Author Topic: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi  (Read 135556 times)

glkman

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #50 on: May 05, 2015, 10:04:21 AM »
I recently refinanced my student loans with Sofi and was very pleased with the process. It took about 2 weeks and everything went pretty smooth. I would definitely recommend them. Also, use someone's link so you can get the referral bonus and they can as well.  https://www.sofi.com/refer/5/15781

alisonw7

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #51 on: May 10, 2015, 06:42:19 PM »
I was skeptical about refinancing my student loans because I always assumed it would be a difficult process that would end up not saving me much money. However, I decided to try Sofi and was very impressed! The process was all online and very easy to follow. I am saving about 2% in interest and was able to consolidate all of my loans.

If you're interested in applying, use my referral link and get $100!
https://www.sofi.com/refer/5/8279

Enjoy!

kpd905

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #52 on: May 13, 2015, 06:55:13 PM »
^ Glad to see it worked out well for both of you.

ApeSays

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #53 on: May 20, 2015, 03:07:45 PM »
Hi guys!  Anyone have any luck with refinancing University of Phoenix loans?  SoFi is a no.  :(

kpd905

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #54 on: May 20, 2015, 05:13:42 PM »
Hi guys!  Anyone have any luck with refinancing University of Phoenix loans?  SoFi is a no.  :(

Here is an article talking about a few more places: https://studentloanhero.com/featured/5-banks-to-refinance-your-student-loans/

Hopefully one of them lets you refi with them, good luck!

ApeSays

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #55 on: May 21, 2015, 06:27:40 AM »
Hi guys!  Anyone have any luck with refinancing University of Phoenix loans?  SoFi is a no.  :(

Here is an article talking about a few more places: https://studentloanhero.com/featured/5-banks-to-refinance-your-student-loans/

Hopefully one of them lets you refi with them, good luck!

Sweet!  Thanks!  Signed up for Earnest and have a message out to Citizen's.  Crossing my fingers!  This 6.25% is just painful and rude.

kpd905

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #56 on: May 30, 2015, 12:35:46 PM »

Sweet!  Thanks!  Signed up for Earnest and have a message out to Citizen's.  Crossing my fingers!  This 6.25% is just painful and rude.

ApeSays, any luck?

Tremeroy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #57 on: July 31, 2015, 01:36:34 PM »

Sweet!  Thanks!  Signed up for Earnest and have a message out to Citizen's.  Crossing my fingers!  This 6.25% is just painful and rude.

I looked at SoFi, but I was denied. SoFi will only refinance law-school loans if the applicant has taken (& passed) a bar exam.

Instead, I tried out Earnest. The application process was interesting—the company wanted to connect to my LinkedIn account & my financial accounts. Since I was paying 6.62% on my existing student loans, I gave them a shot. Overall, I was pleased at the 2-day turnaround & I was pleased that Earnest seems to put considerable weight on balance-sheet assets. i.e. The company gave me "credit" for all of my retirement savings during its underwriting process. Earnest didn't want to see any household (read: wife's) income or tax returns; it only looked at my personal assets & income.

After getting my approval, I was presented with a sliding bar that let me choose an initial monthly payment amount. Beneath, it summarized what a Floating & a Fixed rate option would look like, given the selected monthly payment. I thought that was a pretty neat touch. My wife & I decided to maintain our existing payment level, but switching to a floating rate. This let me shave about 4 years off of the scheduled repayment. Of course, I am hopeful that I'll pay off sooner!

Overall, I was very pleased with the process. For anyone who doesn't fit into SoFi's "box," I would encourage you to take a look at Earnest. If you're interested in learning more, I would be happy to share details.

Of course, Earnest does have a referral program ($200 to me per referral, unfortunately nothing to the applicant =\ ). I couldn't find someone else's link on MMM, or else I would've used it. If anyone wants to apply, here is my link: http://bit.ly/1eHjggV

forummm

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #58 on: July 31, 2015, 02:08:39 PM »
Anyone know what SoFi's max debt to income ratio is? Or if there's another refi provider that will accept a 52% DTI?

