Seeking student loan refinancing advice and referral links

[Suit]

Hi MMMers,
Hoping some of you can help me out. I think I've decided the benefits of a lower interest rate after refinancing is worth losing the benefits of income based repayment on my federal loans (I was originally going for PSLF after 10 years of work in my public interest job but decided that I didn't want to be under the burden of debt for that long). I went to law school and I've recently started paying down my loans aggressively. I have about 64k left at 6.8%. I'm thinking Earnest looks the best but I'm not sure which is where you all come in! Any feedback about various companies that you all have refinanced with would be great and if any of you have a referral link for Earnest or anywhere else that gives me (and hopefully you too) money towards the loans would be great!
Thanks!
Suit

[onecoolcat]

I suggest you apply to SoFi, Earnest, Commonbond and DRB. 

Refinancing is certainly not for everyone.  I would only recommend refinancing if (1) you will pay off your loans within the traditional 10 year period, (2) you are not planning on relying upon Public Service Loan Forgiveness, IBR, PAYE, or REPAYE, (3) you understand if something happens to you and you are no longer able to work the private servicer may go after your estate, (4) you don’t foresee the need for a deferral down the line, and (5) you would rather dump extra money into investments (riskier) than take the safe route and pay off student loans early.  I went with Sofi and they are great.  The application is simpler than their competitor’s and they were the only lender that approved me for refinancing.  You can use my referral link for a bonus $100.00 if you elect to refinance with Sofi (I will get $100.00 as well), but I strongly encourage anyone to apply to all lenders they can for refinancing and go with whomever gives them the best rate.  My referral code is:  https://www.sofi.com/refer/234/11233

[JJ-]

You can find several $300-$500 referral links for the above-mentioned loan refinancing companies if you do simple Google searches.

[randymarsh]

I refinanced with Earnest back in January. Very easy application process and quick turnaround. I think the total time from application to pay off was 2, maybe 3 weeks.  Right now they're doing $200 referral bonuses, see sig.

[mlr2016]

Like others I applied to Sofi.  The application process was pretty painless, save for getting my loan information from Navient (they are a pain to work with).  However, I was not happy with the interest rate they quoted me given my financial picture and credit history.

I ended up turning to Earnest.  The application process is a bit more rigorous as they ask for a lot more information.  This could definitely turn someone off, seeing that you have to link all of your financial accounts (bank, credit card, loan, etc.) when completing the application. I just changed my account passwords after approval to be safe.  That being said, the application process didn't take long at all.  Given that they take a broader look at your financial picture, they are able to provide you with what I would consider a "fair" rate.  I really liked the fact that you could tailor your repayment terms based on a sliding scale (i.e. the larger the payment you chose, the smaller the interest rate and term of the loan).  All in all, Earnest has my vote but I'm biased.... probably a bit salty at the rate Sofi gave me as well :)

As someone else mentioned though, apply to all lenders for refinancing.  It doesn't hurt to throw a line out and see what they come back with.  Best of luck to you!

[Suit]

Thank you all for the advice and referral links!

I suggest you apply to SoFi, Earnest, Commonbond and DRB. 

Refinancing is certainly not for everyone.  I would only recommend refinancing if (1) you will pay off your loans within the traditional 10 year period, (2) you are not planning on relying upon Public Service Loan Forgiveness, IBR, PAYE, or REPAYE, (3) you understand if something happens to you and you are no longer able to work the private servicer may go after your estate, (4) you don’t foresee the need for a deferral down the line, and (5) you would rather dump extra money into investments (riskier) than take the safe route and pay off student loans early.  I went with Sofi and they are great.  The application is simpler than their competitor’s and they were the only lender that approved me for refinancing.  You can use my referral link for a bonus $100.00 if you elect to refinance with Sofi (I will get $100.00 as well), but I strongly encourage anyone to apply to all lenders they can for refinancing and go with whomever gives them the best rate.  My referral code is:  https://www.sofi.com/refer/234/11233

Thanks for the advice to apply to them all, I may very well do that! I have thought about refinancing for a while, I hope to pay off my loans by the end of 2018, so getting a lower interest rate will really just help me put more towards principal and I'm not as worried about deferral since I have a stable job and a good amount in a 457 that I would have access to if I lost my job.

You can find several $300-$500 referral links for the above-mentioned loan refinancing companies if you do simple Google searches.

Great idea! I'll make sure to do this before applying! I do this for online shopping discount codes but I wasn't aware I could do it for this too.

I refinanced with Earnest back in January. Very easy application process and quick turnaround. I think the total time from application to pay off was 2, maybe 3 weeks.  Right now they're doing $200 referral bonuses, see sig.

Awesome, thanks for the input about how they are to work with and referral code!

Like others I applied to Sofi.  The application process was pretty painless, save for getting my loan information from Navient (they are a pain to work with).  However, I was not happy with the interest rate they quoted me given my financial picture and credit history.

I ended up turning to Earnest.  The application process is a bit more rigorous as they ask for a lot more information.  This could definitely turn someone off, seeing that you have to link all of your financial accounts (bank, credit card, loan, etc.) when completing the application. I just changed my account passwords after approval to be safe.  That being said, the application process didn't take long at all.  Given that they take a broader look at your financial picture, they are able to provide you with what I would consider a "fair" rate.  I really liked the fact that you could tailor your repayment terms based on a sliding scale (i.e. the larger the payment you chose, the smaller the interest rate and term of the loan).  All in all, Earnest has my vote but I'm biased.... probably a bit salty at the rate Sofi gave me as well :)

As someone else mentioned though, apply to all lenders for refinancing.  It doesn't hurt to throw a line out and see what they come back with.  Best of luck to you!

Part of what I liked about Earnest is that they look at the total financial picture, I think it tends to be beneficial to MMMers who may have a lot in investments but not a ton of credit history building car payments, etc.