#1
Earnest Student Loan Refinancing
Earnest
- Fixed APR · Ranked on
- 3.94%–9.99% with autopay
- Variable APR
- 5.88%–9.99% with autopay
- Loan amount
- $5,000–$550,000
- Term
- 5–20 years
- Credit score
- 650 minimum
Student loan refinancing
Best student loan refinancing, September 2026
By David Green, updated September 9, 2026.
Refinancing takes about fifteen minutes and there is no penalty for doing it more than once. If a lender will cut your rate today, every month you wait costs you money.
Our pick is Earnest Student Loan Refinancing, from 3.94% fixed APR on terms of 5 years to 20 years.
The shortlist
Top Lenders
Sample listings. These lenders and their figures stand in for real ones while we connect them, so nothing here is an offer.
#2
SoFi Student Loan Refinancing
SoFi
- Fixed APR · Ranked on
- 3.99%–10.99% with autopay
- Variable APR
- 5.74%–10.99% with autopay
- Loan amount
- From $5,000
- Term
- 5–20 years
What refinancing would cost you
Set your balance and the rate you are paying now. Every row is what that balance would cost with each lender, and what it would save against the loan you already have.
$
%
New term
Sorted by total cost over 10 years on $45,000
LenderAPRMonthlyTotal interestAgainst your loan
Earnest Student Loan Refinancing
Earnest
3.94%
$454
$9,519
Saves $7,625
SoFi Student Loan Refinancing
SoFi
3.99%
$455
$9,647
Saves $7,497
Payments assume the best rate each lender advertises, which is the one a lender gives its strongest applicants. The rate you are offered depends on your own file. All of this is worked out in your browser, and nothing you type here leaves it.
The rule
How we ranked these
Ordered by the lowest APR a lender would actually offer you at a term whose payment you can make, then, where rates are close, by servicing flexibility and how the lender is rated by its own customers.
Every figure on a card is read from the lender's own published terms and carries the date it was last checked.
Should you refinance?
Three questions to answer
1. Does it save you money at a payment you can afford?
Rate and term come as a pair. A lender quotes a rate for each term it offers, and the shorter the term the lower the rate, because it carries less risk. So you are not picking a rate and then a payment, you are picking between whole offers: five years at a lower rate with a bigger payment, or ten years at a higher rate with a smaller one.
Choose the payment you are certain you can make in a bad month, not the one you can just about manage in a good one. If you have spare money you can always pay more than the minimum. You cannot un-miss a payment, and a missed payment does more damage to your credit than the extra interest ever will.
2. Which are you solving for, the payment or the total cost?
These are two different goals and they do not always move together. Often a refinance gives you both, because a lower rate cuts the monthly payment and the total interest at the same time. Sometimes it does not. Stretch the term and the payment comes down while the total cost goes up.
Neither answer is wrong. If what you need is room in your budget every month, paying more over the life of the loan to get it can be a perfectly reasonable trade. What you should not do is make that trade without noticing you made it. The calculator above shows both figures for every offer. Decide which one you came here to fix, then check what happened to the other one.
3. Are any loans federal, and would you miss the protections?
Refinancing replaces federal loans with a private one. Federal protections like Income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) go with them, and that cannot be undone.
For many people refinancing, this is a fine trade as you may be unlikely to ever use any of those protections, and a lower rate is worth real money every month.
If everything you owe is already private, none of this applies to you.
A worked example
The cheaper rate comes with the bigger payment
$45,000 refinanced two ways.
-
$849 a month
Five years at 4.99% APR. $5,940 in total interest.
-
$511 a month
Ten years at 6.49% APR. $16,288 in total interest.
The five-year loan costs $10,348 less and asks for $338 more every month for sixty months. Pick the payment you are sure you can make, then pay down extra principal it when you can.
Tiebreakers
What to check when two rates are close
None of these is a reason to accept a worse rate, but can help break a tie when you have two similar offers.
Customer reviews
Trustpilot and similar, for how the lender behaves once you are a customer rather than while it is selling to you.
Customer service
Worth something when a payment date needs to move. Not worth a higher rate.
Servicing flexibility
Whether you can change the payment date, pause for a month, pay biweekly, or release a cosigner later.
Autopay discount
This one moves the APR, so count it in the rate rather than treating it as a perk.
Before you sign
Nine things to confirm
Questions
Questions borrowers ask
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How long does refinancing take?
About fifteen minutes to apply, and usually one to three weeks until the new lender pays off the old loan. You keep paying the old loan until you are told it is settled.
-
Does refinancing hurt my credit score?
Prequalifying does not: it is a soft check, and you can do it with as many lenders as you like. The full application is a hard check, which may temporarily impact your credit score.
-
How many lenders should I prequalify with?
Three to five. Each one is a soft check, the rates genuinely differ, and the only way to know what you would be offered is to ask.
-
Can I refinance more than once?
Yes, as often as a lender will have you, and there is no penalty for it. If rates fall or your credit improves, refinancing again is the same fifteen minutes.
-
Can I refinance federal loans, and what do I lose?
You can, and you lose the federal protections permanently. Income-driven repayment, federal forbearance and deferment, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness do not survive the move, and the decision cannot be reversed.
-
Fixed or variable?
Fixed, unless you are confident you will clear the balance quickly. A variable rate starts lower and can rise for the rest of the term, and the saving rarely covers that risk over ten years.
-
What credit score do I need?
Most lenders want the high 600s to qualify and the mid 700s for their best advertised rate. Steady income and a debt load a lender thinks you can carry matter alongside the score.
-
Does a cosigner help?
Usually yes, and often by more than anything else you can change quickly. Ask when the cosigner can be released before you sign, because that varies more than the rate does.
Ready to choose
Our pick, if you want one answer
Sample listings. These lenders and their figures stand in for real ones while we connect them, so nothing here is an offer.
#1
Earnest Student Loan Refinancing
Earnest
- Fixed APR · Ranked on
- 3.94%–9.99% with autopay
- Variable APR
- 5.88%–9.99% with autopay
- Loan amount
- $5,000–$550,000
- Term
- 5–20 years
- Credit score
- 650 minimum
Earnest Student Loan Refinancing has the lowest advertised rate here, at 3.94%, and writes balances from $5,000 to $550,000.
A different lender wins in one case: if you need a term shorter than five years, or your balance is above what this one will write, price the others in the calculator above before you apply.
How we make money
We may earn a commission when you refinance through a link on this page. It never moves a position: the order is computed from published figures before any of that is considered.