4 Ways to Refinance Your Student-Loans

The debt accumulated by student loans is a big deal. In fact, the federal government has even took recent action and implemented new payback options for parents and students. Other agencies and financial institutions has also put in place new programs to help people refinance for a lower interest rate.

Four of those institutions are as follows:

Citizens Financial Group – Citizens’ fixed interest rates start as low as 4.74%, while variable-rate loans, whose rates can change each month, have rates as low as 2.31%. The lowest rates are given to borrowers with very high credit scores and long-term employment and who also have a Citizens checking account and set up automatic bill payments for their loan.

Discover Financial Services – allows undergraduate and graduate borrowers to consolidate their federal and private loans into a new loan with a new interest rate. The program is only open to borrowers who have a relationship with Discover and who are invited to apply.

CommonBond – offering this service to borrowers who used the loans to pay for an M.B.A., graduate engineering degree, law degree or medical degree.

Social Finance aka SoFi – Offer the same service as CommonBond, but is not limited to certain borrowers; all borrowers may apply

Of course, with the use of these private loan services, individuals lose certain repayment options offered by the government. The federal government offers income-based repayment, for example, that allows borrowers to repay loans largely based on their income rather than the amount of debt that they owe. It also allows for principal forgiveness in which the remaining loan balance can be waived after at least 10 years of payments. This relief isn’t available for private-student-loan borrowers who become unemployed or encounter another type of financial emergency.

For more information, visit www.WSJ.com.