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #59 on: July 31, 2015, 02:30:19 PM »
Anyone know what SoFi's max debt to income ratio is? Or if there's another refi provider that will accept a 52% DTI?

Do you mean your monthly payment to income ratio or overall debt to income ratio?

I don't think overall DTI is the issue for SoFi unless they changed their standards.  When I did my refi I owed just over $70k on the loans I was refinancing, another $5k from undergrad and was making $85k. I'm also a joint borrower on an over $200k mortgage and I don't think I had yet sold my prior property so I likely had another $150k mortgage in my name (joint).

wintertell

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #60 on: July 31, 2015, 03:19:09 PM »
Hi all --  I am considering refinancing my loans. 

I have 109K in student loans and 51K gross in income. Been paying on the balance less than a year as I graduated in 2014. My monthly DTI ratio is about 52% if you count 1250/2400 under the standard plan. Right now I'm on IBR and my payments are $570/2400 or 24% as of this month.

Not eligible for Common Bond.

Rejected by Sofi. I was rejected for "Excessive obligations relative to income."

Any recommendations for places to try?

To be honest I'm not convinced that switching from federal to private is worth the risk. But I have a 44K loan at 7.65% that I would like to lower and am considering options.

kpd905

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #61 on: July 31, 2015, 07:06:20 PM »

onecoolcat

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #62 on: July 31, 2015, 07:54:54 PM »
Hi all --  I am considering refinancing my loans. 

I have 109K in student loans and 51K gross in income. Been paying on the balance less than a year as I graduated in 2014. My monthly DTI ratio is about 52% if you count 1250/2400 under the standard plan. Right now I'm on IBR and my payments are $570/2400 or 24% as of this month.

Not eligible for Common Bond.

Rejected by Sofi. I was rejected for "Excessive obligations relative to income."

Any recommendations for places to try?

To be honest I'm not convinced that switching from federal to private is worth the risk. But I have a 44K loan at 7.65% that I would like to lower and am considering options.

You can try DRB but you should assess whether refinancing is in your best interest since you are on IBR.  I think it probably is if you expect any sort of raise down the line but you are pretty close to that grey area.

forummm

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #63 on: August 01, 2015, 07:12:47 AM »
Hi all --  I am considering refinancing my loans. 

I have 109K in student loans and 51K gross in income. Been paying on the balance less than a year as I graduated in 2014. My monthly DTI ratio is about 52% if you count 1250/2400 under the standard plan. Right now I'm on IBR and my payments are $570/2400 or 24% as of this month.

Not eligible for Common Bond.

Rejected by Sofi. I was rejected for "Excessive obligations relative to income."

Any recommendations for places to try?

To be honest I'm not convinced that switching from federal to private is worth the risk. But I have a 44K loan at 7.65% that I would like to lower and am considering options.

You can try DRB but you should assess whether refinancing is in your best interest since you are on IBR.  I think it probably is if you expect any sort of raise down the line but you are pretty close to that grey area.

Wintertell has really high interest debt and is trying to refi to save on interest. It could save her thousands of dollars just going from 7.65% to something more reasonable like 4 or 5%. She can handle higher payments.

Tremeroy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #64 on: August 01, 2015, 08:48:02 AM »
You can try DRB but you should assess whether refinancing is in your best interest since you are on IBR.  I think it probably is if you expect any sort of raise down the line but you are pretty close to that grey area.

I agree with forummm—the high interest rate is not going to go away because of the Income-based-repayment period. Get that interest rate down as quickly as you can! =)

wintertell

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #65 on: August 02, 2015, 01:13:22 PM »
What kind of reputation does DRB (https://student.drbank.com/?provider=slh&utm_source=SLH_002_AA_1436558037279) have? Thus far no one on this forum hasn't mentioned using them and their experience, so would love to get some input!

Forummm is right, I can handle the payments -- we've been paying between 1.5/2K steadily each month. I'm on IBR right now to optimize put my extra on the highest loan.

tvan

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My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #66 on: August 02, 2015, 02:41:18 PM »
I tried going through DRB's app process and it was significantly more tedious than other places. To the point I gave up during it. They seemed to want a cosignor no matter what that didn't live at your own address. I'm not going to ask my retired parents to cosign anything.

