Student Loan Refinance Calculator

Often. Moving a federal loan to a private lender permanently ends income-driven repayment, federal forgiveness programs, and federal deferment and forbearance, and there is no path back. The move makes sense only when every condition holds: stable income, a real emergency fund, no public service plans, no likely need for income-based payments, and a rate cut of at least 1.5 to 2 percentage points. Miss any of those and the safer answer is to leave federal loans where they are.

Pricing follows your credit profile. Borrowers above a 740 score with steady income have typically seen fixed offers in the 3.5% to 5.5% range, while the 670 to 740 band tends to draw 5.5% to 8%. Actual offers move with the broader rate environment, so treat those bands as relative rather than promised. Most lenders prequalify you with a soft credit pull that does not touch your score, which makes shopping three or four of them free.

Most lenders will combine them into one new loan with one payment. Resist the tidiness. Any federal loan swept into the refinance loses its protections forever, while your private loans never had them to lose. The better structure is usually a refinance of the private loans only, with the federal loans left untouched so income-based options and forgiveness remain available if life changes.

Refinance $45,000 at 4.5% over 5 years and the payment is $839 with about $5,300 in total interest. The same loan over 15 years costs $344 a month but around $17,000 in interest, more than triple the shorter term. There is no universally right answer; there is your budget. Take the shortest term whose payment you can hold through a bad month, not just a good one.

Fixed holds for the whole term. Variable opens lower and then tracks a market index, usually SOFR or prime, and a loan that starts at 3.5% can pass 7% over a decade if rates run against you. Variable pricing is a reasonable bet on a 5-year term you plan to pay ahead of schedule. Past ten years it is mostly a gamble on rate cycles, and the certainty of a fixed rate tends to be worth its higher starting number.

A formal application triggers a hard inquiry, which typically costs 5 to 10 points for a while. Prequalification with a soft pull costs nothing, which is why lenders lead with it. After the refinance closes, the new account lowers your average account age briefly, and then a record of on-time payments generally rebuilds the score past where it started.

The reputable end of the market charges no origination fee, no application fee, and no prepayment penalty, so a lender who charges any of them needs to beat the fee-free competition by enough to cover it. An origination fee of 1% to 5% is the common offender: 2% on a $50,000 refinance is $1,000 gone before the first payment. Compare offers on total cost over the term, never on the headline rate alone.