MEFA Student Loan Refinancing Review September 2025

The Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA) was created in 1982 by the state legislature. The goal was to help families in the state pay for college. The company now offers a range of products, including student loan refinancing.

You don't have to live in Massachusetts to qualify, as MEFA's refinance product is available nationwide. Learn more about the lender in our MEFA student loan refinancing review.

MEFA student loan refinancing review

Best for: Borrowers who didn't earn a degree

If you took out student loans but didn't graduate, it can be challenging to find a refinancing option that you qualify for. MEFA is among a limited number of lenders that allow eligible borrowers with qualifying loans to refinance, even if they didn't earn a degree.

Pros and cons

Eligibility requirements

To qualify for student loan refinancing, borrowers must meet the following MEFA refinance eligibility requirements:

• Citizenship: Must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
• Ownership: Your name must be on all loans
• Credit score: 670
• Minimum income: $24,000
• Minimum loan amount: $10,000
• Cosigner requirements: Co-borrower must meet credit score and income requirements
• Payment history: A minimum of 6 months of recent monthly payments
• Credit history: No defaults or delinquencies within the past 12 months; no history of foreclosure or bankruptcy within the past 60 months
• Student loans: Must have eligible student loans from a not-for-profit college

Borrowing limits

By refinancing with MEFA, you can combine multiple loans, change their repayment terms, and potentially lower your interest rate. The minimum loan amount is $10,000. The lender doesn't disclose its maximum loan amount.

Current student loan refinance rates

Repayment terms

MEFA offers three repayment terms for its refinance loans:

• 7 years
• 10 years
• 15 years

These repayment term options can be cost-effective, as they're shorter than some other options, which means paying less in interest over the life of the loan. However, MEFA offers fewer repayment term options than some other refinancing lenders, such as College Ave.

If you apply for a MEFA refinance loan, you'll begin making your monthly payments one month after your loan is disbursed, as there is no grace period.

Notable benefits

MEFA student loan refinancing is available to borrowers who didn't complete their degree. Given that many refinancing lenders have a degree requirement, this can be a major benefit.

Similar to other refinancing lenders, MEFA doesn't charge borrowers application, origination, or prepayment fees. However, unlike some other lenders, MEFA doesn't charge any late fees or a returned-check fee.

Additionally, MEFA has excellent ratings. On Trustpilot, the company has an a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. Plus, the company has an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

What to consider before refinancing student loans with MEFA

Refinancing your student loans with MEFA could make sense if you're eligible for a lower rate or you want to change your repayment terms. But here are some things to consider beforehand:

• Higher minimum loan amount: While a $10,000 minimum loan amount may be easy to meet, it's worth noting that this is higher than some other lenders. For example, College Ave refinance loans have a minimum loan amount of $5,000.
• No cosigner release: The MEFA refinance loan doesn't have a cosigner release option. This can be an issue if you need to apply with a cosigner, as that person will be legally tied to your loan for the entire repayment term.
• Losing federal benefits: If you refinance federal loans with MEFA, they become private. As a result, you'll no longer qualify for important borrower benefits like deferment, forbearance, income-driven repayment, and student loan forgiveness.
• No variable rates: The MEFA refinance loan only offers a fixed interest rate. That's good when interest rates are increasing, and it offers predictability. But when the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, variable rates can go down. Borrowers can't take advantage of this with a MEFA refinance loan.
• Loan servicer: MEFA partners with American Education Services (AES) as the loan servicer for its products. On MEFA's site, there isn't a clearly outlined deferment or forbearance option. However, you can contact AES to discuss what options may be available.

How to apply for student loan refinancing with MEFA

If you've compared multiple options and have decided to refinance with MEFA, here's how to apply for a refinance loan:

1. Prequalify: You can click on “Find My Rate” on MEFA's website to see if you qualify and find out your potential rate. Doing so won't have an impact on your credit score.
2. Provide information: If you're eligible and want to move forward, you'll provide personal information and your loan details. You'll need your government-issued ID, Social Security number, home address, email address, phone number, monthly income, employer information, housing costs, and loan details. You'll need to provide 2 of your most recent pay stubs and billing statements for the student loans you're refinancing.
3. Apply: Submit your MEFA application online. If approved, you can select your repayment term. At this stage, there will be a hard credit pull, which can cause your credit score to temporarily dip by a few points. You'll also need to upload supporting documentation.
4. Sign your loan document: To complete the process, sign your loan document. Be sure you carefully review the terms and conditions before doing so.
5. Repayment: Once MEFA notifies you that your existing students loans have been paid off, you'll begin making monthly payments on your new refinance loan.

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 MEFA's 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.