I've been working through all these places to try and refinance a 6.55% 40k loan and thus far meet earnest is offering the lowest rate with the least amount of headaches. I haven't yet pulled the trigger though.

onecoolcat

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #67 on: August 05, 2015, 05:15:22 PM »
I tried going through DRB's app process and it was significantly more tedious than other places. To the point I gave up during it. They seemed to want a cosignor no matter what that didn't live at your own address. I'm not going to ask my retired parents to cosign anything.

I've been working through all these places to try and refinance a 6.55% 40k loan and thus far meet earnest is offering the lowest rate with the least amount of headaches. I haven't yet pulled the trigger though.

I had a similar experience with DRB.  They had a lot of requirements and never failed to find a way to reject my application as incomplete.  I tried twice and spent way too much time getting everything submitted but they rejected my application for some bogus reason, unable to confirm my identity, even though I submitted everything they wanted (actually submitted every document they requested as an alternative and still got denied on that basis.  It didn't sense to me and I just accepted sofi's offer rather than try a third time.  That said, this was nearly a year ago, so I would definitely apply with them because they may have improved their review process.

NextTime

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #68 on: August 10, 2015, 02:44:54 PM »
Hi all.

I was wondering whether I can refinance my wife's student loans using my credit history.  She just graduated and started her job and doesn't have much of a credit history (besides the student loans).

Mine is over 800.  Does anyone know if this is possible?

Also is there a way to combine our credit so she gets the benefit of my credit history?

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #69 on: August 10, 2015, 03:59:35 PM »
I think you would have to co-sign for that.

forummm

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #70 on: August 10, 2015, 04:53:26 PM »
Hi all.

I was wondering whether I can refinance my wife's student loans using my credit history.  She just graduated and started her job and doesn't have much of a credit history (besides the student loans).

Mine is over 800.  Does anyone know if this is possible?

Also is there a way to combine our credit so she gets the benefit of my credit history?

You can definitely co-sign on the refi to improve her chances of getting the refi. If she dies or divorces you, then the debt becomes your responsibility too. Just be aware of that.

You can't give her your credit history exactly. But you can make her a co-owner or authorized user on your credit accounts and that should help her inherit history for those accounts.

NextTime

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #71 on: August 11, 2015, 09:15:54 AM »
Thank you.

I will start the process and see what happens.

ShortStuff

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #72 on: September 16, 2015, 12:44:48 PM »
I'm currently with MyFedLoan and have the classic 6.5% interest rate. I applied to SoFi through money mustache link today. Unfortunately SoFi would only offer me 15-year or 20-year on my $48k loan based on my mid 50k income.  I have NO desire to acquire such a long loan term, especially when we're trying to pay it off ASAP.  The issue is that FedLoan factors in a spouse's income because we file taxes jointly, but SoFi will only factor in a spouse's income if they are a co-signer.  Well exposing my spouse to my loan liability (when he's not a co-signer now) just to get a lower interest rate is not something I feel comfortable doing. A real shame as I wanted to get that lower interest rate! 

Dicey

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #73 on: September 16, 2015, 01:13:27 PM »
I got an email today saying that my interest rate went up on my loans.  I immediately started regretting getting variable rate loans, basically panicking and wondering if I should take money out of my emergency fund to pay a bunch off.

Logged in and saw it increased by 0.01%.  Crisis averted.
LOL! Good one.

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #74 on: September 16, 2015, 03:55:47 PM »
I'm currently with MyFedLoan and have the classic 6.5% interest rate. I applied to SoFi through money mustache link today. Unfortunately SoFi would only offer me 15-year or 20-year on my $48k loan based on my mid 50k income.  I have NO desire to acquire such a long loan term, especially when we're trying to pay it off ASAP.  The issue is that FedLoan factors in a spouse's income because we file taxes jointly, but SoFi will only factor in a spouse's income if they are a co-signer.  Well exposing my spouse to my loan liability (when he's not a co-signer now) just to get a lower interest rate is not something I feel comfortable doing. A real shame as I wanted to get that lower interest rate!

