Our team researched more than two dozen of the country’s most popular personal lenders, including large online companies like SoFi, big banks like Wells Fargo, and peer-to-peer lenders like Upstart.

When I grew up in Sri Lanka, I often dreamt of how it would feel to invent or find something new. This ambition took me into science, and although the 13 years of education I enjoyed at a school in ...