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Hi everyone, you've all been incredible throughout the years, so I was hoping I could utilize your collective wisdom once more:

I'm trying to refinance my loans at a much lower rate, but to do so I need roughly 15% of the total loan amount in my bank account (they ask for a statement). My wife is in a master's program, so we maxed out her FAFSA (I'll be the only one on the account, so they won't pull her records- at least I hope), but that still leaves us about 8k short since they disperse the loan in two payments.

I miscalculated how much take-home pay I'll get (I based it on my summer pay which is taxed at a much lower rate- pretty bad, I know, but it is what it is), so saving up for that 8k would take me roughly six months, so I was hoping to find a way to get that money sooner. Does anyone have any recommendations? If it makes a difference, I only need to hold the money for six weeks.

Has anyone else dealt with this? Would it be feasible for my wife to take out another loan for that short of a period of time? We'd be okay eating the interest if need be.

Thanks!

Bump.

Why don’t you refi with someone who doesn’t require 15% cash? There are a number of lenders who don’t require this.

cron1834 wrote:Why don’t you refi with someone who doesn’t require 15% cash? There are a number of lenders who don’t require this.

Because the interest rate is MUCH lower.

Invest everything in Bitcoin and hope for a spike in the next few days.

Anonymous User wrote:

cron1834 wrote:Why don’t you refi with someone who doesn’t require 15% cash? There are a number of lenders who don’t require this.

Because the interest rate is MUCH lower.

Hard to imagine this doesn’t cause a stampede of people signing up to give you money for free on the internet...

What bank requires this? I have 30k in loans but have 30k in the bank I don't want to use. I'd love to refi at a lower rate.

I think Sofi does?

Get 0 interest credit card. Put all expenses on that card. Save up 8k. Refinance. Pay off credit card. Reap rewards

You can also do a balance transfer and pay the one time 3 percent charge then just pay t back once you refi.

First Republic offers reallllllly low rates but has the 15% cash requirement. Speak to one of their people and see if you can negotiate a lower requirement and/or apply for the refinancing anyway; depending on your income and credit they may be slightly flexible.

adjust your withholding to zero for a few months - until you reach your goal
You'll ahve to pay it all back, and may face a penalty on your taxes, but it'll be worth that lower interest rate

Yea All Right wrote:First Republic offers reallllllly low rates but has the 15% cash requirement. Speak to one of their people and see if you can negotiate a lower requirement and/or apply for the refinancing anyway; depending on your income and credit they may be slightly flexible.

Good call, got my wires crossed. Gotta be FRB.

cron1834 wrote:

Yea All Right wrote:First Republic offers reallllllly low rates but has the 15% cash requirement. Speak to one of their people and see if you can negotiate a lower requirement and/or apply for the refinancing anyway; depending on your income and credit they may be slightly flexible.

Good call, got my wires crossed. Gotta be FRB.

definitely FRB. they're flexible with the requirements they advertise in their brochure (e.g., 2 years employment, 750 credit) if you meet the 15% cash requirement. currently on that graduated 20-year plan so i can save up and refi w/ them.

umichman wrote:Get 0 interest credit card. Put all expenses on that card. Save up 8k. Refinance. Pay off credit card. Reap rewards

You can also do a balance transfer and pay the one time 3 percent charge then just pay t back once you refi.

OP here, sorry I’ve been MIA work has been kinda hectic- yea it’s FRB.

If I get a balance transfer (even to checking) won’t that appear on a credit pull? Yea it might help me meet the minimum amount but as soon as they see that on my credit report won’t I get rejected?

Anonymous User wrote:

umichman wrote:Get 0 interest credit card. Put all expenses on that card. Save up 8k. Refinance. Pay off credit card. Reap rewards

You can also do a balance transfer and pay the one time 3 percent charge then just pay t back once you refi.

OP here, sorry I’ve been MIA work has been kinda hectic- yea it’s FRB.

If I get a balance transfer (even to checking) won’t that appear on a credit pull? Yea it might help me meet the minimum amount but as soon as they see that on my credit report won’t I get rejected?

ya, i mean, they're not just concerned with your liquidity (15% of your loan balance in liquid assets), they are also concerned with your other debts and would imagine that one way or another, this would preclude you. my SOs corworker said the rep they spoke to went as far as to say that even loans from family members would not count towards the liquidity requirement. although i do not know how FRB would be able to determine if that was the case... perhaps by looking at the deposit history for the account that has holds your liquidity requirement?

Pardon my ignorance, but can you refi with someone that gives a competitive rate, save for a year, and refi again with FRB? That way you’ll get FRB rates for most of the loan lifetime, and at least get down from Fedloan rates in the meantime. Is that doable? Or are there terms that prohibit or punish such a thing?

Have you considered doing PAYE and never paying off the loans. For people with loans over 200k, this is often the better strategy.

cron1834 wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but can you refi with someone that gives a competitive rate, save for a year, and refi again with FRB? That way you’ll get FRB rates for most of the loan lifetime, and at least get down from Fedloan rates in the meantime. Is that doable? Or are there terms that prohibit or punish such a thing?

you totally can. only downside i can think of is it would be an extra hard credit pull, which im avoiding bc im pushing the recommended number of inquiries at the moment due to starting a new lease, new internet, etc.
but ya, the FRB rep actually suggested that as a possible route until we touch base again bc places like SoFi and CommonBond don't have origination or prepayment penalties.

SplitMyPants wrote:

cron1834 wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but can you refi with someone that gives a competitive rate, save for a year, and refi again with FRB? That way you’ll get FRB rates for most of the loan lifetime, and at least get down from Fedloan rates in the meantime. Is that doable? Or are there terms that prohibit or punish such a thing?

you totally can. only downside i can think of is it would be an extra hard credit pull, which im avoiding bc im pushing the recommended number of inquiries at the moment due to starting a new lease, new internet, etc.
but ya, the FRB rep actually suggested that as a possible route until we touch base again bc places like SoFi and CommonBond don't have origination or prepayment penalties.

