Credible Student Loan Refinance Review - Pros, Cons and Options

This online marketplace allows you to compare real offers from up to 10 individual lenders to refinance your student loans for the best rates.

While not a direct lender itself, Credible is an online lending marketplace that aims to help borrowers save money when refinancing their student loans.

Whether you’ve got a few small loans you want to combine into one payment or several larger balances, Credible can help you find the best rates to get your debt paid off without you worrying about varying due dates, interest rates, and balances. Get quotes from up to 10 lenders in minutes, without affecting your credit score or paying a dime.

Although there are no discounts for selecting your lender through Credible, so you’re paying the same rate as you would refinancing your student loans through the individual lenders, being able to easily compare rates and terms saves borrowers time in making a final decision. Rates are available from lenders such as Citizens Bank, PenFed, and SoFi, so you can trust that you’re getting your loans refinanced with a credible, financially stable company.

Just fill out one quick, easy pre-qualification survey and receive rates from up to 10 lenders who want to help you refinance your student loans.

Credible Student Loan Refinancing: What You Need to Know

Credible is an online rates marketplace that helps borrowers quickly compare and contrast the rates and terms from a variety of different lenders, up to 10 per comparison request. If you’re shopping around to find the best rate on your student loan refinancing, Credible can be a great place to start.

Credible works with a broad selection of lenders, including traditional banks and credit unions, direct lenders, and state student loan authorities. Not every lender that refinances student loans is on the platform, but Credible can save you a lot of time when you're looking for the best possible deal.

If you plan to refinance your student loans with one of the lenders available through Credible, using this tool can be a resource to help you quickly compare all the factors of refinancing for an easier decision. If you aren’t sure which lender you’d like to use for refinancing your loan, Credible is a great starting point to see what rates and terms are available, and to know how other refinancing offers stack up against those you get from Credible.

No Hit to Your Credit Score

Credible allows borrowers to see and compare rates without a hit to their credit scores, making their platform attractive to those who are concerned. They also do not charge any fees for using their service, instead being paid by the lenders once a student loan refinancing is completed.

The company is very confident in its ability to find borrowers the best rates for refinancing their student loans. In fact, they’re so confident they offer a “Best Rate Guarantee,” where they will pay any borrower $200 if they:

• Receive a quote for student loan refinancing through Credible,
• Receive a better rate from a non-Credible lender within 10 days of the original Credible quote, and
• The borrower refinances with the other lender at a lower interest rate for an offer on a similar student loan refinance, submitted within seven days of closing and funding the loan.

Take just two minutes to fill out the no-risk quote form and receive up to 10 rate offers. At this point, your information is not shared with any of Credible’s lenders, and you have the ability to compare and contrast the rates and terms from individual lenders. The rate quotes you receive are based on your actual credit profile, not just estimates like many other marketplaces.

Simple and Straightforward Application

Once you’ve selected a lender, you’re taken to the loan application. This is where you enter more of your personal, professional, and financial information, including all the student loans you want to refinance.

You then can receive a final student loan refinancing offer in as little as one business day, giving you a faster path toward getting your student loans under control and paid off.

The individual requirements for refinancing through Credible’s lending partners varies from lender to lender, although typically you’ll need a minimum credit score of 670 or higher to qualify. Lenders will evaluate your ability to repay by looking at your debt-to-income ratios, and some have minimum income requirements.

For those borrowers who have poor or limited credit history, Credible’s partners do allow you to add a trustworthy co-signer to the loan refinancing, giving you access to the lower rates while protecting the lender.

Consolidate loans from federal and private lenders into one payment with one interest rate. With Credible, this process can be made easier and faster, taking a lot of the mystery and confusion out of the student loan refinancing process.

Keep in mind that if you refinance federal loans with a private lender, you’ll no longer have access to federal programs like income-driven repayment, which can provide loan forgiveness after 10, 20, or 25 years of payments. Many borrowers decide the savings they can achieve by refinancing are worth more to them than the federal benefits they give up..

How Does Credible Student Loan Refinancing Work?

