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Loan app intelligence · 65 apps reviewed · Updated regularly

Verified safe: 12 of 65 apps are RBI-registered with APR ≤ 40%

RBI approved loan apps list —
verified safe, and the ones that aren't

We independently verify the RBI/NBFC registration of every loan app ourselves. Of 65 apps reviewed, only 12 are safe to install — verified RBI-registered lender, transparent KFS with real APR, and no contact-list scraping. Type an app name to look it up, or scroll to see the shape of the market.

Try:

Market shape

12apps
of 65 reviewed
are truly safe

All 12 are RBI-regulated NBFCs with an APR ceiling ≤ 40%, transparent KFS, and no contact-list scraping.

  • Recommended 12
  • OK 3
  • Caution 50
Verdict
Category

65 apps shown

Safest pick, by category

Lowest-APR Recommended app in each category. Same-quality safe start.

Bajaj Finserv

Bajaj Finserv Ltd

Recommended

Established NBFC. Cleanest documentation in the category, lowest harassment-complaint share.

  • Largest listed NBFC
  • Strong grievance redressal

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 28%
PF
Upto 5%
Rating
5.0
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Tata Capital

Tata Capital Ltd

Recommended

Tata group NBFC with end-to-end digital personal loans at 11.5–23% APR.

  • Tata Sons backing — Upper Layer NBFC under RBI scale-based regulation
  • 100% digital KFS + agreement

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 23%
PF
Upto 2.75%
Rating
4.5
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Aditya Birla Capital – Finance

Aditya Birla Capital Ltd

Recommended

Aditya Birla Group NBFC offering personal loans up to ₹50L at 12–28% APR.

  • Upper Layer NBFC under RBI SBR
  • AAA-rated long-term debt

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 28%
PF
Upto 3%
Rating
4.4
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

HDB OnTheGo

HDFC Bank Group

Recommended

HDFC Bank subsidiary NBFC with branch-led personal loans up to ₹20L.

  • Upper Layer NBFC under RBI SBR
  • HDFC Bank parentage

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 25%
PF
Upto 3%
Rating
4.4
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Poonawalla Fincorp

Poonawalla Fincorp Ltd

Recommended

Cyrus Poonawalla group NBFC offering digital personal loans up to ₹50L.

  • RBI-registered NBFC (Middle Layer)
  • Promoter-backed by Cyrus Poonawalla group

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 27%
PF
Upto 2.5%
Rating
4.4
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Chola Finance

Murugappa Group

Recommended

Murugappa-group NBFC with branch + digital personal loans across India.

  • Upper Layer NBFC, AA+ rated
  • Murugappa Group governance

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 28%
PF
Upto 3%
Rating
4.3
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review
Recommended

Kerala-based NBFC offering gold-backed personal credit with branch-led KYC.

  • RBI-registered NBFC (N-16.00167)
  • Branch network for in-person KYC

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 30%
PF
Upto 2.5%
Rating
4.3
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

L&T Finance PLANET

L&T Finance Holdings

Recommended

L&T-group NBFC with digital personal loans up to ₹15L.

  • Upper Layer NBFC under SBR
  • L&T parentage

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 28%
PF
Upto 2.5%
Rating
4.3
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Piramal Finance

Piramal Enterprises

Recommended

Piramal-group NBFC offering multi-product retail credit including PL.

  • RBI-regulated HFC/NBFC
  • Piramal Enterprises backing

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 28%
PF
Upto 3%
Rating
4.3
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Mahindra Finance

Mahindra Group

Recommended

Mahindra-group NBFC; strong rural/semi-urban consumer finance.

  • Upper Layer NBFC under RBI SBR
  • Mahindra Group governance

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 34%
PF
Upto 3%
Rating
4.2
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Navi

Navi Finserv Ltd (NBFC)

Recommended

Among the cleaner large-NBFC lending apps — transparent KFS, low processing fee.

  • RBI-licensed NBFC, public financials
  • No contact-list permission

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 40%
PF
Upto 5%
Rating
4.2
RBI-regulated NBFCHigh APR
Read review

Shriram One

Shriram Group

Recommended

Shriram-group NBFC; strong base in self-employed and Tier 2/3 lending.

  • Upper Layer NBFC under RBI SBR
  • 3,000+ branches

Clears our four Gen-Z safety filters

APR
Upto 30%
PF
Upto 3%
Rating
4.2
RBI-regulated NBFCElevated APR
Read review

Showing 12 of 65

The market, at a glance

Every reviewed app, plotted by APR ceiling

Each dot is one app. Colour is the verdict, position is its APR ceiling on a log scale. Hover a dot to see the app name — every app is also listed below with a link to its full review.

  • Fair ≤ 14%
  • Elevated 14–36%
  • High 36–60%
  • Predatory > 60%
FairElevatedHighPredatory

The Fair zone is empty. No reviewed loan app in India offers an APR ceiling ≤ 14% — even the safest options sit in Elevated territory (14–36%). If you see a rate advertised below that, it's before fees, GST, and insurance.

