Student Loan Refinancing: FAQs

If ELFI does not receive any part of a payment within ten days after the due date, it may assess a late fee of 5% of the past due amount or $50, whichever is less. The borrower may be charged $30 for any payment (including electronic payments) that is returned unpaid for any reason.

Factors that determine monthly payments include the amount of the loan, the type of loan product, the term of the loan, and interest rate (fixed or variable). To get an estimate of what you can expect and what term might be right for you, try out our Payment Calculator.

There is no penalty for paying off loans early. You can pay more than the monthly amount if you would like without incurring a penalty.

Typically, it will take 30-45 days for the existing loan provider to receive the payment and apply it to your account. It is essential to check with your current provider to see if the payoff is applied to your account.

To avoid missing a payment, you will have to continue paying your current lender until disbursement goes through. ELFI will apply any amount overpaid to your current lender to the principal balance on your new loan.

The monthly payment amount is in the Truth in Lending Approval disclosure sent by ELFI upon loan acceptance. Once this document is approved, one of our servicing partners, either MOHELA or AES, will reach out to set up your account payment information.

ELFI has two loan servicing partners, MOHELA (Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority) and AES (American Education Services). Once you finish refinancing your student loans, your assigned loan servicer will reach out to you directly. At this point, you will set up an account with them to make your monthly payments.

Yes, we highly recommend you sign up for the convenience of e-statements. It is quick and easy to sign up through your loan servicer. Your servicer, either MOHELA or AES, is assigned to you upon successfully refinancing your student loans with ELFI.

Yes, you should continue making payments on your existing student loans during the refinancing process until your outstanding loans are paid off as reflected by a $0 balance for each of your loans at your current servicer(s). This is to ensure that you do not risk having a late payment with your current servicer(s) as it can take between 2-3 weeks for the loans you are refinancing to pay off and for funds to post.

Our payoff of your outstanding loans may post after your payment(s) on your refinanced loans, which may cause an overpayment with your previous lender(s). In this case, we request the funds be sent back to us, and we then apply them to the principal balance of your ELFI loan and backdate it to the day we disbursed the initial payoff. Receiving the refund and applying it to your account can take between 4-6 weeks.