Brazos Student Loan Refinancing Review September 2025

For over 40 years, the Brazos Higher Education Service Corporation has offered educational loans and student loan refinancing to Texas residents. As part of its mission to promote college affordability, the Waco-based nonprofit has financed more than 2 million student loans.

Texans who have a good credit score and an established income may qualify for a refinance loan with Brazos. Brazos student loan refinancing offers competitive rates and flexible terms, but refinancing could have some serious drawbacks.

Here’s what you need to know about refinancing with Brazos.

Brazos student loan refinancing review

Best for: Flexible refinancing terms

Whether you have federal or private student loans, you can refinance them with Brazos. The Brazos refinance loan offers competitive interest rates on both variable- and fixed-rate loans.

Additionally, Brazos has a wide range of repayment terms you can choose from: five, seven, 10, 15, or 20 years. Choosing a shorter term typically translates to less interest over the life of your loan, though you’ll make higher monthly payments. Selecting a longer repayment term can give you smaller monthly payments, but you’ll pay more in overall interest.

Pros and cons

Eligibility requirements 

Brazos can offer such favorable rates and terms in part because it has relatively strict eligibility requirements. You have to meet these requirements to qualify for Brazos student loan refinancing: 

• Be a Texas resident who is at least 18 years old.
• Be a U.S. citizen or national, permanent resident, or, if applying with an eligible cosigner, a noncitizen with a student or work visa or a DACA recipient.
• Earn at least $60,000 annually.
• Have a FICO score of at least 720.
• Have a strong credit history and meet other credit requirements.
• Apply to refinance at least 1 outstanding, fully disbursed education loan.
• Have at least $10,000 in student loans to refinance. 
• Be the primary borrower of the loans to be refinanced.
• Be employed, self-employed, or have accepted an offer of employment with a start date within 60 days at the time of application. 

Brazos allows borrowers to apply with a cosigner, but they must also reside in Texas, be at least 18 years old, earn a minimum annual income of $60,000, and have a FICO score of at least 720. They must also be a U.S. citizen, national, or noncitizen permanent resident. 

If you do apply with a cosigner, Brazos allows for cosigner release after 12 consecutive on-time payments if you can pass a credit check and qualify with at least the same pricing tier as your cosigner.

While the median household income in Texas is nearly $76,000, the average FICO score in the Lone Star state is 695, so only some Texans will qualify for a refinance loan with Brazos. 

You May Also Like: What Credit Score Do You Need for a Student Loan in 2025?

Borrowing limits

The minimum refinance loan is $10,000. Borrowers with up to a bachelor’s degree can refinance a maximum of $250,000, while borrowers with a graduate, medical, law, or other professional degree may refinance up to $400,000.

Current student loan refinance rates

Repayment terms

When you refinance with Brazos, you can choose between repayment terms of five, seven, 10, 15, or 20 years, and your repayment begins 30 to 60 days after loan disbursement.

Brazos also offers student loan forbearance options to borrowers. These forbearance options allow you to temporarily pause payments without risking default. Just remember that interest charges will continue to accrue on your loans if you are granted any of these types of forbearance:

• Economic hardship: If you run into unexpected financial problems, Brazos allows you to defer payments on your loan for 3 months at a time, with a cumulative limit of 12 months.
• Active-duty military: Forbearance is available if you’re called for active-duty military service. This forbearance has a cumulative length of 36 months.
• Natural disaster: If you’re affected by a natural disaster, you may request a forbearance of up to 3 months.

Notable benefits

There are several benefits to Brazos refinancing that can make this an attractive option for borrowers, including:

• No fees: Other than a minimal late fee if your monthly payment is late, Brazos has no application, origination, or prepayment fees.
• Referral bonus: If you refer someone in your network to Brazos student loans or refinance loans, you can earn $200.
• Autopay discount: If you sign up for automatic payments from your account, you’ll get an interest rate discount of 0.25 percentage points.
• Cosigner release: Eligible borrowers can request a cosigner release after making 12 consecutive, on-time payments or after prepaying an amount equal to 12 months of principal and interest.

What to consider before refinancing with Brazos

While refinancing student loans with Brazos can potentially lower your interest rate or monthly payment, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best choice for your student debt. 

The lender only offers refinance loans to eligible Texas residents, so if you live in any other state, you won’t qualify. Brazos also has higher credit score and income requirements than some other lenders, so even if you live in Texas, you might not be eligible.

If you have federal student loans, refinancing with any private lender, including Brazos, means losing federal student loan protections and perks, such as access to income-driven repayment plans and loan forgiveness. 

Additionally, refinancing your student loans to a shorter repayment term can increase your monthly payment, which could make it more difficult to make your payments. But refinancing your loan to get a longer repayment term typically means paying more interest over the life of your loan.

Check Out: Should I Refinance My Student Loans?

Finally, Brazos offers both fixed- and variable-rate refinancing options. Make sure you understand what to expect from both types of interest rates so you can make an informed decision.

How to apply for student loan refinancing with Brazos

Any loan application includes a hard credit check, which can temporarily ding your credit score. Brazos allows you to get an estimated rate with its prequalification tool before you apply, which involves a soft credit check that doesn’t affect your credit.

If Brazos is the right student loan refinancing option for your needs, here’s what you’ll need to have when you apply online:

• Proof of Texas residency 
• Your Social Security number
• Your permanent address
• Proof of income (like recent tax returns or pay stubs)
• The most recent statement for the loan(s) you are refinancing

With that information in hand, you can begin the online application process here.

Why you can trust our Credible experts

The Credible editorial team is independent and unbiased. Partners do not influence our editorial content. To help you find the best student loan for your situation, we conduct thorough research and analyze thousands of lender data points. Using data-driven methodologies, we score criteria that are important to you. This allows us to objectively rank student loan lenders and products. To learn more, read our methodology below.

Methodology

To determine Brazos’ lender rating, Credible collected more than 1,000 points of data on two dozen private student loan refinance companies and evaluated them on several different categories: repayment options, eligibility, interest rates, loan terms, and customer support. We assigned a score out of five stars to each lender based on our findings. Below are the weightings assigned to the general categories for the best student loan refinance companies — which comprise individual criteria that are also weighted.

• Repayment options: 30%
• Eligibility: 25%
• Interest rates: 20%
• Loan terms: 15%
• Customer support: 10%

While the best lender for you will depend on your unique needs and financial circumstances, these findings should help answer your questions and assist you in your search for the best student loan.

Learn more about our methodology.