There is no early payoff penalty.  If you have the discipline, you could take the long-term loan to get the lower interest rate and then keep paying what you are paying now plus whatever extra payments you want to pay it off in 5 or 10 years. 

ShortStuff

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #75 on: September 17, 2015, 11:03:12 AM »
This is true, and I could do the early payoff, but the interest rates offered by SoFi were not that great for the 15 or 20 yr loan (Fixed 15-yr, 6.125%, 20-yr 6.375%). 

My next step is to apply with Earnest.  After submitting my info, Earnest is showing a better offer (Variable rates of 5 Years at 2.88%, 10 Years at 3.15%, and Fixed at 5 yrs 4.62% and 10 yr at 4.99%.) They also factor in your retirement accounts, and personal savings to determine the rate, not just looking at income. 

We'll see how it goes!

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #76 on: September 17, 2015, 12:08:51 PM »
This is true, and I could do the early payoff, but the interest rates offered by SoFi were not that great for the 15 or 20 yr loan (Fixed 15-yr, 6.125%, 20-yr 6.375%). 

My next step is to apply with Earnest.  After submitting my info, Earnest is showing a better offer (Variable rates of 5 Years at 2.88%, 10 Years at 3.15%, and Fixed at 5 yrs 4.62% and 10 yr at 4.99%.) They also factor in your retirement accounts, and personal savings to determine the rate, not just looking at income. 

We'll see how it goes!

Nice! Good luck!

ShortStuff

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #77 on: September 17, 2015, 12:31:41 PM »
Thanks. Will try to update on here if the refinance goes through with any company.  FYI, fellow lawyer here although a government one, hence the lower salary. :)

wintertell

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #78 on: September 17, 2015, 05:43:22 PM »
Hey Shortstuff -- I have a 50K income with quite a load of student loans, but was able to refinance my biggest loan with a balance of 44K through Earnest with a 3.35% variable interest rate (including auto pay). If you don't get through with all of your student loans, try refinancing just a portion. Got rejected by SoFi and CommonBond before Earnest accepted me.

francophile

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #79 on: September 29, 2015, 03:22:06 PM »
Thank you all for this thread! I was researching SoFi and have been a longtime MMM reader. Though I've been trying to have and dig myself out of debt, the interest rates were really depressing and I felt like my progress has been slow.

First I got my boyfriend who has about 100k in loans, some of which had interest rates of 7-8%, to try out SoFi. He applied for a refi that will cover about 1/3rd of his loans (the rest have rates lower than SoFi's offerings). They approved him and he took a rate of approximately 5% fixed. It will ultimately save him thousands and his loan will be paid more quickly as well.

I got the courage to apply a week ago and was amazed how fast I was approved. My remaining student loan debt of $14k was through Navient and I was paying about 6.4% in interest after my autopay discount. I took SoFi's offer of 3.825% variable on a 5 year loan. I plan to have it paid off even sooner.

I have also struggled with consumer debt for various life reasons during college and after, and have about 11k on a card that has a painful 17.9% interest rate. Was just preapproved for a 6.8% variable rate on a $10.9k, 5 year personal loan from Sofi and hoping that goes through quickly as well. So far it's been a great experience and I feel closer to getting out of debt finally and beefing up my 401k, then other investments and savings. I'm far from FI but motivated as ever.

Posting my SoFi referral link, if anyone would like the $100 bonus:

For student loans: https://www.sofi.com/refer/5/55548

For personal loans: https://www.sofi.com/refer/148/55548

ShortStuff

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #80 on: October 07, 2015, 11:43:16 AM »
Hey Shortstuff -- I have a 50K income with quite a load of student loans, but was able to refinance my biggest loan with a balance of 44K through Earnest with a 3.35% variable interest rate (including auto pay). If you don't get through with all of your student loans, try refinancing just a portion. Got rejected by SoFi and CommonBond before Earnest accepted me.
Thanks Wintertell.  I applied to Earnest. Application process was easy enough. Had to input a bunch of information but it was quite straightforward.  I got accepted yesterday to refinance my $46k loan for a 2.95% adjustable or 4.76% fixed rate!  I'm pleased.  I am going with Earnest, and selecting the fixed rate simply because we might be a single income family in the future if we have a child and are concerned that when the adj rate increases a couple years down the road, it would impact us more severely if we had the 1 income.  But otherwise I would have chosen that adjustable rate.  If one refinance company doesn't work, I encourage others to try another one.

