Author Topic: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi  (Read 135557 times)

djballer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #100 on: July 07, 2016, 10:58:22 PM »
My experience with DRB

I graduated in May 2015 and started working in August. I had about $215k in total loans with an average of 5.8%. This included a mix of federal and private loans. I applied to both SOFI and DRB. SOFI offered me 4.99% fixed for 5 years and ~3.6 variable rate, while DRB offered a variable rate of 3.22% and 4.5% fixed for 10 years. I went with DRB's variable rate, which is based on the 3 month Libor. I refinanced 171k in December. My credit score when i refinanced was 812. Even though my rate is considerably low, I am always on the lookout for lower rates. First Republic Bank has the best rates out there. If you are local to one of their branches, definitely look into it. They offer fixed rates as low as 1.95%. My current variable rate is 3.61. The 3 month LIBOR rate as been going up since i refinanced. I will probably try to refinance again once I make a significant balance on the amount owed.

I recommend applying to multiple lenders at the same time and the going with the lender with the better term.

July 2018 edit: refinanced with LendKey and now have a fixed rate of 3.15%. See my referral links below.


referral links

LendKey
https://mbsy.co/lendkey/Dimeji

Earnest
https://www.earnest.com/invite/dimeji

SOFI
https://www.sofi.com/share/827076

CommonBond
https://commonbond.co/?referrer=5a0422c5238f5c4e0984f2f40d2d4f58&referred
« Last Edit: July 10, 2018, 11:10:14 AM by djballer »

dtodas2000

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #101 on: January 30, 2017, 01:58:13 PM »

I processed my student loan refinance through Earnest. The process was quick, and simple. Customer support is just a call away, and always very helpful. They compete mainly with SoFi, which i applied as well. Overall i have to say the experience was better going through the process with Earnest. If by any chance you decide on Earnest, by using my Earnest referral link:

https://www.earnest.com/invite/daniel3316

You can get a bonus of $200 dlls. It is a nice way to start paying off those student loans.

When you share your personal referral link with your friends and family, you'll each get $200 when they refinance with Earnest.

seventytimes7

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #102 on: January 30, 2017, 03:44:47 PM »
I've been looking at SoFi for a while now and have lots of friends who highly recommend it. I have high interest rates (6.55 on some and 5.16 on more), but I've budgeted to pay off all of the loans within 2 years. SoFi is offering a variable rate of 3.865, which is good but worrisome with the idea of three rate hikes anticipated in 2017.

The savings is around $1400 including the MMM referral. I get that $1400 is not chump change, but I guess my hesitation is that SoFi does not have as good as a program as FedLoan. Does SoFi  have the ability to adjust if unemployment or underemployment occurs? From my understanding they have some unemployment protection, but only for 12 months aggregate.

Any notion on whether the $1400 is worth that small peace of mind? Anyone used the SoFi unemployment protection?

TrulyStashin

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #103 on: February 03, 2017, 09:59:09 AM »
I've been looking at SoFi for a while now and have lots of friends who highly recommend it. I have high interest rates (6.55 on some and 5.16 on more), but I've budgeted to pay off all of the loans within 2 years. SoFi is offering a variable rate of 3.865, which is good but worrisome with the idea of three rate hikes anticipated in 2017.

The savings is around $1400 including the MMM referral. I get that $1400 is not chump change, but I guess my hesitation is that SoFi does not have as good as a program as FedLoan. Does SoFi  have the ability to adjust if unemployment or underemployment occurs? From my understanding they have some unemployment protection, but only for 12 months aggregate.

Any notion on whether the $1400 is worth that small peace of mind? Anyone used the SoFi unemployment protection?

When I left steady employment at a big law firm in September of 2015, SoFi gave me 6 months of payment abeyance.  They would have allowed me to make no payments at all, but I elected to continue paying the interest so I didn't backslide on principal owed during that 6 month window.  They were absolutely great to work with and I owe then a mortgage-worth! 

