The Federal Reserve’s ongoing interest rate increases are one reason borrowers who have variable-rate student loans should look into refinancing, Credible founder and CEO Stephen Dash tells CNBC’s Jessica Dickler.
At Credible, we’re also seeing many borrowers who have high-interest fixed-rate loans — parents or people with graduate degrees who took out PLUS loans, for example — get lower rates.
There’s more than one approach to refinancing, as we detail in this analysis of strategies and outcomes for thousands borrowers who have used Credible to find a lender.
Although many people tend to think of refinancing as something that’s only accessible to doctors, lawyers, or others with six-figure incomes, we are helping recent graduates refinance loan balances that are nearly as big as their annual salaries.
Thanks to our deep integrations with lenders and all three credit bureaus, borrowers can see the actual rates they’ll qualify for with multiple lenders in about 2 minutes.
Credible has partnered with a diverse group of lenders, ranging from traditional banks to online lenders and state student loan authorities. Some serve certain borrower niches better than others, so we’re often able to show people rates when a single-lender website would not.
Borrowers who don’t check rates with multiple lenders may mistakenly assume they don’t qualify for student loan refinancing — or miss out on a better rate.
If you browse our reviews on Trustpilot, you’ll see that many people who thought they weren’t eligible to refinance found out otherwise when they requested rates through Credible. People also like the phone, chat and email support we can provide if they have questions about proceeding with one of the options they see, or need help closing with the lender they select.
Student loan refinancing isn’t for everyone — if you refinance federal loans with a private lender, you’ll lose benefits like access to income-driven repayment programs and the potential to qualify for loan forgiveness after 10, 20 or 25 years of payments.
But stretching out your payments over a longer time period without an interest rate reduction can increase your total repayment costs pretty dramatically, and a growing number of borrowers decide the savings they can achieve through refinancing are worth more to them.
We estimate that 8 million borrowers could qualify to get lower rates, but many still haven’t explored their options.
Credible is a multi-lender marketplace that allows borrowers to get personalized rates and compare loans from vetted lenders, without affecting their credit scores. Borrowers don’t share their personal information with lenders until they’re ready to move forward with an option.
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