Tremeroy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #81 on: October 07, 2015, 01:59:33 PM »
I am going with Earnest, and selecting the fixed rate simply because we might be a single income family in the future if we have a child and are concerned that when the adj rate increases a couple years down the road, it would impact us more severely if we had the 1 income.

ShortStuff—when I was accepted by Earnest, they told me that every 6 months you'll have the option to resize your payment and/or switch between variable & fixed rate. If you are planning on paying the loan more aggressively than the minimum, it might make sense to do a period of floating rate so that you can allocate even more to paying down principal.

That said, if you expect to pay on a slow schedule, this is probably the best time to lock in a long-term fixed rate.

NextTime

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #82 on: October 20, 2015, 07:42:38 AM »
In the process of refinancing my wife's student loans with Sofi. I had to cosign to get a decent rate since she is a foreigner and doesn't have much credit.

Took the 10 year (will pay it off in 2) 2.7% variable rate. For some reason the 7 year rate was higher than the 10. That's almost a 4% drop from the 6.55% we have been paying.

For those wondering how the variable rates work, they are tied to the 1 month LIBOR rate. You basically have a fixed rate, mine is 2.5%, and then the 1-month LIBOR rate is added to it, which is currently around 0.2%. Since it's based on the 1-month rate, your payment can change every month.

See historical rates here:
http://www.moneycafe.com/personal-finance/1-month-libor/


I had forgotten to go through a referral link, but I called and was able to get them to apply the MMM referral to my account and can see a $300 welcome bonus on the account. It was very simple. I just gave them the URL for the referral link and they applied it.



The refi is still in progress though. How much time did it take most of you for everything to go through?

wintertell

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #83 on: October 20, 2015, 07:32:11 PM »
Hey Shortstuff -- I have a 50K income with quite a load of student loans, but was able to refinance my biggest loan with a balance of 44K through Earnest with a 3.35% variable interest rate (including auto pay). If you don't get through with all of your student loans, try refinancing just a portion. Got rejected by SoFi and CommonBond before Earnest accepted me.
Thanks Wintertell.  I applied to Earnest. Application process was easy enough. Had to input a bunch of information but it was quite straightforward.  I got accepted yesterday to refinance my $46k loan for a 2.95% adjustable or 4.76% fixed rate!  I'm pleased.  I am going with Earnest, and selecting the fixed rate simply because we might be a single income family in the future if we have a child and are concerned that when the adj rate increases a couple years down the road, it would impact us more severely if we had the 1 income.  But otherwise I would have chosen that adjustable rate.  If one refinance company doesn't work, I encourage others to try another one.

Congrats! That is a killer rate for a fixed loan. My fixed loan rate wasn't that low, so I went with the variable. Hopefully the LIBOR will raise slow enough so I can pay it off before it adjusts to the fixed rate I would have gotten.

beef

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #84 on: October 30, 2015, 01:04:11 PM »
Just jumping in with my $0.02. I was a bit skeptical of SoFi at first, but it ended up being a pretty painless and (gasp!) pleasant process. Did mine almost exactly a year ago, hence the fuzzy details.

I had numerous law school loans ranging from about 2% to 7% interest. I decided to refi a large majority of them - basically those having interest rates above 3% or so. The process was very smooth, even considering Navient was being a pain. SoFi took care of most of that mess. Ended up taking a 10 year variable rate at about 3%/2.8% (with AutoPay). Think the rates are lower now? Repayment currently serviced through Mohela, which has been fine. Would definitely recommend SoFi for anyone that can get approved and has higher interest rate loans out there. Time from application to funding was astonishingly quick -- a little over a week? One tiny "gotcha" - SoFi wouldn't consolidate a private bar loan I had (these are commonly taken out by recent grads needing to pay for bar study/room/board after law school). Not a dealbreaker for me, though.

