When you think about it, you get to enjoy more of your hard earned cash if you choose to settle your student loan debt through refinancing. It is a sure fire way to lessen your monthly debts, but only a handful of financial institutions offer this kind of service.
A good example of a good refinancing option for your private student loan would be RBS Citizens Financial Group’s refinancing loan with variable rates starting at 2.8% APR and fixed rates of at least 4.75% APR. They even make it easier for you as they have very little requirements. In fact, you don’t even need to be a bank customer to avail of this loan.
Brendan Coughlin, the Head of Education and Auto Finance at RBS Citizens Financial says that the loan they offer has better rates than typical student loans, making RBS Citizens Financial’s refinancing loan a good choice for borrowers hoping to find refinancing that do not eat up much of their earnings.
Coughlin claims that this educational refinancing loan can open big opportunities for the institution as well as create lasting relationships with its clients.
Aside from RBS Citizens Financial that only refinances private loans; there are also companies that offer refinancing for federal loans such as SoFi, a San Francisco student loan company. From 2012, SoFi already financed $400 million student loans and has helped many students save a minimum of $5,000, something that cannot be achieved through student loans alone.
Gil Eyal, a client of SoFi is quite happy of the refinancing he got from the company. When he graduated from Northwestern University, he sought for the refinancing of his federal loans from the company and it changed his loan interest immensely. The interest became 2.5% lower than his previous federal loan and it has helped him save $500 every month. He now feels that he earns and enjoys his income from his work.
Refinancing, though quite promising, is not an avenue available for everyone. For instance, if you are not employed it would be very difficult or rather impossible for you to get refinancing.
According to Greg McBride, being employed and having an improved credit score after applying for loansare important requisites should you wish to be refinanced.
You also have to make sure that you are not simply getting your student loans refinanced; there should also be other benefits to it other than loan consolidation, such as a lower interest rate.
Rohit Chompra, an assistant director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claims that in refinancing both interest rates and monthly payments should be lower, because there are still instances where you can get loans that seem more affordable but you actually pay more in the long run.
If you do not pay attention or choose wisely, you may end up losing valuable benefits you might need in the future. For instance, it is good to note that should you decide to refinance a federal loan, you lose your chances of getting public service loan forgiveness.
Chompra says that you should not solely depend on the information that lenders provide you, you should also look at the options more closely to get the best offers.