When Refinancing Your Student Loans Makes Sense (and When It Doesn’t)

Written by Kat Tretina

March 6, 2020 Kat Tretina March 6, 2020April 13, 2021Refinancing & ConsolidationFeatured, Refinancing & Consolidation, Student Loan Forgiveness, Student Loan Repayment1200Kat Tretina

Updated on March 6, 2020

Editorial Note: The content of this article is based on the author’s opinions and recommendations alone. It may not have been reviewed, commissioned or otherwise endorsed by any of our network partners.

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Refinance Student Loan rates starting at 2.49% APR

	2.49% to 11.72% ¹ VARIABLE APR	Visit Lender
	2.50% to 6.30% ² VARIABLE APR	Visit Lender
	4.13% to 7.39% ³ VARIABLE APR	Visit Lender

Splash Financial Disclosures

Terms and Conditions apply. Splash reserves the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. Rates and terms are also subject to change at any time without notice. Offers are subject to credit approval. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident in an eligible state and meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers receive the lowest rate. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. If approved, your actual rate will be within a range of rates and will depend on a variety of factors, including term of loan, a responsible financial history, income and other factors. Refinancing or consolidating private and federal student loans may not be the right decision for everyone. Federal loans carry special benefits not available for loans made through Splash Financial, for example, public service loan forgiveness and economic hardship programs, fee waivers and rebates on the principal, which may not be accessible to you after you refinance. The rates displayed may include a 0.25% autopay discount.

The information you provide to us is an inquiry to determine whether we or our lenders can make a loan offer that meets your needs. If we or any of our lending partners has an available loan offer for you, you will be invited to submit a loan application to the lender for its review. We do not guarantee that you will receive any loan offers or that your loan application will be approved. Offers are subject to credit approval and are available only to U.S. citizens or permanent residents who meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers will receive the lowest rates, which are available to the most qualified borrowers. Participating lenders, rates and terms are subject to change at any time without notice.

To check the rates and terms you qualify for, Splash Financial conducts a soft credit pull that will not affect your credit score. However, if you choose a product and continue your application, the lender will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit pull and may affect your credit.

Splash Financial and our lending partners reserve the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen and meet our lending partner’s underwriting requirements. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. This information is current as of September 6, 2022.

Laurel Road Disclosures

All credit products are subject to credit approval.

Laurel Road began originating student loans in 2013 and has since helped thousands of professionals with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees consolidate and refinance more than $9 billion in federal and private school loans. Laurel Road also offers a suite of online graduate school loan products and personal loans that help simplify lending through customized technology and personalized service. In April 2019, Laurel Road was acquired by KeyBank, one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank National Association offering online lending products in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. All loans are provided by KeyBank National Association, a nationally chartered bank. Member FDIC. For more information, visit www.laurelroad.com.

As used throughout these Terms & Conditions, the term “Lender” refers to KeyBank National Association and its affiliates, agents, guaranty insurers, investors, assigns, and successors in interest.

Checking your rate with Laurel Road only requires a soft credit pull, which will not affect your credit score. To proceed with an application, a hard credit pull will be required, which may affect your credit score.

Savings vary based on rate and term of your existing and refinanced loan(s). Refinancing to a longer term may lower your monthly payments, but may also increase the total interest paid over the life of the loan. Refinancing to a shorter term may increase your monthly payments, but may lower the total interest paid over the life of the loan. Review your loan documentation for total cost of your refinanced loan.

After loan disbursement, if a borrower documents a qualifying economic hardship, we may agree in our discretion to allow for full or partial forbearance of payments for one or more 3-month time periods (not to exceed 12 months in the aggregate during the term of your loan), provided that we receive acceptable documentation (including updating documentation) of the nature and expected duration of the borrower’s economic hardship. During any period of forbearance interest will continue to accrue. At the end of the forbearance period, any unpaid accrued interest will be capitalized and be added to the remaining principle amount of the loan.

Automatic Payment (“AutoPay”) Discount: if the borrower chooses to make monthly payments automatically from a bank account, the interest rate will decrease by 0.25% and will increase back if the borrower stops making (or we stop accepting) monthly payments automatically from the borrower’s bank account. The 0.25% AutoPay discount will not reduce the monthly payment; instead, the discount is applied to the principal to help pay the loan down faster.