[edited to remove my referral links - apparently SoFi doesn't appreciate them being posted on public forums, per http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/official-sofi-student-loan-refi-referral-thread/ ]
« Last Edit: February 04, 2016, 01:23:21 PM by bfl »

NextTime

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #85 on: December 16, 2015, 10:59:37 AM »
Can anyone tell me how long it takes to get the $300 welcome bonus? And do they apply it to your loan or just send a check?

I've made the first payment and it is still showing pending. Just wondering when it will show up.

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #86 on: December 16, 2015, 07:45:51 PM »
They send you a check / direct deposit.  I get referral bonuses and they usually deposit once/month.

onecoolcat

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #87 on: December 17, 2015, 05:48:47 PM »
Hi all --  I am considering refinancing my loans. 

I have 109K in student loans and 51K gross in income. Been paying on the balance less than a year as I graduated in 2014. My monthly DTI ratio is about 52% if you count 1250/2400 under the standard plan. Right now I'm on IBR and my payments are $570/2400 or 24% as of this month.

Not eligible for Common Bond.

Rejected by Sofi. I was rejected for "Excessive obligations relative to income."

Any recommendations for places to try?

To be honest I'm not convinced that switching from federal to private is worth the risk. But I have a 44K loan at 7.65% that I would like to lower and am considering options.

I would REPAYE or IBR it.  Its too risky to refi because of your debt-to-income ratio.

wintertell

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #88 on: December 19, 2015, 12:43:26 PM »
That's just my income, not my HH income. We can afford to refinance. We ended up refinancing with Earnest.

gliderpilot567

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #89 on: January 15, 2016, 05:05:29 PM »
I'm soon going to try SoFi to refinance my wife's student loans (I don't have any). Sofi asks for the applicants income, not including spouse's income. But what if she has no income or its really low? I'm the breadwinner, make more than easily enough to pay these. What's the deal? How's this work?

arebelspy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #90 on: January 15, 2016, 06:20:47 PM »
I'm soon going to try SoFi to refinance my wife's student loans (I don't have any). Sofi asks for the applicants income, not including spouse's income. But what if she has no income or its really low? I'm the breadwinner, make more than easily enough to pay these. What's the deal? How's this work?

It's her debt, not yours.  Debt incurred before marriage doesn't necessarily become your debt that you're responsible for (debt incurred after, even just in her name, typically does).  You may have to find out if you can refi it to debt in your name, or ask if you can get added, or see if they'll take household income even without that.  Contact their customer service to see.
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alank

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #91 on: February 23, 2016, 05:11:19 PM »
I used the MMM link to refi with SoFi. Got my $300. (Thanks!)

Immediately after I put in an application to refi again with Earnest. I got a better rate and another $200. I haven't seen any referral links for Earnest on this site, so I thought I'd share mine:

www.meetearnest.com/invite/alan158

If you use that, we each get $200.

gliderpilot567

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #92 on: February 24, 2016, 10:17:59 PM »
I'm soon going to try SoFi to refinance my wife's student loans (I don't have any). Sofi asks for the applicants income, not including spouse's income. But what if she has no income or its really low? I'm the breadwinner, make more than easily enough to pay these. What's the deal? How's this work?

It's her debt, not yours.  Debt incurred before marriage doesn't necessarily become your debt that you're responsible for (debt incurred after, even just in her name, typically does).  You may have to find out if you can refi it to debt in your name, or ask if you can get added, or see if they'll take household income even without that.  Contact their customer service to see.

We started an application in her name, which would have got our rate from 8% down to 4%. This was pretty good, but then we called and asked if I could co-sign for a lower rate. Turns out this was no problem. They activated a co-signer feature on our application; I uploaded my info, and off it went.

It took us about 4 weeks to get from initial preapplication to signing the application. Most of the time it was because a scanned document was blurry. Instead of them calling us about it, I had to push the rope and call them and ask for status if we hadn't seen or heard anything in a while. So I would have liked the customer service to be a little more proactive, would have probably finished up our application quite a bit sooner instead of me having to nudge them along. Also, it seemed like they mixed our emails up a few times (primary and co-signer need separate logins) and a few times the messages they sent me didn't comport with what they were telling my wife, nor what was on the web site. I think they're still working gremlins out of the system.