I have the adjustable rate loan (10 year term) and thanks to rate hikes my monthly payment has gone from $1702 to $1718.00.   My interest was 4.1% and is currently 4.78 (it just went up).  Which, IMHO, still beats the pants off the 6.9 and 7.8 I was paying for federal student loans.

YMMV

Dicey

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #104 on: February 04, 2017, 02:27:36 PM »
I don't watch TV much, but happened to be somewhere when one was on. Saw a commercial for So-FI(!). Later, another one. Are they loosening up a bit? Anyone know?

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #105 on: February 21, 2017, 02:55:11 PM »
I'm done!!! I've paid them off.  Today is the day my payments normally came out.  It's amazing.  I would never have paid them all off by now without getting a better interest rate.

Dicey

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #106 on: June 12, 2017, 11:10:55 PM »
Looks Ike this thread went cold without a single Huzzah! for Blond Lawyer. So sorry your milestone was, IMO, insufficiently acknowledged. Cheers to you and your clean slate!

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #107 on: June 13, 2017, 01:41:06 PM »
Looks Ike this thread went cold without a single Huzzah! for Blond Lawyer. So sorry your milestone was, IMO, insufficiently acknowledged. Cheers to you and your clean slate!

Thanks! I know it is an old thread so I wasn't insulted. 

Dicey

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #108 on: June 13, 2017, 06:31:22 PM »
You still deserve kudos, Blonde Lawyer! Hip hip, hooray!

arebelspy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #109 on: June 14, 2017, 06:37:01 PM »
+1 to Dicey. Way to go, BL!
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

$200k

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #110 on: June 16, 2017, 05:53:37 PM »
Great job BL!

It's funny how many law school loans are on this thread.  I'm in the same boat.

I refi'd about $191K through Earnest and was really happy with the process (~3.80%).  After I completed my refi, I did some comparison shopping, and found out that SoFi could beat the rate by a healthy margin.  Earnest was good enough to match their rate.

That was about a year ago.  My Earnest rate has crept up to 4.13%.  I recently got an offer from SoFi to refinance at about 3.95%, and they are offering an additional incentive of .125% reduction.  I doubt Earnest will match .25% reduction, but you never know.  I doubt they want to lose me to their biggest competitor.

Anyhow, I'm likely to move over the SoFi.  Since no points are paid, it's a purely math right? 

arebelspy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #111 on: June 16, 2017, 06:18:19 PM »
Anyhow, I'm likely to move over the SoFi.  Since no points are paid, it's a purely math right?

Yep!

Even if points are paid, it's purely math (the math just becomes a lot simpler without, just comparing rates).

Aside from any value on your time of getting it done. But at your loan balance, seems worth it.  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #112 on: June 19, 2017, 10:47:13 AM »
Great job BL!

It's funny how many law school loans are on this thread.  I'm in the same boat.

I refi'd about $191K through Earnest and was really happy with the process (~3.80%).  After I completed my refi, I did some comparison shopping, and found out that SoFi could beat the rate by a healthy margin.  Earnest was good enough to match their rate.

That was about a year ago.  My Earnest rate has crept up to 4.13%.  I recently got an offer from SoFi to refinance at about 3.95%, and they are offering an additional incentive of .125% reduction.  I doubt Earnest will match .25% reduction, but you never know.  I doubt they want to lose me to their biggest competitor.

Anyhow, I'm likely to move over the SoFi.  Since no points are paid, it's a purely math right?

I'd say it is just math but also remember that you are resetting the clock on your 5/10/15 years to pay the loans off.  If you re-fi, you should figure out how much extra to put towards the loans so that you aren't extending your repayment years and year, unless that is part of your plan. 

djballer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #113 on: June 19, 2017, 10:45:23 PM »
I currently have a 113k loan at 2.75% variable [15 year loan @ ~$800 monthly].
I was just approved for 2.40% variable from another bank [7-year loan @ ~$1450 monthly] OR
3.85% fixed to be paid off in 7 years ($1535 monthly)

Is it wise to stay with the variable option or go fixed rate. Do you foresee rates on the variable loans exceeding the fixed rate in 3 years? I should have these paid in 5 years. Thanks!

