EDvestinU Student Loan Refinancing: Pros and Cons

EdvestinU is a different kind of lender. The company specializes in providing student loans and refinancing existing student loans. EdvestinU is a national student loan program offered by the New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corporation (NHHELCO) and is a nonprofit agency.

How EDvestinU Student Loan Refinancing Works

EdvestinU allows borrowers to refinance and consolidate any of their student loans. Both federal and private student loans are eligible for refinancing. Parents who took out Parent PLUS student loans can also refinance their existing loans with EdvestinU. The two types of loans cannot be refinanced together, however, since the named borrower must be the same on all loans.

Borrowers must have at least $7,500 in student loans to be eligible for refinancing. EdvestinU allows borrowers to refinance up to a total of $200,000 in outstanding student loans.

Borrowers do not necessarily need a cosigner in order to get approved, but a cosigner may help the borrower meet income requirements or qualify for a lower interest rate. EdvestinU requires annual income of at least $30,000 to refinance student loans up to $100,000 and annual income of at least $50,000 to refinance over $100,000 in student loans.

Before applying to refinance a student loan, you need to gather information about the loans you want to refinance. You’ll need the lender and loan servicer name, account number, total number of loans, current interest rate, and 30-day payoff amount.

In addition to this information about your loans, you’ll have to provide the name of your employer and your annual income along with two personal references. Once you have all of this information, you can complete your online application. You may need to provide documents that verify the information you enter on your application.

What Are the Benefits of EDvestinU?

Since EdvestinU is part of a nonprofit agency, the company has a strong focus on educating and serving the community. Borrowers have access to expert loan counselors from the time they apply for a loan to the time they make their final student loan payment.

If a borrower needs a cosigner in order to receive a loan through EdvestinU, the cosigner can be released from their financial obligation on the loan after the borrower makes on-time payments for 36 consecutive months. Many private loans don’t provide that opportunity to cosigners.

Also, EdvestinU doesn’t worry about posting high profits for shareholders, so the company can focus more on providing value and service to its clients and the community.

What Are the Costs and Negatives of EDvestinU?

Borrowers who refinance their student loan with EdvestinU can choose their repayment term and whether they want a fixed or variable interest rate. Loan interest rates depend on the amount, term, and creditworthiness of the borrower, but they range from 3.86% to 8.14%. Borrowers can choose a 5-, 10-, 15-, or 20-year repayment term.

Although EdvestinU refinances both federal and private student loans, the new loan with them is a new private student loan. As a result, the borrower forfeits any benefits they may have been eligible to receive on a federal student loan. For example, their student loans are no longer eligible for public service loan forgiveness, teacher loan forgiveness, or any other similar loan forgiveness program. Borrowers also lose the ability to request income-driven repayments on their student loans.

While normally student loan borrowers can only apply for student loan refinancing or consolidation after graduation, borrowers don’t have to wait until they graduate to refinance and consolidate their loans through EdvestinU, but EdvestinU doesn’t allow borrowers a complete grace period while they are still in school, as some types of loans do. Students enrolled at least half-time must make monthly interest payments, and students enrolled less than half-time must start making full monthly principal and interest payments.

>> Read More: List of student loan companies

Bottom Line

Since EdvestinU is part of a nonprofit agency, the company can offer benefits such as loan counseling services and low interest rates to borrowers. The interest rates are some of the most competitive on the market, and borrowers also have more choice in their repayment term than many lenders offer.

As a nonprofit, however, EdvestinU has a lower risk tolerance than other financial institutions involved in originating student loans. The requirements for loan approval are stringent, and only the most qualified borrowers are more likely to get approved by EdvestinU.