In the end, refi approved: 19k originally at 8% down to 2.38%, (5 year variable). Wahoo! Time to put some erstwhile interest dollars to work for us. I think we'll save $3500 in interest over the life of the loan, more if we payoff sooner (but the loan is now lower rate than our mortgage, so we're gonna slow roll it...)

arebelspy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #93 on: February 25, 2016, 02:48:23 AM »
Congrats, well done!
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 #94 on: February 25, 2016, 12:57:16 PM »
Glider, can I ask what your fixed rate offer was? I've already refi'd once but I'm considering doing it a second time because I think rates are even lower now.

gliderpilot567

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #95 on: February 25, 2016, 02:16:31 PM »
Glider, can I ask what your fixed rate offer was? I've already refi'd once but I'm considering doing it a second time because I think rates are even lower now.

I want to say it was in the low to mid 3's. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly and the site doesn't show that page any more.

They did however disclose in our signed agreement that the variable rate could vary no higher than 8.9%, which is only slightly higher than the loans were in the first place. Should that unlikely event happen, we'll just pay them off fast, since the remaining principal (19k) isn't that high.

Tremeroy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #96 on: February 29, 2016, 03:04:28 PM »
Immediately after I put in an application to refi again with Earnest. I got a better rate and another $200. I haven't seen any referral links for Earnest on this site, so I thought I'd share mine:

If you use that, we each get $200.


Too bad that you didn't see my post earlier in this thread (also on Page 2, reply #57)! Also, from reading the terms of the Earnest site, there doesn't seem to be any sort of a bonus for the new applicant. There is only a bonus paid to the referrer.
« Last Edit: February 29, 2016, 03:07:08 PM by Tremeroy »

wintertell

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #97 on: March 03, 2016, 07:03:40 PM »
I just got an email this week advertising the bonus to both the applicant and the referrer. I refinanced with Earnest and love it. It's been 7 months and I plan to shift my loan amount/length/rate given the fact that I've dumped so much debt in the last 7 months. Hopefully I can grab an even lower rate.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2016, 09:24:07 AM by wintertell »

Tremeroy

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #98 on: March 04, 2016, 07:35:55 AM »
Fantastic! Great work on making progress—knocking down that interest rate will help you move even faster to killing the balance.

Erichi

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Re: My Experience Refinancing Student Loans with Sofi
« Reply #99 on: March 16, 2016, 12:20:44 PM »
I surveyed Earnest, Sofi and LendKey to refinance my 6.5% FedLoan of ~$17,000. I have good credit (~700-750) and a decent, stable income.

I ended up going with Earnest because they offered me the lowest rate (4.04% fixed, 5 years after the autopay discount). This ended up saving me several thousand dollars compared to the FedLoan piracy.

I attempted to get Sofi to match the offer I received from Earnest because of the fact that SoFi offers a slightly higher, $300 bonus from Mr. Money Mustache. The referral bonus for Earnest is only $200. However, the interest rate for SoFi would have been 5% fixed. They wanted to see a copy of the loan agreement between Earnest and myself, which I sent them. But they ultimately called me back and told me they could not match the offer.  I don't know if this was a ploy to see the competitors offer or not.

LendKey’s interest rate estimate was closer to 5.5% for my profile for some reason so I didn’t even complete an application because I didn’t want them to run a credit check.

Each company has their own algorithm and I suspect that if you profile is slightly different, any one of these companies could be the one offering you the best deal. I strongly suggest not blindly taking the advice of any one here on this forum as to which of these companies is best – do your own research!! One must balance the need to get as many quotes as possible against the possible dings on your credit for each full-scale application that you complete. Remember, having your credit history run 1-3 times per year is about normal and will not be held against you.

If you do go with Earnest, here is the $200 bonus referral (that is, we each get $200 if you use this):
www.meetearnest.com/invite/erich13