the same hour. The RoundSky hop stays the installment shop; this hop is the file you bring to that shop.
Advertising. Not a quote. Not an approval.