Student Loan Refinancing: FAQs

ELFI is a nationwide student loan debt consolidation and refinance program offered by Tennessee based SouthEast Bank. ELFI is designed to assist borrowers through consolidating and refinancing loans into one single loan that effectively lowers your cost of education debt and/or makes repayment very simple.

A common myth is that refinancing student loans is expensive, often due to confusion with other types of refinancing, like mortgage refinancing, which may involve fees such as closing costs. While some student loan refinances may include fees and closing costs, many lenders do not charge application or origination fees, and with ELFI, there are no application or origination fees or prepayment penalties, allowing you to pay off your new loan whenever you’d like.

Spouses are eligible to serve as a cosigner on an application, but we do not consolidate student loan debt among multiple borrowers.

Consolidating or refinancing your education loans may be the right decision for you if:

• You’d like to lower your monthly payments by choosing a longer repayment term.
• You have additional income because you can shorten the life of the loan.
• You want the simplicity of consolidating your loans into a single monthly payment.

Additionally, check out this guide to learn more about the signs that you should refinance student loans.

Some forms of loans can take months to process, but student loan refinancing is different. You can complete the application in minutes, and you can do everything online. Once you submit your application, the lender will review your information and make a decision. In some cases, you’ll find out whether or not you’re approved in as little as one business day, depending on whether you’ve submitted all of the required documentation.

If approved, the lender will work to disburse your loan. It can take a few days to a few weeks for that process to be completed, so keep making payments on your current debt until you receive a notification that the loan was disbursed. If you refinance your student loan with ELFI, you’ll have a Student Loan Advisor who will be your guide throughout the entire process.

You may think that student loan refinancing isn’t worth the work because it won’t save you enough money. But taking just a few minutes to submit a refinancing application can potentially help you save thousands over your loan repayment term.

Use ELFI’s student loan refinance calculator to find out how much money you could potentially save by refinancing your debt.

Some people hold off on student loan refinancing because they’re afraid it will damage their credit. However, lenders like ELFI allow you to get a potential rate quote (prequalify) with just a soft credit inquiry, which doesn’t affect your credit score.

If you find a quote that works for you and submit a refinancing application, the lender will then complete a hard credit inquiry, which can impact your credit. However, the effect is usually minimal. According to myFICO — the organization behind the FICO credit score — one hard credit inquiry will typically take less than five points off your FICO credit score.

If you are unable to repay the loan because of financial hardship or medical difficulty, ELFI may grant forbearance for up to 12 months. Forbearance is at the discretion of ELFI.

No, you don’t have to refinance or consolidate all of your student loans at once. During the application process, you will be asked to indicate the dollar amount and number of loans you want to refinance. If approved, ELFI will only pay off the loans you indicate. Learn more about how you can partially refinance student loans.