Credible is not a direct lender, but instead they provide an online marketplace where you can search for the best rates on your student loan refinancing. And if you find a better rate somewhere else, Credible will give you $200.

There are three steps to working with Credible:

1. Receive Personalized Rate Estimates

Credible has a network of lenders, which they carefully vet before they decide to work with them.

You fill out a quick form about your education and borrowing history, including the amount of any student loans you want to refinance. You then will be asked to create an account with Credible, which is how you will receive and save your rate quotes.

2. Compare Rates and Lenders

Once you’re registered with Credible, you will see a dashboard that shows you the lenders and rates you qualify for. Depending on your needs, you may see multiple offers from the same lender, with variables such as term length or type of interest rate differentiating the offers.

Adjust the filters to look more closely at each individual offering, filtering out the things that you don’t want in your loans.

3. Choose Your Lender and Apply

After you’ve found the lender and terms that most appeal to you, select that offer. If necessary, take your time and research the offers, lenders, and terms so you get exactly what you need in your refinanced student loans.

You will be asked to provide your loan information to Credible, and the lender will run a hard credit check on you as part of your application. If necessary, the lender will contact you directly to request any additional information for your loan application.

If approved, you should receive a final loan offer in as little as 24 hours after applying, and can move forward with the process of closing on your refinanced student loans.

Where Is Credible Student Loan Refinancing Available?

You can use Credible to receive student loan refinancing offers in any state, but where you live may limit the lenders you’re able to work with.

How Much Does Credible Cost?

To use Credible to receive quotes on refinancing your student loans, it is free. Credible doesn’t charge any membership, search, or origination fees for using their service.

According to Credible’s website, their lenders offer rates beginning at 2.15% for variable rate loans and around 3% for a fixed rate. You can often get a rate discount if you agree to authorize automatic payments, or if you have an existing account with a lender. The lowest advertised rates reflect these autopay and loyalty discounts.

Rates from the individual lenders vary, and your rate can be impacted by your individual qualifications, how much you’re refinancing, whether you choose a variable or fixed rate, and how long you want to take to repay your loans.

What Does Credible Student Loan Refinancing Offer?

Credible offers free rate and terms comparison for student loan refinancing. They work with a network of carefully screened individual lenders to offer borrowers the best rates possible.

In many cases, borrowers need multiple loans to complete their education. Sometimes, these loans come from both private lending companies and federal loan programs.

Once you graduate and get through the repayment grace period - usually 6 months after graduation - those loans become due to the individual lenders. If you’ve got multiple loans from various lenders, this can mean keeping track of a lot of different terms, interest rates, payment amounts, and due dates.

To help save money and make keeping track of your payments easier, you can consolidate and refinance your student loans.

When you refinance, you take the existing balances on any loans you want to refinance, and put them into one new loan, with a repayment term that starts from the beginning. In most cases, you also get a lower interest rate than you would pay on all the loans individually, making refinancing attractive to people struggling to keep up with their current repayments.

Refinanced loans come with either fixed or variable interest rates, and you can choose which option you like best.

Choosing a fixed rate often gives you a higher initial rate, but you know you’ll pay the same interest rate for the life of your loan. A variable rate gives you a lower interest rate from the outset, but you run the risk of that interest rate increasing with the market, costing you more down the line.

The individual terms and rates you receive from Credible are dependent on a variety of factors, including:

• Your individual credit score
• How much you have to refinance
• Your current income
• Your debt-to-income ratio
• Your payment history on your student loans and other consumer debt, such as mortgages, credit cards, and auto loans
• Whether or not you have a co-signer on your loan

If you do not individually qualify for refinancing through one of Credible’s partner lenders, adding a co-signer can help boost your chances at eligibility.

Once you select a lender and complete the application, Credible’s involvement in your account is finished. If you have questions or concerns about your refinanced student loans, you will need to take them directly to the lender.