I just started work, so I just started looking into refi-ing. Thanks for this, I'm going to pursue, I think.

Refi now and then refi again when bonuses are paid after your first full year of working (if you’re in biglaw).

cron1834 wrote:

SplitMyPants wrote:

cron1834 wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but can you refi with someone that gives a competitive rate, save for a year, and refi again with FRB? That way you’ll get FRB rates for most of the loan lifetime, and at least get down from Fedloan rates in the meantime. Is that doable? Or are there terms that prohibit or punish such a thing?

you totally can. only downside i can think of is it would be an extra hard credit pull, which im avoiding bc im pushing the recommended number of inquiries at the moment due to starting a new lease, new internet, etc.
but ya, the FRB rep actually suggested that as a possible route until we touch base again bc places like SoFi and CommonBond don't have origination or prepayment penalties.

I just started work, so I just started looking into refi-ing. Thanks for this, I'm going to pursue, I think.

the down side of this is the 20-year graduate repayment offered by the fed loans allows much more cash (that I would otherwise throw into loans) to be put into liquid savings (e.g. an after tax investment account w/ Betterment) enabling me to hit the 15% requirement far more quickly than if I were making SoFi payments on, e.g., a 10-year refi. Plus, with a 10-year refi, the rates arent too much better than my average rates now given that I'll be doing another refi with FRB in 6 months. And if I wanted to get a lower rate for the next 6 months to justify the refi now, e.g., by doing a 5-year w/ SoFi, then that makes it even harder to save for the 15% minimum...

Just food for thought, it may just be more worthwhile to stick w/ the lowest payment possible on the fed loans and save aggressively for the 15% minimum to refi w/ FRB earlier

SplitMyPants wrote:

cron1834 wrote:

SplitMyPants wrote:

cron1834 wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but can you refi with someone that gives a competitive rate, save for a year, and refi again with FRB? That way you’ll get FRB rates for most of the loan lifetime, and at least get down from Fedloan rates in the meantime. Is that doable? Or are there terms that prohibit or punish such a thing?

you totally can. only downside i can think of is it would be an extra hard credit pull, which im avoiding bc im pushing the recommended number of inquiries at the moment due to starting a new lease, new internet, etc.
but ya, the FRB rep actually suggested that as a possible route until we touch base again bc places like SoFi and CommonBond don't have origination or prepayment penalties.

I just started work, so I just started looking into refi-ing. Thanks for this, I'm going to pursue, I think.

the down side of this is the 20-year graduate repayment offered by the fed loans allows much more cash (that I would otherwise throw into loans) to be put into liquid savings (e.g. an after tax investment account w/ Betterment) enabling me to hit the 15% requirement far more quickly than if I were making SoFi payments on, e.g., a 10-year refi. Plus, with a 10-year refi, the rates arent too much better than my average rates now given that I'll be doing another refi with FRB in 6 months. And if I wanted to get a lower rate for the next 6 months to justify the refi now, e.g., by doing a 5-year w/ SoFi, then that makes it even harder to save for the 15% minimum...

Just food for thought, it may just be more worthwhile to stick w/ the lowest payment possible on the fed loans and save aggressively for the 15% minimum to refi w/ FRB earlier

All reasonable points. I suppose I could manually calculate how much it would cost in accrued interest to stay Fed for the year, as compared with delaying FRB a little longer by virtue of having an elevated payment with Sofi or CB. Fed flexibility is nice if nothing else.

Desert Fox wrote:Have you considered doing PAYE and never paying off the loans. For people with loans over 200k, this is often the better strategy.

at 190k, it's questionable whether I should have refinanced

but here I am 3 years later down to 125k now at 2.95%/15 yr FRB re-refinance (plus a rate/term modification). strongly disliked the debt hanging over me, but PAYE for life was probably the better choice still

SplitMyPants wrote:

cron1834 wrote:

SplitMyPants wrote:

cron1834 wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but can you refi with someone that gives a competitive rate, save for a year, and refi again with FRB? That way you’ll get FRB rates for most of the loan lifetime, and at least get down from Fedloan rates in the meantime. Is that doable? Or are there terms that prohibit or punish such a thing?

you totally can. only downside i can think of is it would be an extra hard credit pull, which im avoiding bc im pushing the recommended number of inquiries at the moment due to starting a new lease, new internet, etc.
but ya, the FRB rep actually suggested that as a possible route until we touch base again bc places like SoFi and CommonBond don't have origination or prepayment penalties.

I just started work, so I just started looking into refi-ing. Thanks for this, I'm going to pursue, I think.

the down side of this is the 20-year graduate repayment offered by the fed loans allows much more cash (that I would otherwise throw into loans) to be put into liquid savings (e.g. an after tax investment account w/ Betterment) enabling me to hit the 15% requirement far more quickly than if I were making SoFi payments on, e.g., a 10-year refi. Plus, with a 10-year refi, the rates arent too much better than my average rates now given that I'll be doing another refi with FRB in 6 months. And if I wanted to get a lower rate for the next 6 months to justify the refi now, e.g., by doing a 5-year w/ SoFi, then that makes it even harder to save for the 15% minimum...

Just food for thought, it may just be more worthwhile to stick w/ the lowest payment possible on the fed loans and save aggressively for the 15% minimum to refi w/ FRB earlier

fyi, i was emailling with FRB and their rates are going up effective Jan 15th:

Still good, but the gap between that ten year and what Common Bond quotes me has shrunk...