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #114 on: June 20, 2017, 09:02:06 AM »
I currently have a 113k loan at 2.75% variable [15 year loan @ ~$800 monthly].
I was just approved for 2.40% variable from another bank [7-year loan @ ~$1450 monthly] OR
3.85% fixed to be paid off in 7 years ($1535 monthly)

Is it wise to stay with the variable option or go fixed rate. Do you foresee rates on the variable loans exceeding the fixed rate in 3 years? I should have these paid in 5 years. Thanks!

That's a phenomenal fixed rate.  I went with the fixed rate because I am risk averse.  I found more people here went with the variable rate.  I have no idea whether rates will go up or not but I can't imagine they would go much lower.

djballer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #115 on: June 20, 2017, 08:35:36 PM »
Thanks BL.
I am leaning towards the fixed rate. I have a feeling rates will continue rising but just not sure how fast it will rise. I can pay off the loan in the next few years but I'm trying to balance debt repayment vs. investing.

$200k

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #116 on: June 27, 2017, 01:32:36 PM »
Thanks BL.
I am leaning towards the fixed rate. I have a feeling rates will continue rising but just not sure how fast it will rise. I can pay off the loan in the next few years but I'm trying to balance debt repayment vs. investing.

Just adding a data point here.  My variable rate at Earnest jumped from 4.13% to 4.31%  Yikes!  Biggest jump I've seen so far.  I may need to reconsider the fixed vs. variable rate when I refi with Sofi. 

LawyertilRetire

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with SoFi
« Reply #117 on: August 02, 2017, 03:33:30 PM »
The fixed versus variable interest rate question when refinancing student loans is one of several important decisions a borrower must make when considering to refinance student loans (the others being whether to refinance at all and term length). When I refinanced my loans with SoFi, I considered three factors when deciding on the fixed versus variable question:  (1) planned payoff timing, (2) my risk tolerance in a rising interest rate environment, and (3) the spread between the fixed and variable rates.

If you are going to be aggressive in paying off loans, meaning that you are planning to pay more than is required each month in an attempt to eliminate the debt as quickly as possible, taking the lower interest rate offered by a variable refi may be worth it, because there will be less money paid toward interest and more money every month going toward principal. If you believe that interest rates are going to skyrocket in the next X years, a fixed rate may be a better choice (and vice versa). And if the spread between interest rates is large or small enough, it may sway your preference for one type of loan over another.

As someone who graduated law school with just under 100k in student loan debt, I understand how much interest accrues on student loans. When I refinanced, the first time, I reduced my effective interest rate (due to auto debit reductions) from 6.55% to 3.99%. That saved me thousands of dollars in interest. I planned to pay down my loans as quickly as possible, as I had been doing, but I also knew that I would have other savings priorities (buying a house) while I was paying off my loans. I also thought that interest rates might climb in the couple of years I would be paying back by refinanced loans so I hedged and went with a shorter team loan (five years) to get the best rates but a fixed rate at 4.24% (effective 3.99%). I don't remember the specific numbers about the interest rate spread but the spread didn't sway me one way or the other.

I'm glad I refinanced my student loans with SoFi -- I actually did it twice because there are no costs to the refi and after buying the house I wanted a lower monthly payment (interest rate stayed the same) in case I needed to stop aggressively paying off my loans. I am now approaching one year without student loan debt and I saved close to $3,000 by refinancing my student loans to a lower interest rate with SoFi.