Assumptions: Repayment examples above assume a loan amount of $10,000 with repayment beginning immediately following disbursement. Repayment examples do not include the 0.25% AutoPay Discount.

Annual Percentage Rate (“APR”): This term represents the actual cost of financing to the borrower over the life of the loan expressed as a yearly rate.

Interest Rate: A simple annual rate that is applied to an unpaid balance.

Variable Rates: The current index for variable rate loans is derived from the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and changes in the LIBOR index may cause your monthly payment to increase. Borrowers who take out a term of 5, 7, or 10 years will have a maximum interest rate of 9%, those who take out a 15 or 20-year variable loan will have a maximum interest rate of 10%.

KEYBANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MODIFY OR DISCONTINUE PRODUCTS AND BENEFITS AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE.

This information is current as of April 29, 2021. Information and rates are subject to change without notice.

Variable APR

Learn more about REFINANCING STUDENT LOANS.

The average college graduate leaves school with almost $30,000 in student loan debt. Over time, interest can substantially add to that burden.

Although refinancing may be a great choice for some borrowers, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Depending on your loan types and interest rates, refinancing isn’t always best.

We’ll look at the pros and cons of refinancing student loans and whether it would be good for you.

Refinancing student loans pros and cons: Times it makes sense
Refinancing student loans pros and cons: Times it doesn’t make sense
Deciding if refinancing is right for you

Refinancing student loans pros and cons: Times it makes sense

If you’re looking to save money, you might be able to get a lower interest rate and a shorter repayment term. If you need more breathing room in your budget, you could extend your repayment term to get a lower monthly payment.

Here are some situations where refinancing can make the most sense:

You have private loans
You have high-interest federal loans
You have loans with a cosigner
Your credit score has improved substantially

You have private loans

Private student loans tend to have higher interest rates and less forgiving repayment terms than federal loans. They also generally don’t offer protections common with federal loans, such as income-driven repayment plans or mandatory forbearance.

If you opted for a variable interest rate when you took out your loan, you could see APRs as high as 8.65% via lenders recommended by Student Loan Hero. Since variable interest rates can fluctuate, that also means your monthly payment could change several times over the life of your loan. If you don’t like how variable rates can affect your payments, you can also opt to refinance with a fixed-rate loan. The rate would be set for the length of your loan and your payments wouldn’t change.

To get a better handle on how much you could save by refinancing, try using our Student Loan Refinancing Calculator.

You have high-interest federal loans

Depending on the type of federal student loans you took out, you might be paying a lot in interest. For example, if you went to graduate school and took out grad PLUS loans on or after July 1, 2019, and before July 1, 2020, your interest rate would be 7.08%. That interest rate can add significantly to the cost of your loan.

If you have good credit and earn a decent salary, you could potentially refinance your federal loans and get a lower interest rate. Some lenders offer refinancing loans with fixed APRs as low as 3.21% via lenders recommended by Student Loan Hero.

If you had $10,000 in PLUS loans with a 7.08% interest rate and took 10 years to pay off your debt, you’d pay $3,983 in interest. However, if you refinanced the loans and qualified for a 3.25% APR, you’d pay just $1,726 in interest — and you’d have a lower monthly payment. That switch would save you about $2,250, which you could use to pursue your other goals.

You have loans with a cosigner

If a parent or loved one cosigned a student loan with you, they’re responsible for the debt if you fall behind on your payments. Your cosigner’s credit could be negatively impacted if you miss a payment, making it difficult or even impossible for them to get approved for any new credit, like a car loan or a mortgage.

To prevent these kinds of issues, you can refinance the loans in your name and release your cosigner from responsibility. If you want to help your loved one and can handle the debt on your own, refinancing can relieve them of responsibility. It could also reduce tensions between the two of you.

CommonBond, LendKey and College Ave are among those that allow cosigner release, but you should still note that not all lenders will offer it.

Your credit score has improved substantially

Your creditworthiness plays a big role in your ability to refinance your student loans at the best interest rate for you.

Suppose you’ve been working for a while and paying your accounts on time. There’s a good chance that your credit score may have improved over time. Depending on your income, credit score and other lender requirements, you may be able to refinance your student loans at a much better rate than you currently have.

