Experimental data on the cross sections for channels of fusion and transfer reactions induced by beams of radioactive halo nuclei and clustered and stable loosely bound nuclei were analyzed, and the results of this analysis were summarized. The interplay of the excitation of single-particle states in reaction-product nuclei and direct reaction channels was established for transfer reactions. Respective experiments were performed in stable ( 6 Li) and radioactive ( 6 Не) beams of the DRIBs accelerator complex at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, and in deuteron and 3 Не beams of the U-120M cyclotron at the Nuclear Physics Institute, Academy Sciences of Czech Republic (Řež and Prague, Czech Republic). Data on subbarrier and near-barrier fusion reactions involving clustered and loosely bound light nuclei ( 6 Li and 3 He) can be described quite reliably within simple evaporation models with allowance for different reaction Q -values and couple channels. In reactions involving halo nuclei, their structure manifests itself most strongly in the region of energies below the Coulomb barrier. Neutron transfer occurs with a high probability in the interactions of all loosely bound nuclei with light and heavy stable nuclei at positive Q -values. The cross sections for such reactions and the respective isomeric ratios differ drastically for nucleon stripping and nucleon pickup mechanisms. This is due to the difference in the population probabilities for excited single-particle states.