SoFi made the process very easy and I'm happy I chose them over other lenders. If you are interested in refinancing your student loans with SoFi, feel free to use my referral link and you will get $100 for refinancing with them: sofi.com/share/5838



denverbrandy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #118 on: December 13, 2019, 03:38:30 PM »
I really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences on this thread, after reading a few other sources and forums I finally just refinanced my student loans! For over 5 years I've been carrying over $100k in loans with interest rates ranging from 4.25% - 8.5%. The 8.5% loan was a private loan, which I paid off last month (I prefer the avalanche method over snowball - it seems to me snowball only makes sense if you're struggling with motivation to keep paying as much as you can into the loans, which I don't struggle with – I am very motivated to crush this debt!!).

That left me with just over $92k in loans remaining, all federal, with a weighted average rate of 6.25%. My credit score is 791 and I have a 6-figure income, but from a lender's perspective I probably still look risky because of my debt to income ratio (I have a pretty large mortgage, along with the student loans and a car loan, and I have an alimony payment too). I checked out rates on Credible, and then a week ago I submitted applications to SoFi, CommonBond, LendKey, and Earnest. After reading so much about SoFi on MMM and in the forums, I figured I'd probably go with SoFi, but I wanted to do my due diligence and apply to the others too. I'm glad I did, because here are the fixed rates they all offered for a 7 year payoff:

SoFi: monthly payment $1214.31, interest rate 4.438%
CommonBond: $1208.32, 4.54%
LendKey: $1235.49, 5.10%
Earnest: $1201.55, 4.28%

So I finalized the agreement with Earnest, and had them take over all of my loans except one, the one with a slightly lower rate at 4.25%. Those points add up, after all.

The application process with all of the lenders was super smooth, overall I think I'd be happy working with any of these companies if they offered the best rate (and I intend to check again every 6-9 months from now on). One detail worth noting is that CommonBond took 6 days to review and approve my application, which seemed like a long time. The other lenders all gave approval within hours, and I signed the agreement with Earnest by the end of the day, same day I submitted my application.

I used @djballer's referral link, and if anybody wants to use mine, please do! I would really appreciate it!

Earnest referral link: https://www.earnest.com/invite/brandy567 (we each get $200)
SoFi referral link: sofi.com/share/2794324
CommonBond referral link: https://commonbond.co/?referrer=sHf10eGsCACP9ebS6Z5C9C5H1UW_W5vtkP4Sa102hSK2lcOlHaPpAV6VUKjWVOi5
« Last Edit: December 13, 2019, 03:42:39 PM by denverbrandy »

djballer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #119 on: December 14, 2019, 07:48:36 AM »
I’m very grateful you used my referral link! I made the post 2 years ago when my loan balance was $113k. It’s now down to $64k. I’ve been very aggressive. I’ve also refinanced two more times since then and also collected $800 in total bonuses. Thanks again.

denverbrandy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #120 on: December 18, 2019, 09:38:18 AM »
@djballer You're welcome! Congratulations on tackling that debt, you've made awesome progress 💥 Do you have any advice on how often to refi student loans? I've heard it's worth checking rates every 6-9 months, but if you've refinanced twice in 2 years it sounds like your schedule is more like every 9-12 months. Any particular reason for that?

djballer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #121 on: December 29, 2019, 10:11:55 AM »
@denverbrandy,
My last refinance (8/19) was actually to reduce my monthly payment (from ~$1700 to $700, from a 5 to a 10 year installment). In so doing my rate increased from 3.15% fixed to 3.95% fixed. I needed the flexibility just in case of a job loss or other unforeseen events. Before that I had a 3.85% fixed rate. I still plan to pay off in <5 years. I just feel better knowing I can pay less if needed.

I suggest you always be on the lookout for lower rates and refinance when you have the opportunity. The only downside is its (slight) effect on your credit score(hard inquires and average age of credit accounts). If you have a 800+ credit score, or you don't plan on using credit in the next two years, you shouldn't worry about it. The goal is to save on interest.

When I graduated in 2015 with 225k, I was paying $1500+/month in interest. Now that the balance is in the low 60k's, I can stomach the ~$200/month in interest. I am also focusing more on savings/ investing.


 

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