I have spent more than twenty years writing about consumer debt, and the debt consolidation category is the one that has changed the least in that time. The pitch is still the same: one payment, one rate, one date, and the mess goes away. What has changed is who is making the pitch. When I started, a consolidation offer usually came from a bank or a credit union that was going to lend you the money. Today most of the companies ranking for this search do not lend anything at all. They collect your application and sell it, or pass it to a partner, and some of them pass it to a debt settlement firm rather than a lender.
See which option fits your numbers →
The short version
Only two of the eight companies below actually lend you money. Reprise Financial and Mariner Finance originate loans, Reprise through a partner bank. The rest are brokers or lead generators that pass your application somewhere else, and several of them do not say so anywhere on their site.
That is not automatically bad. A good broker shops several lenders and can beat a single bank’s offer. But it changes the questions you should ask, and it means a glowing review score tells you about the sales experience rather than about the loan you end up with.
Best debt consolidation companies, ranked
I scored every company on its public ratings at BBB, Google and Trustpilot, pulled fresh in November 2026. Each source counts equally and any source with fewer than 30 reviews is dropped, so a company cannot buy its way up the table with a handful of five-star entries. The Type column is the one I would read first.
| # | Company | Score | Type | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | iMerge Financial | ★★★★★ 4.83 | Undisclosed | Only 5 BBB complaints in three years Publishes no lender licence and does not say what it is |
| 2 | Beyond Finance | ★★★★★ 4.66 | Settlement | Free financial therapy sessions for clients Markets as consolidation but it is a settlement program, not a loan |
| 3 | Lending Tower | ★★★★★ 4.63 | Broker | Cleanest complaint record here, 3 in three years California DFPI consent order, March 2023 |
| 4 | Reprise Financial | ★★★★★ 4.53 | Lender | Actually lends, through WebBank, in 37 states |
| 5 | Symple Lending | ★★★★★ 4.51 | Broker | Largest loan ceiling here at $100,000 Facing cold-texting class actions |
| 6 | Simple Path Financial | ★★★★★ 4.38 | Broker | Longest track record of the Irvine brokers, since 2016 3.9 on Google against 4.8 on Trustpilot |
| 7 | Liberty First Lending | ★★★★★ 4.34 | Lead referral | Publishes its origination fee up front, 4.9% Its named partners are debt relief firms, not lenders |
| 8 | Mariner Finance | ★★★★★ 3.42 | Lender | Branch network, will lend from $1,000 1.47/5 on BBB, 392 complaints, live multistate lawsuit |
Scores are the average of each company’s BBB, Google and Trustpilot customer ratings, pulled 5 November 2026. Ratings move. Check the current figures before you sign anything.
How I scored them, and why the BBB column matters most
Three sources, equal weight, nothing clever. If a source had fewer than 30 reviews I dropped it rather than letting three entries swing an average, which is why iMerge Financial and Liberty First Lending are scored on two sources instead of three.
Here is the pattern I have watched harden over the last decade. Trustpilot and Google scores in this category are managed. BBB scores mostly are not. A company on a paid Trustpilot subscription can send a review invitation to every customer at the moment the loan funds, which is the happiest they will ever be. Nobody gets invited to file a BBB complaint eighteen months later when the rate reset or the add-on insurance showed up. So when the two diverge sharply, I trust the unsolicited number.
Look at what that does here. Simple Path Financial sits at 4.8 on Trustpilot across 3,802 reviews and 3.9 on Google across 305. Mariner Finance is 4.7 on Google and 1.47 on BBB. Symple Lending is 4.9 on Trustpilot and 4.12 on BBB. None of those gaps is an accident.
One more thing worth separating: a BBB letter grade and a BBB star rating are different measurements. Every company on this page holds an A+ letter grade. Their customer star ratings run from 4.85 down to 1.47. The letter grade largely reflects whether a business responds to complaints, not whether customers were happy.
The eight, one at a time
1. iMerge Financial, 4.83
iMerge, LLC trading as iMerge Financial, out of Carlsbad, California, in business since March 2020. It has the best review profile on this page by a clear margin: ★ 4.85 on BBB across 367 reviews, ★ 4.8 on Google across 577, and only five BBB complaints in three years. For the volume it handles that complaint rate is genuinely unusual.
It takes the top slot because that is where the numbers put it, and I am not going to move a company down the table because I have reservations. But the reservations are real, so here they are.
iMerge does not say what it is. Its site refers to “participating financial institutions” and never states whether it lends, brokers or sells leads, nor how it gets paid. It publishes an APR range of 4.95% to 30.00% and accepts applications, yet I could not find an NMLS ID or a state licence number anywhere on its site or its terms of use. Every other company on this page publishes at least one. There are also two separate unverified reports from individual consumers who say they were steered toward a law firm and a debt settlement agreement after applying for a loan. I could not corroborate either, and I am flagging them as allegations rather than facts, but they are consistent with each other and with a company that will not describe its own business model.