As with anything else, it pays to shop around to make sure you get the lowest interest rate possible.

Refinancing student loans pros and cons: Times it doesn’t make sense

Here are some scenarios when refinancing might not be wise:

You need an income-driven repayment plan
You are pursuing student loan forgiveness

You need an income-driven repayment plan

If you have federal student loans, you might qualify for an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan if you can’t keep up with your payments. Under an IDR plan, your payment is capped at a percentage of your discretionary income — generally between 10% and 20% — and your repayment term is extended to 20 or 25 years, which could reduce your monthly bill.

An IDR plan can be a lifeline when you’re starting out on a small income. But if you refinance your federal loans with a private lender, you’ll lose this as an option. If you refinance and your income later decreases, your new lender might not be flexible about your payments.

One important thing to remember is that if you qualify for an IDR plan, you will have to recertify your income information each year. Your monthly repayment amount may vary depending on your reported income.

You are pursuing student loan forgiveness

If you plan to spend your career in public service, such as by working for a nonprofit or a government agency, you could qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). After 10 years of qualified payments, the government could forgive your loans. Notably, though, less than 1% of applicants are seeing their loans wiped away, so take that into consideration.

If you refinance your debt, you’re no longer eligible for PSLF. The program only applies to federal loans. Even though refinancing can save you money right now, it could cost you thousands in the long run if you qualify for PSLF.

Meanwhile, if you are pursuing a career in education, you could have as much as $17,500 forgiven, depending on your specialty.

Deciding if refinancing is right for you

Everyone’s situation is unique when it comes to student loans.

Are there other times when refinancing might make sense? Yes. This includes:

When you have multiple loans and want to worry about just one monthly payment
When you are already paying more than the monthly minimum and want to pay off your loans quicker

And there are other times when refinancing might not make sense, including:

When your credit score is too low and you can’t find a good cosigner
When you won’t lower your interest all that much
When you’re worried that your income could soon drop

Before refinancing, make sure you do your homework and understand how much you could save with each option. Then you can decide if the savings are worth the potential drawbacks.

Steve Santiago contributed to this report.

Interested in refinancing student loans?

Here are the top 9 lenders of 2022!