Credible Student Loan Refinancing Features:

• Offers refinancing of both private and federal student loans
• Also offers private student loans, mortgage refinancing, home loans, personal loans, and credit cards
• Not a direct lender
• Carefully vets all lenders they work with
• Often offer savings to borrowers
• Best Rate Guarantee gives you $200 if you find a loan with a less expensive rate
• Compare rates and terms from up to 10 different lenders
• Quick, easy online qualification and application
• Lending decisions can be made in as little as 24 hours
• No hard pull on your credit report to request rates
• Free for borrowers to use
• Compare your options without getting locked into an agreement
• Can refinance loans through some lenders even if you didn’t graduate

Pros and Cons of Credible Student Loan Refinancing

Here are some of the pros and cons of working with Credible to refinance your student loans:

Pros:

• See terms and rates from up to 10 potential lenders
• Consolidate and refinance private and federal student loans
• Can use a co-signer if you don’t qualify alone
• Often offers savings over your current student loans
• Best Rate Guarantee gives you $200 if you find a cheaper loan
• Quick, easy online qualification and application
• No hard pull on your credit during the qualification process
• Can have your refinance approved in as little as 24 hours
• Free to use
• Compare rates and terms without having to pay or making a commitment
• Can refinance student loans even if you didn’t graduate
• A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau

Cons:

• Not all lenders available in all states
• Need credit score of at least 650-670 to qualify individually, as well as meeting income and debt-to-income ratio requirements
• You have to research lenders on your own
• Not a direct lender
• No savings for using Credible instead of going direct to the lender

Discounts on Credible Student Loan Refinancing

There are no discounts for using Credible to refinance your student loans.

Credible Student Loan Refinancing Customer Reviews

Customers of Credible are overall very satisfied with their experience. More than 3,200 reviews on TrustPilot give the company an average star rating of 4.7 out of 5.

“The process was super fast and easy and I was able to save a lot of money by refinancing! I'm glad I finally clicked the link from one of the emails.” - J ROSSMAN

“I didn't really know where to start with consolidating my student loans. Credible made it easy and I was able to find my best option for a new loan.” - Johnathan S.

“I've been trying for years to refinance my private loan out of Sallie Mae for...reasons. I found Credible and had two potential offers that met my needs. It was incredibly easy (like suspiciously easy at first) but the rate and payment couldn't be beat compared to what I have experienced with Sallie Mae. I didn't expect anything to come of the Credible experience, but was very happy. Now maybe I'll be able to pay my loan off before I die! :)” - Dr. Jones

How to Apply for Credible Student Loan Refinancing

Getting rates and terms to compare is quick and easy with Credible.

1. Visit www.credible.com/refinance-student-loans.
2. Click “Find My Rate.”
3. Enter information about your loans and your education, including your education history and the amount you want to refinance.
4. Create a free account with Credible.
5. You’ll see a listing of the lenders whose qualifications you meet, as well as their lending terms and interest rates. You can change different criteria to show different information.
6. Once you select a lender, you will be asked to import your loan information. The lender will then run a credit check on you.
7. Receive a decision on your application in as little as 24 hours.

How to Contact Credible

Address: 22 4th St. Floor 8 San Francisco, CA 94103 **Customer Service: **(866) 540-6005 Website: www.credible.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crediblelabs Twitter: @credible

Does Credible Offer Other Types of Loans?

Credible offers comparison shopping for several other products, including:

• Private student loans
• Mortgage refinancing
• Home loans
• Credit cards
• Personal loans

Credible Review – Summary

Refinancing your student loans might be one of those tasks lingering on your to-do list: You know it would really make a difference if you got it done, but it takes a ton of time.

With Credible, you can get access to the terms and rates of up to 10 different lenders, giving you the best chance at finding a great rate. And if Credible’s partner lenders don’t have the best rates, they’ll give you $200.

One quick, easy qualification form gives you tons of information to sort through so you can make the best decision for your needs and your budget, helping ease the burden of your student loans.

Credible is free for borrowers to use, and you can still compare rates without being pressured to choose one lender over another.

Although Credible is not itself a direct lender, its many overwhelmingly positive customer reviews point to their easy-to-use platform and great rates across all their products, making them a must-try when shopping for student loan refinancing.