Refinancing your student loans can be a great way to relieve some of the financial burden that you may be facing.
And with many companies now providing a range of lending options, there’s no reason why you can’t find a solution that works for you.
After all, by locking in a lower interest rate on your student loans, you can potentially save yourself tens of thousands of dollars and months of repayments.
This article is going to provide further information on one of these companies: Credible.
It’s a great option that I would highly recommend. The application process is amazingly fast (and free!) and they state that the average saving per person is $18,668.
Best yet, as a special offer for readers of The Land of Milk and Money who sign-up through this link, you’ll receive a $100 bonus if your loan is less than $30,000 and a $200 bonus if your loan is $30,000 or higher.
What does student loan refinancing involve and is it right for me?
I would strongly recommend that you first read our article on How to Refinance Your Student Loans in Minutes and Save Thousands.
It sets out:
- A summary of some of the major players in student loan refinancing, including their pros and cons;
- The key factors that lenders will consider when determining whether to approve your application;
- Details on the application process;
- When refinancing your student loans may be a good idea for you; and
- (IMPORTANT) When refinancing may not be the best option in light of your circumstances.
What is Credible?
Credible is a company that does the hard work for you in finding you dozens of loan offers from a range of lenders.
The company describes itself as: “a marketplace that allows you to compare financial products from multiple providers side-by-side. Credible is not a lender, a bank or a credit card issuer — we partner with the best financial service providers so that they can provide you with a variety of competitive options, enabling you to find the right financial product for your needs.”
It’s essentially like a search engine for lenders. All you have to do is fill in a quick form and you’ll be able to review and compare loan offers that have been personalised for your circumstances.
This clearly saves you a ton of time, as you don’t have to approach each lender for an offer individually.
Offers set out a range of information, including the total repayment amount, the annual interest rate, the monthly repayment rate and the term of the loan.
Credible also allows you to refinance both federal and private loans.
(That said, please review our article on refinancing and consolidating your student loans for some of the issues you should closely look at when considering refinancing federal student loans.)
You can even use Credible to refinance your student loans if you didn’t ultimately graduate.
What about the financial benefit to me?
The site states that, on average, people approach them with $60,000 of student loans at an interest rate of 7% per annum.
However, once a person has refinanced using a loan they found through Credible, they say that they provide an average saving of $18,668 per person.
It’s completely free for you to review the offers available on Credible and it will not involve any hit to your credit.
In addition, some suggest that the fact that it displays a number of different lenders at once produces competition that works in your favour. Lenders know that you have immediate access to many of their competitors and so offers reflect that accordingly.
At the time of writing, variable rates are as low as 2.75% and fixed rates start at 3.35%.
(Sorry about the repetition, but I would recommend that you check out the above mentioned article on refinancing student loans for why you should seriously consider the fixed rate despite the fact that it is slightly higher than the variable rate.)
None of this is to mention the financial benefit of the limited time special offer that gives you a $100 bonus if your loan is less than $30,000 and a $200 bonus if your loan is $30,000 or more.
If Credible is free, what’s in it for them?
It’s true that you don’t pay anything for using Credible.
Instead, the company receives a fee from their lending partners when you take out a loan with them. Essentially, Credible receives a commission.
However, they state on their website that this does not affect the loan offers that are made available to you, including the type or order of such offers.
Is Credible trustworthy?
Firstly, please note that Credible is not a lender or a bank.
You are not borrowing money from them – they are simply showing you the available lending options.
(It’s similar to Expedia showing you flights that you ultimately buy from the airline or a travel agent, not Expedia itself.)
That said, all indications are that Credible is a very trustworthy company. We certainly understand that this is an important consideration, given that you’ll be sharing some personal and financial details with them when completing the initial form.
At the time of writing, the company has a score of 9.5 out of 10 on TrustPilot with 932 reviews, which is extremely high.
Credible also has a score of A+ from the Better Business Bureau.
In addition, they have been featured on a range of financial news websites, such as Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.
No major complaints about Credible could be found online. Some individual comments expressed disappointment that the interest rates offered to them were not as low as they had initially been led to believe they qualified for or that there were delays when people decided to proceed with a loan application. However, both types of criticisms are about the lenders themselves, not Credible, which has received broadly positive reviews.
How do I apply to use Credible?
It’s extremely easy.
1. Fill in the form
You must first complete their short form. This will take you about two minutes to complete.
It includes information such as which school you attended (or are attending), the amount you need and your income. If you’re using a co-signer, he or she may also need to complete the same form.
2. Review the rates and lenders on offer
The system will then show you a range of loan options that you may qualify for. Make sure you consider not only the interest rate (including whether variable or fixed is right for you), but also the length of the loan repayment period and the amount that you’ll be required to repay monthly.
You can use the various filters to help you find the best option for your circumstances, especially if certain lenders have a number of loan offers available.
Please note that you should always read the fine print on any loan offer. Depending on the information that is directly available on Credible about your specific offer, you may have to click through to the lender’s site to see the full terms and conditions.
3. Select the best offer for your situation
This will likely require you to provide some additional information, including supporting documentation, and the lender will undertake a hard credit check.
Once all of that’s done, you should receive a response from the lender in one to two business days.
If you’ve been approved, loan funds are generally disbursed directly to your previous lender.
Final thoughts
As you can see, the process is very straightforward, quick and, not to mention, free!
Importantly, the fact that it can save you thousands of dollars on your student loan repayments with almost no downsides means that it is an excellent option to look into.
We highly recommend Credible for refinancing and consolidating your student loans. While you should certainly shop around to get the best offer you can, Credible is a great starting point.
If you would like to look into a similar website to Credible, check out our review of LendKey.
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