Earnest Student Loan Refinancing Review

Earnest offers custom repayment terms to borrowers who qualify to refinance up to $500,000 in student loan debt without a cosigner.

By Matt Carter

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Written by

Matt Carter

Contributor

Matt Carter has spent over 20 years covering mortgages and student loans. He has provided his financial insight to CNBC, CNN Money, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Edited by Ashley Harrison

Written by

Ashley Harrison

Contributor

Ashley Harrison has over six years of experience as an authority on personal finance. Her work has been featured by USA TODAY Blueprint, Forbes Advisor, Fox Business, and Yahoo Money.

Updated November 25, 2024

Editorial disclosure: Our goal is to give you the tools and confidence you need to improve your finances.

If you’ve looked into student loan refinancing, you’ve probably heard of Earnest, one of the nation’s largest student loan refinancing companies. Earnest, which was acquired by student loan servicer Navient in 2017, refinanced $2.8 billion in student loans in 2018.

Earnest student loan refinancing key facts

Advertiser Disclosure

Best for fair credit

Earnest

4.8

Credible Rating

Check Rates

on Credible’s website

Min. Credit Score

665

Fixed APR

Variable APR

Loan Amount

$5,000 to 500,000

Term

5, 7, 10, 15, 20

Pros and cons

Low minimum credit score requirement

Flexible options for structuring your loan payments

Option to skip a payment every six months

No origination or late payment fees

Cosigners are not accepted

Loans aren’t available to Nevada residents

More details

Overview

Earnest student loan refinancing offers flexibility and accessibility, with loans available to borrowers with credit scores as low as 665. Borrowers can customize their repayment terms by setting their exact monthly payment or choosing a specific loan term, down to the number of months. If you opt for higher monthly payments you may qualify for Earnest's most competitive rates.

For borrowers facing financial challenges, Earnest offers a skip-a-payment option. After six months of on-time payments, you can skip one payment every 12 months without penalty. Keep in mind, though, that the skipped principal and interest charges will be distributed across your remaining payments, slightly increasing your monthly payment.

Interest rates

Fixed or variable

Minimum credit score

665

Minimum income

No minimum income requirement, but borrower must be employed, have a written job offer that starts within six months, or demonstrate consistent income.

Loan terms

Flexible

Loan amounts

$5,000 minimum, up to $500,000

Cosigner release

None

Eligibility

Must be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, DACA recipient, asylee, or hold an H-1B visa with a U.S. citizen cosigner. Must have debt from a Title IV-accredited school and be current on rent or mortgage payments. Loans must also be in good standing. California residents must refinance at least $10,000, and New Mexico residents must refinance at least $10,001.

Earnest lets you refinance federal and private loans, federal PLUS loans, and parent PLUS loans — but only if they’re in your own name. You can’t refinance parent PLUS loans that your parents took out on your behalf.

How to qualify

To qualify for Earnest student loan refinancing, you’ll need:

Minimum credit score: 665
Employment: You should be working and have a steady income, or have a written job offer for a position that starts within six months
Finances: Your savings should cover at least two months of expenses
Education: You can only refinance loans taken out for a degree you completed
Current on bills: You need to be current on your rent or mortgage, and you can’t have a bankruptcy or any accounts in collection on your credit report

Repayment

One of the most unique features of Earnest is the ability to choose a custom repayment term. There are 180 options ranging from 5 to 20 years, which gives you the flexibility to choose a loan with a monthly payment that’s the best fit for your budget.

The shorter the repayment term, the higher the monthly payment and the lower the interest rate you’ll be offered. If you’d like to repay your loan in 8.5 years instead of 10, for example, that could help you save money in interest.

Earnest student loan refinancing pros and cons

Pros

Low minimum credit score requirement
Flexible options for structuring your loan payments
Option to skip a payment every six months
No origination or late payment fees

Cons

Cosigners are not accepted
Loans aren’t available to Nevada residents

Compare current student loan rates

How Earnest can improve

By serving borrowers with less than excellent credit, and offering unique features like customizable repayment terms, Earnest has carved out a niche for itself in the crowded field of lenders who offer student loan refinancing.

Earnest might be a good choice for even more borrowers if it:

Offered the option to refinance with a cosigner
Let you refinance your Parent PLUS loans in your own name
Offered refinancing to residents of Delaware, Kentucky, and Nevada

Why you should trust us

The Credible editorial team is independent and unbiased. Partners do not influence our editorial content. To help you find the best student loan refinance lender for your situation, we conduct thorough research and analyze thousands of lender data points. Using data-driven methodologies, we score criteria that are important to you. This allows us to objectively rank student loan refinance lenders and products. To learn more, read our methodology below.

Methodology

We evaluated student loan refinance lenders based on 18 data points in the categories of eligibility, repayment options, interest rates, loan terms, and customer support. We ranked the best lenders based on the weightings assigned to each category:

Eligibility: 25%
Repayment options: 25%
Interest rates: 20%
Loan terms: 20%
Customer support: 10%

Within the categories, we considered characteristics including APR ranges, whether borrowers can prequalify before they apply, available loan amounts, origination fees, discounts, whether cosigners are accepted, and more. Credible's team of experts gathered information from each lender's website, customer service department, directly from our partners, and via email support. We verified each data point to make sure it was accurate and up to date.

To find out more about how Credible rates student loan refinance lenders, check out our student loan refinancing lender methodology.

Meet the expert:

Matt Carter

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