Abe Private Student Loans Review 2025

Abe is a private student loan lender that launched in June 2024 by Monogram LLC, a company with over 30 years of experience in student loan management. Funded by DR Bank, Abe was created to support students through college and help them manage repayment after graduation.

If you’re comparing student loan offers, here’s what to know about Abe and whether the lender is right for you. 

Abe private student loans review

Best for: Payment relief 

Abe stands out for its extensive payment relief options, offering more flexibility than many other private student loan lenders. Key payment protection features include: 

• In-school default protection: If you're making payments while in school and face financial difficulties, Abe automatically switches you to a deferred payment plan to help protect your credit. 
• Extended grace period: You’ll get a 6-month grace period after graduation, with the option to extend it by another 6 months if needed.
• Hardship forbearance: In the event of job loss, natural disaster, or other financial hardships, you can qualify for forbearance to pause payments. 
• Medical forbearance: If you need to take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or due to illness, you can pause payments for up to 12 months.
• Extended term payment relief: If you’ve enrolled in a payment reduction program through Abe, you can extend your loan term by up to 60 months (5 years) to lower your monthly payments.
• Past-due balance coverage: You can use an Abe loan to pay off any past-due tuition or fees owed to your school, as long as the balance is from within the past 18 months.
• Loan reduction after graduation: After earning a bachelor’s degree or higher, you can request a one-time 2% reduction in your loan’s principal balance.

Pros and cons

Before choosing Abe, consider the lender's pros and cons to decide whether it’s the right fit for your situation.

Pros of borrowing with Abe

• Extensive payment relief options: You can defer payments for various reasons, including difficulty finding a job after graduation or needing time off for parental leave.
• Rate discounts and perks: Abe offers up to 0.5 percentage points in total interest rate discounts through its incentive programs. You can also request a one-time 2% reduction in your remaining loan balance after earning a bachelor’s degree or higher. 
• Extended grace period: All borrowers get a 6-month grace period before payments begin, and some may qualify for an additional 6 months for a total 12-month grace period.

Cons of borrowing with Abe

• Not available in every state: Abe loans aren’t currently offered in Connecticut, Maine, Nebraska, Texas, or West Virginia.
• No access to federal benefits: Because Abe is a private lender, you won’t qualify for federal repayment options like income-driven repayment, student loan forgiveness, or extended forbearance.
• No multi-year approval: You’ll need to reapply for financing each academic year, since Abe doesn’t offer multi-year loan approval.

Eligibility requirements 

Students must meet the following Abe loan eligibility requirements to apply:

• Age: You must be at least 17 years old or the legal age of majority in your state at the time of application.
• Credit score: You or your cosigner must have a minimum FICO score of 660.
• Income: You must report some annual income, even as little as $1. This applies to student-only applications and to cosigners on joint applications.
• Citizenship status: U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible. DACA recipients and international students can also apply, but must have a qualifying cosigner.
• Academic program: You must be enrolled in a degree-granting program at an eligible school. Less-than-half-time enrollment is allowed.
• Loan amount: You can borrow between $1,000 and your school-certified cost of attendance, minus other financial aid. The aggregate loan limit is $225,000, or up to $350,000 if you're in an advanced degree program.

Repayment

Abe offers five repayment terms — five, seven, 10, 15, or 20 years — giving you flexibility to choose a timeline that fits your budget. You’ll also have four in-school repayment options to help manage your loan while you’re still enrolled:

• Full in-school payments: Start making full monthly payments as soon as your loan is disbursed, even while you're in school. 
• Interest-only payments: Pay only the interest each month to avoid interest capitalization and reduce your total borrowing cost.
• Flat payments: If you borrow $5,000 or more, you can make fixed $25 monthly payments while in school.
• Full deferment: You can postpone all payments until 6 months after leaving school by choosing Abe’s full deferment option.

Notable benefits 

Abe offers several borrower-focused perks that can help lower your costs and provide added flexibility:

• Rate discounts: You can receive a 0.25 percentage point interest rate discount by signing up for automatic payments. On top of that, Abe automatically reduces your rate by 0.05 percentage points for every 6 consecutive full monthly payments, up to an additional 0.25 percentage points. In total, you could lower your Abe student loan interest rate by as much as 0.5 percentage points. 
• Grace period extension: Most borrowers can request an additional 6-month grace period after graduation, extending the total grace period to 12 months. 
• Grad reward: If you’ve earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, you can request a one-time 2% reduction of your remaining loan balance.
• Flexible enrollment options: Abe loans are available to full-time and less-than-half-time students, including those pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees or certificate programs. 

What to consider before borrowing with Abe

Before turning to a private loan like Abe, make sure you’ve exhausted all other financial aid options. Scholarships, grants, and federal student loans should be your first stop. Federal loans offer benefits and protections that private lenders can’t match, including low-starting interest rates, income-driven repayment plans, and loan forgiveness programs.

While Abe offers several borrower benefits that can help reduce your overall costs, you’ll need to meet specific eligibility requirements to qualify. And because Abe doesn’t lend in every state, it may not be an option depending on where you live.

How Abe compares to other lenders

Current private student loan rates

How to apply for an Abe student loan

Applying for an Abe student loan is quick and can be done entirely online. Here’s how the student loan application process works:

1. Gather your application details: You’ll need basic details for you and your cosigner (if applicable), including your date of birth, Social Security number, contact information, school name, grade level, estimated graduation date, annual income, and the amount you want to borrow.
2. Check your rate: Use Abe’s online prequalification tool to see your estimated interest rate without affecting your credit.
3. Submit an application: If you qualify for a loan and want to move forward, complete the full application. You may be asked to upload documents like pay stubs or tax returns.
4. Select your loan options: If you’re approved, choose your loan details, including your preferred repayment option.
5. Sign the loan agreement: Review the loan’s details and repayment terms, and read the fine print. Then, sign the loan agreement to accept the loan and schedule disbursement. 

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 Abe’s lender rating, Credible collected more than 1,000 points of data on two dozen private student loan 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 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.

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