Why should I refinance (refi) my loans?

You should refinance if you can save money, or if you want to change your loan terms.

Keep in mind that when you refinance, you lose any benefits that your student loans offer. If you have federal loans, there are many of these benefits like Income Based Repayment and the chance for student loan forgiveness, if you are holding out hope for that. If you have federal loans, you should also consider consolidating your loans.

Your private student loans might also offer some benefits that you would lose if you refinanced. For example, some lenders offer loan deferral if you clerk, which means that you can pause your payments for some amount of time. Your loan will still accrue interest, but you won’t have to make payments.

The decision to refinance is not always an easy one, but one way to make the decision is to:

• Figure out how much money you can save by refinancing (all of our partners will give you an estimated rate that you can use to compare)
• Determine what benefits you will be giving up if you refinance and the likelihood that you will use those benefits
• Decide if the money you are saving (or the new loan terms you are getting) by refinancing is more valuable than the benefits you are losing