Splash Financial

For many, student loans are a necessary part of paying for their education. But whether you wind up borrowing $5,000 for your degree or find yourself owing $250,000, the result is probably the same: you’re eager to pay down your debt as quickly and painlessly as possible.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is through a student loan refinance. Luckily, companies like Splash Financial aim to make this process easier than ever, by helping you find the perfect refinance lender for your loans.

What is Splash Financial?

Splash Financial is a loan marketplace, founded in 2013. This platform will help borrowers in all 50 states to find the right refinance lender for them and their situation, offering online quotes from multiple loan services in only minutes.

Splash Financial has been refinancing student loan debt for a decade. By working with various banks and credit unions across the country, Splash helps both parents and student borrowers find competitive rates and terms to make refinancing simple.

Why You May Want to Refinance Your Student Loans

If you are currently paying on existing student loans, you probably already realize how overwhelming this type of debt can be. Whether originating from an associate’s, undergraduate, or postgraduate degree, student loans have the ability to drain you financially and emotionally… for years to come!

Refinancing those loans can be the game-changer you need, though, and for a number of reasons. A refi offers borrowers (and even their parents) the opportunity to pay off educational debt faster and often at a lower interest rate. It also allows borrowers to consolidate multiple loans into one streamlined account with one easy due date.

When applying for student loans, many young adult borrowers are required to add a cosigner (such as a parent) in order to be approved. Down the line, though, you may want to remove that co-borrower in order to free them, and their credit, from that obligation. Refinancing can be a simple way to accomplish this.

Reasons Refinancing Might Not Be for You

Refinancing student loan debt isn’t for everyone, though. In fact, depending on the type of loan(s) you have and how you intend to pay the debt off, refinancing can actually be a bad idea.

For instance, if you plan to take advantage of a federal student loan forgiveness program, you should not refinance. That’s because refinancing shifts that debt from a federal loan product to a private one, eliminating whatever federal benefits may have been available to you.

Is there a chance that you may need to utilize student loan forbearance or deferment options on your educational debt? Then you may not want to refi, as not all private lenders have official policies for managing your loan payments if you get in a financial bind.

Lastly, if you are taking advantage of income-driven repayment on your federal student loans (or want to keep that option open), refinancing is probably a bad idea. While you could always refinance your private loan yet again if you needed to adjust your monthly payment, it would be subject to credit approval and interest rates at the time.

Student Loan Refinancing with Splash Financial

Shopping around for the right student loan refinance lender can be daunting. You want to not only find a lender that will approve your refinance loan, but at the lowest interest rate possible and with terms that suit you best.

Rather than submitting multiple applications through individual lenders, you could simply use a marketplace like Splash Financial.

With Splash Financial, you can submit just one request. You could get multiple pre-approval offers from partner lenders who are willing to refinance your student loan debt at competitive interest rates. You can then sift through those offers to find the one that looks best before proceeding with the process.

Splash Financial's partner lenders offer student loan refinancing that:

• Is available in amounts low as $5,000, with no maximum
• Offers repayment terms between 5-25 years*
• Offers married couples the opportunity to combine their educational debt

Additionally, Splash offers the ability to take over someone else’s loans, if you desire. So if you or your spouse wanted to take on the other’s student debt — perhaps even in order to qualify for a better interest rate — that’s an option.

Splash Financial is available in all 50 states.

Qualifying for a Splash Refinance

While each of Splash Financial’s partner lenders will have their own specifications and underwriting process, there are a few standard requirements in order to qualify for a refinance loan.

Before applying through Splash, you should:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
• Have at least $5,000 in student loan debt to refinance

You’re eligible to apply if you have already graduated from a Title IV accredited school with an associate’s or four-year degree. “The exception to this rule is if you are a parent who took out educational loans on behalf of your child; in this case, you may be able to refinance through Splash even if your child is still in school or did not graduate.

Pre-approval offers for eligible borrowers are determined by a few personal factors. These include the amount of debt you’re looking to refinance, your annual income (include the income of any co-borrowers you plan to add), and your credit history.

It’s also important to remember that even if you qualify for funding through Splash Financial’s platform, you will still need to complete the process through your chosen lender directly. They will request certain supporting documentation — such as loan payoff letters, a copy of your final transcript, pay stubs, and the like — before finalizing your refinance loan offer.

Interest Rates

While there are many reasons to refinance student loan debt, one of the biggest is probably to save money on interest. Not only can refinancing consolidate your debt into a single loan with one interest rate, but you can also cut this rate down significantly in the process.

Each year, Congress establishes the interest rates at which federal loans are offered. Unfortunately, private lenders aren’t bound by these same numbers, so they often come with rates that reach well into the double digits.

With Splash Financial, you can refinance your high-interest loans to potentially save thousands. In some cases, you could wind up trimming tens of thousands off of your total loan repayment.

Each partner lender is able to set their own interest rates. The rates that you are offered will depend on personal factors like your creditworthiness and income. However, you can expect variable-rate loans to start at 5.28% (with autopay) to 10.24% APR (without autopay), and fixed-rate loans to begin at 4.99% (with autopay) to 10.24% APR (without autopay).

Fees

When applying for a student loan refinance, you won’t need to worry about any additional fees. Splash Financial does not charge application or origination fees, and you won’t get penalized for paying off your loan early, either.

Depending on the loan servicer you choose, you may be subject to things like late fees if you don’t make your payments on time. And of course, you’ll pay the interest charges involved with your new refinance loan until the debt is fully satisfied.

