Refinancing Student Loans Forum

[jediknight2424]

Hi guys,

Any advice on whether or not my wife and I should refinance our loans through So-Fi? I've got about $230,000 and my wife has $130,000 in loans. Both of us are junior associates in biglaw (although she will be leaving to clerk for two years). If someone could point me to some useful threads, that'd be really helpful as well.

Thanks in advance!

[JenDarby]

this thread should help and would be a good place to ask:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... start=3050

in general, with those amounts it's a lot about risk tolerance/debt aversion. if your wife is leaving to clerk for 2 years, that's 2/10 for PSLF so depending how certain she is about her future career plans, it could make a lot of sense to keep her loans with the gov. also anytime you're refinancing you should make sure to shop around.

First Republic Bank has had the best fixed rates (soclose to their variable rates that you may as well do fixed), even though they recently went up (from 2.95% fixed for 10 years to 3.75%). The catch with FRB is the liquidity requirements (generally 15% of outstanding loans), plus requirement to open a checking account with direct deposit and a min balance of 3k to avoid a monthly fee are more onerous than some other companies.

I'd also check out common bond and earnest. as far as your credit goes, multiple pulls for the same purpose in a short time frame are generally considered as the same so definitely shop around for rates.

[trebekismyhero]

this thread should help and would be a good place to ask:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... start=3050

in general, with those amounts it's a lot about risk tolerance/debt aversion. if your wife is leaving to clerk for 2 years, that's 2/10 for PSLF so depending how certain she is about her future career plans, it could make a lot of sense to keep her loans with the gov. also anytime you're refinancing you should make sure to shop around.

First Republic Bank has had the best fixed rates (soclose to their variable rates that you may as well do fixed), even though they recently went up (from 2.95% fixed for 10 years to 3.75%). The catch with FRB is the liquidity requirements (generally 15% of outstanding loans), plus requirement to open a checking account with direct deposit and a min balance of 3k to avoid a monthly fee are more onerous than some other companies.

I'd also check out common bond and earnest. as far as your credit goes, multiple pulls for the same purpose in a short time frame are generally considered as the same so definitely shop around for rates.

Agreed, I went with Common Bond after comparing rates to SoFi and Earnest.

[Devlin]

I got the best quote from DRB and went with it. They also just sent me a free $100 amazon gift card.

[jediknight2424]

This is a dumb question -- but do you apply to each one or do you just check the pre-approved rates?

[Nebby]

This is a dumb question -- but do you apply to each one or do you just check the pre-approved rates?

You apply to each

[Biglaw Investor]

Hi guys,

Any advice on whether or not my wife and I should refinance our loans through So-Fi? I've got about $230,000 and my wife has $130,000 in loans. Both of us are junior associates in biglaw (although she will be leaving to clerk for two years). If someone could point me to some useful threads, that'd be really helpful as well.

Thanks in advance!

If you're planning on repaying the loans (i.e. not pursuing PSLF), I'd definitely refinance them. What's holding you back? Are you worried that you want to keep the deferral or hardship benefits in place? Just make sure you realize how much you're paying the government for that privilege (i.e. by calculating the difference in interest between your current rates and the rates you could get if you refinance).

I had a reader tell me they just got a 2.25% on a five-year loan from First Republic. That's a pretty damn good rate. If you're paying closer to 6.8% on your combined loans, that's nearly a $16,380 annual savings ($360,000 x (0.068 - 0.025)). Don't you want to keep that money for yourself?

Check around with all the lenders and see what type of rates you can get.