If you contact them, the first question is simple: are you lending me this money, and if not, who is, and what are you paid for sending me there.
2. Beyond Finance, 4.66
Beyond Finance is on this page because it ranks for consolidation searches and because readers keep asking about it, not because it will give you a loan. It is a debt settlement company. You stop paying your creditors, you fund an account, and Beyond negotiates reduced payoffs. Your credit takes real damage along the way and forgiven balances can create a tax bill.
Taken on its own terms it is one of the stronger operators in settlement: founded 2011, Chicago based, and it includes something nobody else bundles, free sessions with accredited financial therapists. I was sceptical of that when it launched and I have come round to it, because the behaviour that creates the debt usually outlives the programme that clears it.
Just do not confuse the two products. If what you want is one lower-rate payment and your credit intact, this is not that.
3. Lending Tower, 4.63
Newport Beach, California, trading since October 2015. ★ 4.58 on BBB across 139 reviews, ★ 4.8 on Google across 566, ★ 4.5 on Trustpilot across 547, and three BBB complaints in three years. On the customer-experience numbers it is the best run company here.
Two things complicate that. The first is that Lending Tower’s own site says it is “a Licensed Consumer Finance Lender in CA” and that it “is not an agent, representative or broker of any Lending partner”, while in a BBB complaint response the company’s recorded position is that it does not provide loans and refers consumers to other companies. Those cannot both be true in the way a borrower would read them.
The second is a California DFPI consent order dated 14 March 2023 for unlawful activity under the California Financing Law. It is confirmed in the regulator’s own monthly enforcement summary. The penalty amount I could not verify, because the order itself would not load, so I am not going to quote a figure.
It also publishes a floor rate of “as low as 5.99%” with no ceiling anywhere, alongside a “no hidden fees or surprises” claim and no fee schedule. Ask for the maximum APR and the full fee list in writing before you go further.
4. Reprise Financial, 4.53
This is one of only two companies here that will actually put money in your account. Reprise Financial is a trading name of Skopos Financial, LLC of Irving, Texas, a former subprime auto lender, in business since 2012 and BBB accredited since 2014. NMLS ID 1660115.
The terms, plainly:
- Loans from $2,500, up to $35,000 (its own disclosure page contradicts itself and also says $25,000, so confirm your ceiling)
- APR 9.5% to 36%
- Originated by WebBank in 37 states. Not available in CO, CT, HI, IA, ME, MD, MA, NV, NJ, NY, VT, WA or WV
- Georgia minimum is $3,500
Ratings: ★ 4.58 on BBB across 1,651 reviews, ★ 4.3 on Google across 5,318, ★ 4.7 on Trustpilot across 25,701. The volume is enormous and the scores hold up across all three channels, which is rarer than it sounds. Set against that: 334 BBB complaints in three years, 45 filed in the last twelve.
The 36% top rate deserves a moment. A consolidation loan at 36% is not consolidation, it is a more expensive version of the problem. If the offer comes back near the ceiling, decline it.
5. Symple Lending, 4.51
Irvine, California, NMLS 2508833, licensed in Utah. Loans of $5,000 to $100,000 from 6.99%, capped at 35.99% on offers sourced through paid search. It is the only company here that will go to six figures.
Symple brokers rather than lends. Its named partners are Achieve Personal Loans, Achieve Loans for HELOCs and Engine by MoneyLion. One connection worth knowing: Achieve is the rebranded Freedom Financial Network, the same corporate family as Freedom Debt Relief. Nothing improper about that, but if you shop both a Symple loan and a Freedom settlement you may be dealing with one group through two doors.
Ratings are ★ 4.12 on BBB across 334 reviews, ★ 4.5 on Google across 977, ★ 4.9 on Trustpilot across 10,270. Note that Symple runs two Trustpilot profiles, one on symplelending.com and one on mysympleloan.com, so no single Trustpilot number covers the whole business.
It is also defending TCPA class actions over cold texting and calls to numbers on the Do Not Call registry, filed in 2024 and 2025 and still live. Several BBB reviewers say the same thing, that they were contacted about an application they never submitted. If that happens to you, it is worth knowing it is a pattern rather than a glitch.
6. Simple Path Financial, 4.38
Irvine, California, trading since August 2016, BBB accredited since 2017. CA Finance Lenders licence 60DBO-65920, NMLS 1570007. It describes itself as a licensed lender and loan broker, while stating that personal loans are “fulfilled and funded via our preferred network of third-party lenders”.
★ 4.45 on BBB across 108 reviews, ★ 3.9 on Google across 305, ★ 4.8 on Trustpilot across 3,802, with 35 BBB complaints in three years and 11 in the last twelve. Trustpilot itself flags the profile with a note that the company has not invited customers recently.
