My wife has a couple of relatively large variable-rate student loans that I have been wanting to refinance into a fixed-rate note for awhile. (Un)fortunately, they are at low rates at the moment (4.25%) so any refinance is going to have some sort of premium to be paid for the fixed rate.
We looked at Sofi, and they offered 7.5%
She just got approved through Earnest, and at our chosen payment they offered 6.1% but we could get as low as 5.35% by increasing the payment. However, that would burn through most of our monthly budget surplus (which has been used to knock down other higher interest debt). They gave us enough headroom to roll her federal loans in as well, which would help lessen the sting of the rate hike, but still not ideal.
I know what I really need to do is run the numbers, but in general how much of a premium would you put on having a fixed-rate note versus a variable rate? I don't know the future, but interest rates can't stay this low forever right?