Lender	Variable APR	Eligible Degrees
	2.49% – 11.72%¹	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit Splash
	2.50% – 6.30%²	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit Laurel Road
	4.13% – 7.39%³	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit Lendkey
	2.49% – 7.99%⁴	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit Earnest
	2.49% – 7.99%⁵	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit NaviRefi
	3.24% – 8.24%⁶	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit SoFi
	2.48% – 7.98%	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit Elfi
	1.74% – 7.99%⁷	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit Purefy
	3.69% – 9.92%⁸	Undergrad & Graduate	Visit Citizens
Check out the testimonials and our in-depth reviews! ¹ Important Disclosures for Splash Financial. Splash Financial Disclosures Terms and Conditions apply. Splash reserves the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. Rates and terms are also subject to change at any time without notice. Offers are subject to credit approval. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident in an eligible state and meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers receive the lowest rate. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. If approved, your actual rate will be within a range of rates and will depend on a variety of factors, including term of loan, a responsible financial history, income and other factors. Refinancing or consolidating private and federal student loans may not be the right decision for everyone. Federal loans carry special benefits not available for loans made through Splash Financial, for example, public service loan forgiveness and economic hardship programs, fee waivers and rebates on the principal, which may not be accessible to you after you refinance. The rates displayed may include a 0.25% autopay discount. The information you provide to us is an inquiry to determine whether we or our lenders can make a loan offer that meets your needs. If we or any of our lending partners has an available loan offer for you, you will be invited to submit a loan application to the lender for its review. We do not guarantee that you will receive any loan offers or that your loan application will be approved. Offers are subject to credit approval and are available only to U.S. citizens or permanent residents who meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers will receive the lowest rates, which are available to the most qualified borrowers. Participating lenders, rates and terms are subject to change at any time without notice. To check the rates and terms you qualify for, Splash Financial conducts a soft credit pull that will not affect your credit score. However, if you choose a product and continue your application, the lender will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit pull and may affect your credit. Splash Financial and our lending partners reserve the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen and meet our lending partner’s underwriting requirements. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. This information is current as of September 6, 2022. ² Important Disclosures for Laurel Road. Laurel Road Disclosures All credit products are subject to credit approval. Laurel Road began originating student loans in 2013 and has since helped thousands of professionals with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees consolidate and refinance more than $9 billion in federal and private school loans. Laurel Road also offers a suite of online graduate school loan products and personal loans that help simplify lending through customized technology and personalized service. In April 2019, Laurel Road was acquired by KeyBank, one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank National Association offering online lending products in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. All loans are provided by KeyBank National Association, a nationally chartered bank. Member FDIC. For more information, visit www.laurelroad.com. As used throughout these Terms & Conditions, the term “Lender” refers to KeyBank National Association and its affiliates, agents, guaranty insurers, investors, assigns, and successors in interest. Checking your rate with Laurel Road only requires a soft credit pull, which will not affect your credit score. To proceed with an application, a hard credit pull will be required, which may affect your credit score. Savings vary based on rate and term of your existing and refinanced loan(s). Refinancing to a longer term may lower your monthly payments, but may also increase the total interest paid over the life of the loan. Refinancing to a shorter term may increase your monthly payments, but may lower the total interest paid over the life of the loan. Review your loan documentation for total cost of your refinanced loan. After loan disbursement, if a borrower documents a qualifying economic hardship, we may agree in our discretion to allow for full or partial forbearance of payments for one or more 3-month time periods (not to exceed 12 months in the aggregate during the term of your loan), provided that we receive acceptable documentation (including updating documentation) of the nature and expected duration of the borrower’s economic hardship. During any period of forbearance interest will continue to accrue. At the end of the forbearance period, any unpaid accrued interest will be capitalized and be added to the remaining principle amount of the loan. Automatic Payment (“AutoPay”) Discount: if the borrower chooses to make monthly payments automatically from a bank account, the interest rate will decrease by 0.25% and will increase back if the borrower stops making (or we stop accepting) monthly payments automatically from the borrower’s bank account. The 0.25% AutoPay discount will not reduce the monthly payment; instead, the discount is applied to the principal to help pay the loan down faster. Assumptions: Repayment examples above assume a loan amount of $10,000 with repayment beginning immediately following disbursement. Repayment examples do not include the 0.25% AutoPay Discount. Annual Percentage Rate (“APR”): This term represents the actual cost of financing to the borrower over the life of the loan expressed as a yearly rate. Interest Rate: A simple annual rate that is applied to an unpaid balance. Variable Rates: The current index for variable rate loans is derived from the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and changes in the LIBOR index may cause your monthly payment to increase. Borrowers who take out a term of 5, 7, or 10 years will have a maximum interest rate of 9%, those who take out a 15 or 20-year variable loan will have a maximum interest rate of 10%. KEYBANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MODIFY OR DISCONTINUE PRODUCTS AND BENEFITS AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. This