Its published terms do not agree with each other. The body of its site says $20,000 to $100,000, the page description says 7,500 to 100,000, and the form says “loans over $7,500”. The APR is quoted as 10.18% to 37.36% in one place and 5.99% to 34.5% in the full disclosure. Origination fees run 1.99% to 4.99%, terms 24 to 60 months. Get your own numbers in writing and ignore the website.
7. Liberty First Lending, 4.34
The newest company on the page, incorporated in March 2023, based in Irvine. ★ 4.28 on BBB across 293 reviews and ★ 4.4 on Google across 332, with 25 BBB complaints in three years. It has no Trustpilot profile on its own brand domain, so it is scored on two sources. If you see a Trustpilot figure quoted for Liberty First Lending anywhere, it is not theirs.
Credit where it is due: it publishes its origination fee, a required 4.9% financed into the loan, which most of this field hides. Quoted range is $2,500 to $75,000 at 5.99% to 29.99% APR.
Now the part that made me look twice. Liberty First Lending describes its own services as “personal loan services, personal loan brokerage services and lead referral services”, and its published partner list is Americor Funding, Consolidated Credit Solutions, Consumer Defense Partners, debt.org and debt.com. Those are debt relief businesses, not lenders. A string of BBB complaints describe mailers that read like official notices, including envelope text about penalties, followed by a call that steers toward debt settlement rather than a loan. I have been watching the prequalified-mailer tactic since the early 2000s and it has never once been good news for the person who got the envelope.
Its licensing is also the thinnest here. It brokers from a California address while publishing only a Utah consumer lender registration, with no NMLS ID I could find.
8. Mariner Finance, 3.42
The oldest and largest operation on this page, founded in 2002, headquartered near Baltimore, NMLS 166564, owned by a private equity fund managed by Warburg Pincus. It lends directly through a branch network, with WebBank originating online loans between $1,500 and $14,000 in most states.
Terms: $1,000 to $25,000, APR 15.99% to 35.99%, 12 to 72 months.
Its ratings split further than anything else here: ★ 1.47 on BBB across 79 reviews against ★ 4.7 on Google across 1,280 and ★ 4.1 on Trustpilot across 797. It carries 392 BBB complaints in three years, 85 in the last twelve, and its BBB profile carries a Government Action notice. It holds an A+ letter grade and is not BBB accredited.
The government action is the reason it sits last. Six state attorneys general sued Mariner in August 2022 over charging consumers for add-on products they had not agreed to, misrepresenting those add-ons as required or free, and mailing unsolicited live checks to push recipients into refinancing. The complaint put the add-on premiums and fees at $121.7 million nationwide in 2019 alone. Mariner’s motion to dismiss was denied in full in January 2024, six more states intervened in April 2024, and Tennessee settled in May 2026 for $11.1 million in consumer redress, $1 million in restitution plus $10.1 million in cancelled debt, with no admission of wrongdoing. The case continues for the remaining eleven jurisdictions.
Mariner disputes the claims and notes that the FTC investigated similar issues for two years and closed without action. If you borrow here, decline every optional product and read the itemised total before you sign.
What about using your home? West Capital Lending
I left West Capital Lending out of the ranking on purpose, because it is a mortgage broker rather than a consolidation lender. It publishes no personal loan product at all. It markets itself as Rocket Mortgage’s top national broker partner and sells conventional, FHA, VA, non-QM and reverse mortgages plus HELOCs.
A cash-out refinance or a HELOC is a legitimate way to consolidate, and the rate will usually beat any personal loan on this page. The trade is severe and worth stating bluntly: you are converting unsecured debt into debt secured by your house. Miss the payments on a credit card and you get collection calls. Miss them on a HELOC and you can lose the home.
On the numbers it is mixed: ★ 4.8 on Google across 4,656 reviews and ★ 4.7 on Trustpilot across 1,840, against ★ 3.51 on BBB across 73. Of its 60 BBB complaints in three years, 30 arrived in the last twelve, so the rate is accelerating. It has also settled two regulatory matters: a 2023 multistate action across Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon and Texas with penalties of $464,417.50 over paying commissions to unlicensed loan originators, and a Washington DFI consent order entered 8 July 2026 carrying a $75,000 fine across sixteen categories of alleged Consumer Loan Act violations. Neither involved an admission of liability. Our full West Capital Lending review goes through both.
What consolidation actually costs
Three numbers decide whether a consolidation loan is worth doing, and only one of them gets advertised.
- The APR. Advertised floor rates on this page start between 4.95% and 6.99%. Those go to borrowers with strong credit and solid income. The ceilings run to 36%. If you are consolidating because you are struggling, you are being priced against the top of the range, not the bottom.
- The origination fee. Typically 1.99% to 4.99%, financed into the loan, so you borrow it and then pay interest on it. On $30,000 a 4.9% fee is $1,470 before you have made a payment.
