M&T Bank Personal Loans: 2024 Review | Bankrate (2024)

Raija Haughn

Rhys Subitch

Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next.

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts, who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy.

Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money.

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.

Key Principles

We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.

Editorial Independence

Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU — the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.

You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.

Bankrate follows a stricteditorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.

We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.

Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range, can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.

Do you qualify?

M&T Bank doesn’t disclose many of its borrower qualifications on its website. In order to qualify for a loan with M&T, you must be at least 18 years old and a citizen of the United States. Borrowers generally need good to excellent credit history to qualify for unsecured loans.

What M&T Bank doesn't allow loan funds to be used for

M&T Bank doesn’t give details on how its personal loans can be used, though its website specifies unsecured loans "must be used for an eligible purpose." Lenders generally do not allow borrowers to use personal loans for secondary education, gambling or illegal activities. Contact M&T Bank to ensure your intended loan purpose is allowed before applying.

What we like and what we don’t like

Unlike some unsecured personal loans, M&T does not charge a prepayment penalty. With loan terms as long as seven years (or 10 years for secured loans), borrowers can take a maximum repayment term (with a higher interest rate) and pay back as early as they are comfortable doing so – without concern for fees if they tackle their debt ahead of schedule.

What we like:

• Low APRs: Unsecured loans range from 8.24 percent to 15.24 percent APR.
• No application or origination fees: Some lenders charge these fees on their personal loans — avoiding these extra charges could save you money.
• Discounts available for checking customers: Existing M&T Bank checking customers can save between 0.15 percent and 0.5 percent on their APRs.

What we don’t like

• Only available in limited markets: M&T bank serves customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia.
• Best rates reserved for existing customers: If you don’t bank with M&T, you will not qualify for best available rates.
• Restrictions on longest loan terms: If you want a repayment term greater than 60 months, your starting loan balance must exceed $15,000.

How to contact M&T Bank

Borrowers who prefer in-person support can visit one of the Bank’s brick-and-mortar locations. Outside of that, support can be found over the phone for inquiries on unsecured and cash-secured personal loans at 877-686-8424. Any general questions can be answered on the 24/7 service line at 800-724-2440.

How to apply for a personal loan with M&T Bank

The application for unsecured personal loans is entirely online and takes only a few minutes to complete. Borrowers are required to provide the following:

Features and additional perks

Borrowers can access cash when they need it most — often in as soon as 24 hours following approval. This timeframe is much quicker than you’ll find with many other traditional banks. You can also view your approval odds and rates before formally applying without negatively impacting your credit score.

Fees and penalties

M&T Bank does not enforce any cost for borrowers to apply for or originate their loans. And, unlike some unsecured personal loans, M&T does not charge a prepayment penalty. However, borrowers should look out for fees for late and returned payments.

Methodology

To select the top personal loan lenders, Bankrate considers 20 factors. These factors include credit requirements, APR ranges, fees, loan amounts and flexibility to account for a wide range of credit profiles and budgets. Bankrate reviewed over 30 lenders and gave each a Bankrate rating, which consists of four categories:

• Availability: What the minimum loan amounts are, its eligibility requirements and loan turnaround are considered in this category.
• Affordability: The interest rates, penalties and fees are measured in this section of the score. Lower rates and fees and fewer potential penalties result in a higher score.
• Customer experience: This category covers customer service hours, if online applications are available, online account access and mobile apps.
• Transparency: This category is measured by how accessible credit requirements, rates and fees are on the lender's page. We also took into account whether prequalification was available, as all these factors are key for consumers to make an informed decision.

Compare Rates