Credible is an online lending marketplace specializing in a range of products, including student loan refinancing. It shows real pre-qualified rates for loans that are available to you, without any impact to your credit score. Most importantly, it lets you see a side-by-side cost breakdown of each lender, making it easy for you to compare and decide which student loan refi is best for you. Founded in 2012, Credible has helped more than 1.4 million borrowers compare prequalified rates for a variety of loan products.
Loan types: Refinance federal and private loans
APRs: Variable rates start from 1.81%, fixed rates start from 2.15%
Repayment terms: 5-20 years
Refi amount: $5,000 to $500,000
Origination fees: No
Credible is 100% free to use. It only makes money when one you take a loan from one of its 13 partnering lenders (Advantage Education Loans, Brazos, Citizens, College Ave, Commonbond, EDvestinU, ELFI, InvestED, ISL Education Lending, MEFA, PenFed, and RISLA).
Credible’s business model allows it to offer the lowest possible rates from its partners. At time of writing (August 2021), its rates started from 1.81% for variable-rate loans and 2.15% for fixed-rate loans, beating out most of the competition.
Credible only works with vetted lenders and guarantees that its lenders will never charge you origination fees or prepayment penalties.
All Credible partners offer repayment terms ranging from 5-20 years. However, there is a subtle difference from partner to partner. Some partners offer as few as two options (5 or 20 years), others offer four or five (e.g. 5, 7, 10, 15, or 20 years) and a handful of partners offer 16 options (5 years, 6 years, 7 years, 8 years, 9 years, etc., all the way up to 20 years).
All Credible student loan refinance partners offer a 0.25% rate discount for using autopay to make monthly payments. Aside from that, the discounts and rewards vary. Some partnering lenders offer refer-a-friend discounts, cash-back schemes, and other rewards.
Credible itself offers a $200 best rate guarantee. If Credible can’t help you find the best student loan refinancing rate, it will give you $200, provided that you:
Applying for a student loan refinance through Credible involves a 3-step process that takes only about 7-10 minutes to complete.
1. Fill out a simple online form (2 mins). Use one form to see personalized refinance offers from multiple lenders. At this stage, your credit score won’t be impacted and your information won’t be shared with lenders.
2. Choose an option you like (2 mins). Compare APRs, monthly payments, and loan amounts from multiple lenders side-by-side, using Credible’s user-friendly tools to quickly find the best plan for you.
3. Provide your details (3 mins). Use Credible’s easy import tools to select which loans you want to refinance. Next, provide some additional details about yourself to finish the loan application.
4. Get your final offer. Credible handles the entire process. Once you’re done, you should get your final offer in as little as one business day.
Many of Credible’s partners allow borrowers to apply for a student loan refinance with a cosigner. Cosigner release rules vary from lender to lender. For example, some Credible partners allow cosigner release after 12 or 24 months of consecutive payments, while others don’t allow cosigner release at all.
Credible offers live chat and phone support from Mon-Thu, 6 am – 6pm, Fri, 6 am – 4pm, and Sat-Sun, 7 am – 4 pm (all Pacific time). You can also reach Credible by . Credible has its headquarters in San Francisco.
With so many student loan refinance companies on the internet, it’s hard to know where to begin your search. Credible exploits this situation to your advantage, forcing top lenders to compete to offer you the best refinancing rates. The bottom line: Credible can help you obtain great offers from some of America’s best student refinance providers, in minutes, at no cost.