Splash Financial: The Application Process

Applying for student loan refinancing through Splash Financial is fairly straightforward. In just a few minutes, you can see a number of loan offers with term lengths and interest rate options to suit you.

To apply, you’ll need to provide some basic information, such as your:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Social Security number
• Address
• Education details (degree, graduation date, college name)
• Amount of debt you’re looking to refinance

After providing this information, you’ll get your initial loan offers from Splash partners. You can choose between variable- and fixed-rate loans, with or without an auto-pay discount. You’ll also see the term lengths available to you and how much you can expect to pay on the loan each month.

If you don’t want to worry about rates changing, you can opt for a fixed-rate loan. These are available in terms of 5, 10, 12, 15, or 20 years*.

Variable-rate loans typically have lower interest rates than their fixed counterparts. They are available in terms of 5, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 25 years*.

With either loan type, the shorter the term you choose the lower the interest rate you can get.

You’ll be asked to import your loans or provide information for each account you wish to refinance. This can be done manually — one account at a time — or with Splash’s handy import tool.

The last step in this pre-qualification process is to provide Splash with verification. This includes uploading your proof of income, proof of education, and a government-issued ID. Once you finish this last step, you will receive and sign your loan disclosures. Then, you can finish submitting your application.

At this time, you’ll get to see which servicer you were assigned to for your refi.

Is Splash Financial Legit?

Splash Financial has been around for about 10 years, and the company has managed to create a strong wake of satisfied customers during that time.

According to a survey conducted by Splash Financial, its student loan refinance customers are a satisfied bunch. In it, 95% of recent borrowers said that they were happy with their new loan and rate.

Additionally, Splash Financial boasts a 4.8 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot. Many borrowers there praise the company’s smooth refi process and the cost savings on their student loan debt repayment. They are also accredited by the Better Business Bureau with an A+ rating.

Splash Financial: The Pros

There are a few good reasons to consider using Splash when planning a student loan refinance. Let’s take a look at a few of the pros of this refi platform.

There's no maximum loan limit.

In order to use Splash, you’ll need to refinance at least $5,000 in educational debt. However, there is no official upper limit, so you can request a refi whether you have $20,000 or $200,000 in student loans.

You have many options to choose from.

There are five loan terms to choose from if opting for a fixed-rate refinance loan, and seven terms for variable-rate loans. Whether you want to repay your educational debt over five years or 25, you can pick the loan you need.

Splash only conducts a soft pull of your credit.

When applying for pre-approval through Splash, only a soft inquiry will be utilized. This means that you can see the rates for which you qualify without any impact on your credit score. (When you finalize your application with your actual servicer, a hard inquiry will be requested.)

Married couples can refinance their educational debt together.

It’s rare to find a lender that allows married couples to refinance their student loans together. With Splash Financial, though, you’re able to do just that, combining your educational debt with your spouse’s into one joint loan.

Splash is available in all 50 states.

No matter where you are in the country, you can refinance your student loan debt through Splash Financial. They have lenders in all 50 states who are ready to help you optimize your debt repayment.

You can assume someone else’s loan (or vice versa).

Whether you want to assume someone else’s student loan debt or someone else (like a spouse) wants to take over yours, Splash makes it easy to do so through a “take over” refinance.

Splash Financial: The Cons

Of course, there are a few things you will want to keep in mind, too.

Pre-qualified rates are not guaranteed.

Though Splash will provide you with preapproved loan rates and terms, these are not guaranteed. Once you submit your verification documents and complete the application process with your chosen servicer, you’ll be given your official loan offer… just keep in mind that it may change.

There are no formal policies for forbearance or deferment.

Federal student loans come with built-in benefits for borrowers, to include deferment and/or forbearance if you ever run into financial trouble. Splash does not offer any official policy for forbearance/deferment, though some of the platform’s lenders may offer this option on a case-by-case basis.

You don’t get to choose your servicer.

With some loan aggregators, you’re able to see which lender is making which loan offer. With Splash, however, you’ll choose the terms that you like best without knowing who is offering the loan.

Once you submit your verification documents, you will be told which servicer you’ve been given.

Final Thoughts

Today, about seven of every 10 college graduates will walk the stage saddled with student loan debt. No matter how aggressively they pay down those balances, though, it can take many years — and thousands of dollars in interest — to satisfy the debt.

Refinancing is a good way to simplify student loans. Rather than keeping track of multiple accounts with various due dates, you’re able to consolidate everything into one easy-to-manage balance.

A student loan refi is also a great way to save money. Platforms like Splash give you access to lower interest rates through various partner lenders, all at one time. This allows you to reduce the amount you’ll pay on your loans, pay down the debt faster, and even lower your monthly payment in the process.

Finding the right refinance loan is easier when you apply through an marketplace like Splash. By entering your information once, you are able to get preapproved for a competitive loan with the terms you need, from multiple different lenders. Oh, and this is done without any initial impact on your credit.

If you’re thinking about refinancing your student loans in order to save money and get out of debt faster, consider giving Splash Financial a look.

Disclosure: * Fixed loans feature repayment terms of 5 to 20 years. For example, the monthly payment for a sample $10,000 with an APR of 5.47% for a 12-year term would be $94.86. Variable loans feature repayment terms of 5 to 25 years. For example, the monthly payment for a sample $10,000 with an APR of 5.90% for a 15-year term would be $83.85.