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3.50% to 6.01%
APR
None
Max. Loan Amount
680
Min. Credit Score
| Product Name | Education Loan Finance Student Loan Refinancing |
|---|---|
| Minimum Loan Amount | $15,000 |
| Max. Loan Amount | None |
| APR | 3.50% to 6.01% |
| Interest Rate Type | Variable |
| Minimum Loan Term | 5 years |
| Maximum Loan Term | 20 years |
| Requirements | Must have a bachelor's degree or higher, good credit, annual income of $35,000+, low debt-to-income ratio. |
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Anna Serio is a trusted loans expert who's published more than 800 articles on Finder to help Americans strengthen their financial literacy. A former editor of a newspaper in Beirut, Anna writes about personal, student, business and car loans. Today, digital publications like Fundera, Business.com, and ValueWalk feature her professional advice, and she earned an Expert Contributor in Finance badge from review site Best Company in 2020.
Education Loan Finance (ELFI) is ideal for good-credit borrowers with high debt loads looking to qualify for a lower rate. It offers the option to match competitors’ rates, and you won’t have to pay an origination fee. Plus, it’s one of the few lenders that allows you to refinance federal Parent PLUS Loans into your child’s name.
But you’ll need to have good credit and a low debt-to-income ratio to qualify. And you’re not eligible if you never finished your degree.
Not sure ELFI is right for you? Compare other refinancing options below.
To be eligible for ELFI student loan refinancing, you or your cosigner must:
While ELFI doesn’t mention any hard credit or income requirements, you might have a better chance of being approved if you make at least $35,000. Most lenders won’t approve applicants with a debt-to-income ratio above 50%.
Education Loan Finance is SouthEast Bank’s student loan refinancing and consolidation program with three decades of working with student loans under its belt. With ELFI, you can refinance both federal and private student loans — even federal consolidation loans. Its rates are highly competitive and it can sometimes even match offers from other lenders if they’re lower.
If you decide to refinance with ELFI, buckle up for the long haul. Its application isn’t complicated but ELFI tends to ask for more documentation than other refinancing providers, which can take a while to gather.
It’s possible that you’ll get lower rates by refinancing, especially if you have unsubsidized or PLUS loans. However, refinancing any federal student loan means you’ll lose access to several benefits that most private providers don’t offer. Carefully weigh what you’ll lose and gain before refinancing any federal loans.
How much you’ll pay to refinance a loan through ELFI depends on several factors, like how much student debt you have and your creditworthiness. Ideally you’ll start saving right away — ELFI doesn’t charge origination or application fees.
With ELFI, you can choose between a variable APR, which changes every three months, or a fixed APR, which stays the same through the life of your loan. Variable rates currently range from 3.50% to 6.01%. Fixed rates range from 4.50% to 6.69%. Loan terms range from 5 to 20 years.
ELFI calculates variable rates by adding between 0.95% and 4.85% to the three-month LIBOR rate, a baseline interest rate that many other education lenders use to calculate variable rates. The maximum variable interest rate anyone can get is 9.95%, no matter how high the LIBOR rate goes.
ELFI doesn’t offer any discounts on its refinancing loans, exactly. But you can get $400 by referring a friend to ELFI — as long as they’re approved. Your friend will also get a $100 check just for applying through ELFI’s referral program.
If you’ve seen some information on ELFI’s Fast Track bonus, you’re out of luck. As of December 1, 2018, ELFI is no longer offering this feature.
ELFI only offers a standard repayment plan where each month you repay the same amount. If your financial situation changes and you can’t afford your monthly repayment, reach out to ELFI to see if it can grant you forbearance.
Mostly good things, though there isn’t a lot of online chatter about ELFI. While there were no customer comments on its Better Business Bureau (BBB) or Trustpilot pages, forums like Reddit had a couple threads on ELFI. Most customers were pleased with how low their rates were compared to other lenders and how quickly they were able to get an offer.
As of March 2019, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) gives it a A+ rating. There are several complaints listed, they appear to involve miscommunications over the application process but don’t necessarily show a negative trend.
Get ready to apply for ELFI by gathering together the following documents:
If you prequalify, ELFI will give you information on the types of rates and terms you might be able to get.
After your loan is disbursed, you’ll start making repayments through one of ELFI’s servicers: Mohela or American Education Services (AES).
Education Loan Finance operates as an online lender, but has the weight of a bank behind it to make sure your loan is handled smoothly. It’s funded over $18 million in student loans and offers free resources like scholarship searches and financial literacy products to help borrowers make a more informed decision.
Not sure ELFI is right for you? Read our guide to student loan refinancing to compare more lenders.