information is current as of April 29, 2021. Information and rates are subject to change without notice. ³ Important Disclosures for LendKey. LendKey Disclosures Refinancing via LendKey.com is only available for applicants with qualified private education loans from an eligible institution. Loans that were used for exam preparation classes, including, but not limited to, loans for LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, and GRE preparation, are not eligible for refinancing with a lender via LendKey.com. If you currently have any of these exam preparation loans, you should not include them in an application to refinance your student loans on this website. Applicants must be either U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents in an eligible state to qualify for a loan. Certain membership requirements (including the opening of a share account and any applicable association fees in connection with membership) may apply in the event that an applicant wishes to accept a loan offer from a credit union lender. Lenders participating on LendKey.com reserve the right to modify or discontinue the products, terms, and benefits offered on this website at any time without notice. LendKey Technologies, Inc. is not affiliated with, nor does it endorse, any educational institution. Subject to floor rate and may require the automatic payments be made from a checking or savings account with the lender. The rate reduction will be removed and the rate will be increased by 0.25% upon any cancellation or failed collection attempt of the automatic payment and will be suspended during any period of deferment or forbearance. As a result, during the forbearance or suspension period, and/or if the automatic payment is canceled, any increase will take the form of higher payments. The lowest advertised variable APR is only available for loan terms of 5 years and is reserved for applicants with FICO scores of at least 810. As of 09/09/2022 student loan refinancing rates range from 4.13% APR – 7.39% Variable APR with AutoPay and 2.99% APR – 9.93% Fixed APR with AutoPay. ⁴ Rate range above includes optional 0.25% Auto Pay discount. Important Disclosures for Earnest. Earnest Disclosures You can choose between fixed and variable rates. Fixed interest rates are 3.99% – 8.74% APR (3.74% – 8.49% APR with Auto Pay discount). Starting variable interest rates are 2.74% APR to 8.24% APR (2.49% – 7.99% APR with Auto Pay discount). Variable rates are based on an index, the 30-day Average Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus a margin. Variable rates are reset monthly based on the fluctuation of the index. We do not currently offer variable rate loans in AK, CO, CT, HI, IL, KY, MA, MN, MS, NH, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, and VA. ⁵ Important Disclosures for Navient. Navient Disclosures You can choose between fixed and variable rates. Fixed interest rates are 3.99% – 8.74% APR (3.74% – 8.49% APR with Auto Pay discount). Starting variable interest rates are 2.74% APR to 8.24% APR (2.49% – 7.99% APR with Auto Pay discount). Variable rates are based on an index, the 30-day Average Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus a margin. Variable rates are reset monthly based on the fluctuation of the index. We do not currently offer variable rate loans in AK, CO, CT, HI, IL, KY, MA, MN, MS, NH, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, and VA. ⁶ Important Disclosures for SoFi. SoFi Disclosures Fixed rates range from 3.99% APR to 8.24% APR with a 0.25% autopay discount. Variable rates from 3.24% APR to 8.24% APR with a 0.25% autopay discount. Unless required to be lower to comply with applicable law, Variable Interest rates on 5-, 7-, and 10-year terms are capped at 8.95% APR; 15- and 20-year terms are capped at 9.95% APR. Your actual rate will be within the range of rates listed above and will depend on the term you select, evaluation of your creditworthiness, income, presence of a co-signer and a variety of other factors. Lowest rates reserved for the most creditworthy borrowers. For the SoFi variable-rate product, the variable interest rate for a given month is derived by adding a margin to the 30-day average SOFR index, published two business days preceding such calendar month, rounded up to the nearest one hundredth of one percent (0.01% or 0.0001). APRs for variable-rate loans may increase after origination if the SOFR index increases. The SoFi 0.25% autopay interest rate reduction requires you to agree to make monthly principal and interest payments by an automatic monthly deduction from a savings or checking account. This benefit will discontinue and be lost for periods in which you do not pay by automatic deduction from a savings or checking account. The benefit lowers your interest rate but does not change the amount of your monthly payment. This benefit is suspended during periods of deferment and forbearance. Autopay is not required to receive a loan from SoFi. ⁷ Important Disclosures for Purefy. Purefy Disclosures Purefy Student Loan Refinancing Rate and Terms Disclosure: Annual Percentage Rates (APR) ranges and examples are based on information provided to Purefy by lenders participating in Purefy’s rate comparison platform. For student loan refinancing, the participating lenders offer fixed rates ranging from 2.73% – 7.99% APR, and variable rates ranging from 1.74% – 7.99% APR. The maximum variable rate is 25.00%. Your interest rate will be based on the lender’s requirements. In most cases, lenders determine the interest rates based on your credit score, degree type and other credit and financial criteria. Only borrowers with excellent credit and meeting other lender criteria will qualify for the lowest rate available. Rates and terms are subject to change at any time without notice. Terms and conditions apply. ⁸ Important Disclosures for Citizens. CitizensBank Disclosures Education Refinance Loan Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69%-9.92% (3.69%-9.92% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49%-10.11% (4.49%-10.11% APR). Undergraduate Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 6.39%- 9.60% (6.39% – 9.60% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 6.58% – 9.79% (6.58% – 9.79% APR). Graduate Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69% – 9.16% (3.69% – 9.16% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49% – 9.35% (4.49% – 9.35% APR). Education Refinance Loan for Parents Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69%- 9.09% (3.69%- 9.09% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49% – 9.28% (4.49% – 9.28% APR). Medical Residency Refinance Loan Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69% – 9.16% (3.69% – 9.16% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49% – 9.35% (4.49% – 9.35% APR).

When Refinancing Your Student Loans Makes Sense (and When It Doesn’t)

Refinance Student Loan rates starting at 2.49% APR