How we score

Methodology

Reviews draw from five data sources — no promotional headlines, no lender relationships.

  • KFS data

    Key Fact Statements pulled directly from each app's disclosure — the source of truth for APR, PF, and effective cost.

  • RBI's NBFC list

    Every parent lender is cross-checked against RBI's registered NBFC list. If the parent isn't there, the app isn't regulated.

  • Permission audits

    Play Store permissions are audited for contact-list, media, and location asks that go beyond what lending requires.

  • Play Store disclosures

    Publisher information, install counts, response cadence, and data-safety declarations feed the reputational signal.

  • Reported complaints

    Public borrower complaints — RBI Sachet, consumer forums, and social media — for recovery, harassment, and privacy patterns.

  • Submit a correction

    Reviews evolve as apps change. Spot something wrong? Email hello@sahisujhav.in.

// Regulatory context

What changed in RBI's rules for loan apps — and what it means for you

“RBI approved” is not a badge an app earns once. It is a moving compliance bar set by RBI's Digital Lending Guidelines, the cooling-off requirement, the DPDP Act and the recovery-conduct rules. Here is the timeline we test every app in this directory against.

  1. Sep 2022

    Digital Lending Guidelines take effect

    All disbursals and repayments must flow directly between your bank account and the regulated lender — no pass-through accounts held by the app. Every loan needs a Key Fact Statement (KFS) stating the all-in APR before you accept.

    For you: If an app collects your repayment into its own wallet, or cannot show a KFS with an APR, it is operating outside the rules — regardless of what its Play Store listing claims.

    Read the guidelines in plain Hinglish
  2. 2023

    Cooling-off / look-up period becomes mandatory

    Borrowers get a fixed window to exit a digital loan by repaying principal plus proportionate APR, with no prepayment penalty.

    For you: A loan taken in panic can be unwound within the window. Apps that block cancellation or add an 'exit fee' are non-compliant.

    How to use the 3-day cancellation window
  3. Aug 2023

    DPDP Act 2023 lands on top of lending rules

    Consent must be specific and revocable, and data collection must be limited to what the loan actually needs. Contacts, gallery and call logs are not needed to underwrite a loan.

    For you: Contact-list scraping and photo misuse are now a data-protection breach as well as a lending violation — two separate complaint routes.

    Your DPDP rights against loan apps
  4. 2026

    Tighter default-loss-guarantee and disclosure enforcement

    RBI has kept removing app-layer intermediaries from the money flow and pushing full fee disclosure into the KFS, while delisting unauthorised apps from app stores.

    For you: The gap between advertised 'interest' and real APR is where the cost hides. That is why every entry here is recomputed from processing fees, GST and tenure — not from the rate shown on the ad.

    What the 2026 changes mean for payday borrowers
  5. 2027

    Recovery-agent conduct rules

    Contact windows, agent identification and escalation duties for the lender are being codified, so recovery behaviour becomes the lender's regulatory liability.

    For you: Calls outside permitted hours, threats, or contacting your family are reportable against the NBFC named in your KFS — not just the app.

    Recovery-agent rules and how to enforce them

// Verify it yourself

How to check whether a loan app is RBI approved

RBI does not licence apps — it regulates the bank or NBFC lending through the app. So “RBI approved” really means: the app names a lender that appears on RBI's own register. Four checks, five minutes:

  1. 1 · Find the lender, not the brand

    Open the app's Terms, KFS or website footer and note the exact registered name of the bank/NBFC funding the loan. App brand names are not lenders.

  2. 2 · Search RBI's own register

    Look that name up in RBI's published list of NBFCs / banks on rbi.org.in. No match — or no lender disclosed at all — means treat the app as unauthorised.

  3. 3 · Demand the KFS before you accept

    RBI's Digital Lending Guidelines require a Key Fact Statement with the all-in APR, fees and recovery-agent details up front. No KFS is itself non-compliance.

  4. 4 · Audit the permissions

    Regulated digital lenders may not access your contacts, call logs, files or microphone. If the install screen asks, that alone is a red flag regardless of registration.

Every review on this page already records the parent lender and its RBI/NBFC status, plus the APR we recompute from real fees — see the full methodology.

// FAQ

Loan apps — questions readers ask before installing

Open the RBI website's 'List of NBFCs' and search the parent lender's exact registered name (not the app brand). If the parent is a regulated NBFC or a bank, the app is RBI-supervised. If you cannot find the parent — or the app refuses to disclose the parent — it is almost certainly unauthorised. Every review on SahiSujhav lists the parent lender and its RBI status.

We are not a lender. We are not a credit counsellor. We surface public information, run analysis on what you upload, and point you to the official channels (RBI Sachet, Cyber Crime cell). Always verify with the regulator before acting.

Grievance Officer (DPDP Act 2023, §13): privacy@sahisujhav.in · Response within 7 days.