Best Student Loans

Aside from choosing your own loan amount, most private student loan lenders offer rather one-size-fits-all options. That’s not the case with Earnest; aside from its low rates, it offers the most customizable private student loans you’ll find on the marketplace, and that’s why it’s our top pick. If anything, it’ll be a tougher challenge to dial in the exact options for your own loan. 

Earnest starts by asking you what payment you can afford each month, and that can be a tough number to pin down since you don’t have a crystal ball to know how much you’ll be earning. But give it your best guess, and Earnest will present you with 180 different term length options to choose from (you can also just opt for a certain term length, too). You can choose from four different repayment plans while you’re in school (parents will only have two options) which can help you better control your loan payments post-graduation.

What if you were able to band together with other students to negotiate for a lower rate on your private student loans, a-la a union? That’s the premise behind Juno (formerly LeverEdge). It’s not a student loan lender in its own right, but it is a first-of-its-kind student loan negotiation company. 

Juno works like this: First, you sign up to join its free list by providing your estimated financial details (actual verification comes later). You’re essentially putting your name down as someone who may be interested in a negotiated deal on a private student loan. You can sign up anytime, but Juno doesn’t start negotiations until the spring when it sends its list details out to “dozens of lenders,” who compete to offer the lowest rate. 

Juno picks the winner, and then sends you the details of the negotiated offer, and you can choose whether you want to apply from there. It’s a somewhat-confusing process but it does have the potential to offer the lowest private student loan rates you’ll ever get, and that’s why we included it on our list. 

One way you can speed up the loan shopping process is by using a student loan marketplace, and Credible is one of the best. When you get pre-qualified through Credible you can check your rates with up to eight lenders at once, allowing you to easily see who you qualify with and what rates the lenders can offer you. Unlike some marketplaces, Credible lets you know exactly which lenders are in its partner network so you don’t need to worry about checking with the same lender twice if you shop around on your own. 

Credible also offers a best-rate guarantee. If you can find a lower rate with another lender, subject to certain terms, Credible will offer you a $200 gift card. The downside is that Credible doesn’t cover the full range of lenders out there (no marketplace does, after all), so it’s still a good idea to do some rate shopping on your own.

SoFi has somewhat of a reputation as a premier student loan lender. Perhaps it’s because you or your co-signer will need a higher credit score compared with other lenders (650 to 700 minimum). Or maybe it’s because of the wealth of benefits that SoFi rains down on its borrowers: everything from complimentary one-on-one access to financial planners and career coaches to exclusive events and lounge access at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. 

SoFi is a good private student loan option for just about anyone (assuming you qualify), but it has some extra-special benefits for parents. If you take out a loan for your child’s college education, SoFi is one of the few lenders that will later allow your child to refinance your loan in their own name, assuming they’re willing and able to take over repayment on the loan for you. 

In addition, SoFi offers a rare perk in the private loan world: loan forgiveness in the unfortunate case that you pass away, which can be important if you want to leave an estate behind for your heirs.

Most lenders charge higher rates for private student loans for graduate students, but that’s not the case with the nonprofit lender Iowa Student Loans, or ISL. Instead, it offers four different loan options: two each for undergrads and graduate students without a co-signer, one for parents and families, and one general-purpose loan that’s co-signer-optional for undergraduates and graduates. 

The difference for the designated non-co-signer loans is that you’ll need to meet certain academic requirements and they’re fairly limited, only being available for students studying in Iowa (undergrads and grads) or Illinois (undergrads only). But the rates are exceptionally good. Even if you only qualify for the highest rates that ISL has to offer, they’re still half of what most other lenders charge. 

Getting funding for school in the U.S. can be tougher if you’re an international student or have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status; in that case, we recommend checking your rates with Ascent. You’ll need a co-signer who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident if you’re an international student, although that’s not required for DACA students unless you’re unable to meet the requirements for a non-co-signed loan. 

Ascent also offers many loan options, both with a co-signer and without. Its non-co-signed loans do have an (undisclosed) minimum credit score and come in two flavors: one for if you already have at least two years of credit history, and one “outcomes-based” loan based on other factors like your GPA, major, etc. While some of its loans are expensive, Ascent does offer a unique graduation reward where, if you meet certain conditions (be sure to check these in advance), you can receive 1% of your loan balance back in cash. 

The rates that Education Loan Finance (better known as ELFI) offers on its student loans are some of the lowest out there, making it an attractive candidate to add to your rate-shopping list if cost is a primary factor for you. And if you’ve heard horror stories about bad customer service in the student loan industry, ELFI is a good option because it’ll assign you a dedicated customer support representative who can get to know you and your situation better, rather than talking to a random person every time. 

A few things to keep in mind, however: If you need a co-signer to get approved for the loan (and most students do), there’s no way to remove them later like with many other lenders. The only way to remove a co-signer from an ELFI loan is by refinancing it entirely. In addition, it’s geared toward people who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and studying for a bachelor’s degree or higher. 

Things often turn out very differently from what you had planned after you graduate. Maybe you were able to grow a stellar credit score while finishing your studies, or maybe your post-graduation income didn’t quite take off as expected. 

Either way, if you need to reassess your private student loans once you’ve got your diploma in hand, Splash Financial is a prime choice. It’s a bit like a very small marketplace, checking your rates with a few lenders exclusive to Splash, but it specializes entirely in student loan refinances. 

With most refinance loans, you’ll need to begin making full interest-and-principle payments immediately. But if you refinance medical or dental school loans with Splash while you’re in residency, you’ll have the option of making fixed monthly payments of $100 instead. This can help lighten your monthly expenses, but you’ll end up paying more over the life of the loan compared to someone making full payments.

Splash and its partner lenders charge no application, origination, or prepayment fees, but there may be other fees involved depending on your lender. 

Funding U is a very different lender than most, starting with the fact that it bases its lending decisions on your academic trajectory, rather than just income and credit like with most student loan companies. In fact, you don’t even have the option of applying with a co-signer. Funding U will look at your credit reports to make sure you don’t have any red flags like bankruptcy, but aside from that, it’ll base its decision on your career plans and current academic performance. 

That’s both good and bad news. Not everyone is able to find a co-signer, so this is a great option if that’s your case. You might have problems getting approved, however, if you’re a newer college student, don’t have good grades, or are in certain career paths that don’t point toward high incomes later. In addition, it’s only available to full-time undergraduates but it still requires payments while you’re in school. The minimum you can opt to pay is $20 so that’s not much, but if you’re going to school full-time, even that amount can be hard to manage.