- The term. A longer term lowers the monthly payment and raises the total cost. A 72-month loan at a lower rate can easily cost more in total than the cards you are replacing. Compare total interest paid, not the monthly figure the salesperson leads with.
The arithmetic that matters is simple: add up what you currently pay in interest each month, then compare it with the new loan’s interest plus the amortised fee. If the new number is not clearly lower, the only thing you have bought is convenience. The CFPB’s guidance on consolidating credit card debt works through the same test.
And the trap I have seen catch more people than any rate: consolidating the cards and then using them again. The balance does not go away when it moves. If the cards stay open and the habits stay the same, in eighteen months you have the loan and the card balances.
When a consolidation loan is the wrong answer
Consolidation works when your credit is decent enough to get a real rate and your income can clear the balance over the term. If either of those is missing, something else fits better.
- Your rate offer is above roughly 20%, or you cannot qualify. A nonprofit credit counselling agency will review your budget free and can often negotiate your card rates down inside a debt management plan without a new loan at all. Our guide to nonprofit credit counselling agencies covers who is genuinely nonprofit and what a DMP costs.
- You cannot clear the balance in five years at any realistic rate. That is the point where settlement starts to make arithmetic sense, with its real costs. Our ranking of the best debt settlement companies scores them the same way this page does.
- The balance is moderate and your income is stable. You may not need a product at all. Paying off $20,000 in credit card debt without a programme is slower but costs nothing in fees.
The CFPB’s explainer on the difference between credit counselling, settlement and consolidation is the clearest free summary of how the four routes differ.
Does your state change the answer?
More than you would expect. Rate caps, licensing and which lenders will take your application all vary, and several companies on this page simply do not operate everywhere. Reprise Financial lends in 37 states and skips thirteen including New York, New Jersey, Washington and Maryland. Lending Tower’s California licence applies to California residents only.
- California has the strictest licensing regime of any state here, which is why so many of these enforcement actions come from the DFPI. Most of the brokers on this page are headquartered in Irvine or Newport Beach and are regulated by it.
- Texas caps consumer loan rates through the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner, and several national lenders adjust their minimum loan size accordingly. See our Texas debt relief guide.
- Florida has one of the highest concentrations of consolidation marketing in the country, and the state’s own debt relief rules are worth reading before you respond to a mailer. Our Florida debt relief guide covers the local picture.
- New York is excluded by several lenders on this page outright, including Reprise. New York debt relief options walks through what is actually available.
- Georgia sets a $3,500 minimum on at least one lender here and restricts loan amounts under $3,000 at another. See Georgia debt relief options.
If you live in a major metro, you will see far more of this advertising than someone in a rural county. Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago and the Inland Empire are the heaviest targeted markets I see, and “debt consolidation companies near me” is mostly a local-advertising artefact rather than a real geographic difference in who will lend to you.
How to shop this properly
- Get your blended rate first. Add your current balances and what you pay in interest monthly. Without that number you cannot tell whether an offer is an improvement.
- Apply to two or three, inside a two-week window. Rate shopping for the same loan type inside a short window is treated far more gently by credit scoring than scattered applications over months.
- Ask the broker question. “Are you lending me this money, or passing me to someone who will, and what are you paid for that?” The answer, and how comfortable they are giving it, tells you most of what you need.
- Get the full cost in writing. APR, origination fee, term, total interest over the life of the loan, and any optional product that has been added. Decline the optional products.
- Check the licence. Look up the NMLS ID on the free NMLS Consumer Access registry. If a company will not give you one, that is your answer.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best debt consolidation companies right now?
What do debt consolidation companies actually do?
How much do debt consolidation companies charge?
Which debt consolidation companies are BBB accredited?
Will debt consolidation hurt my credit score?
Are there nonprofit debt consolidation companies?
Can I consolidate medical debt or credit card debt specifically?
Is a debt consolidation offer in the mail legitimate?
How do I tell a lender from a lead generator?
Where I would start
If your credit is reasonable, price the two actual lenders on this page against your own bank or credit union, which is the comparison almost nobody makes and which often wins. If your credit is not reasonable, do not keep applying until something sticks. Each application costs you a little and a 36% consolidation loan is worse than the cards it replaces.
The decision that matters is not which company, it is which route. Whichever one you land on, get the total cost in writing, decline the add-ons, and keep the cards closed afterwards.
See what Beyond Finance would offer →
Review figures were pulled from BBB, Google and Trustpilot on 5 November 2026 and will have moved since. Regulatory matters described here are sourced from the relevant state regulators and attorneys general. Nothing on this page is financial advice, and we are not a lender or a broker.
Amine is an entrepreneur, investor and financial writer that covers the US economy, inflation, alternative investments, cryptocurrencies and more. He has been involved in the space for over a decade.
