ISL Education Lending Student Loan Refinancing Review

Best if:

• You’re still attending school
• You have good credit
• You expect your income to rise in the future

ISL Education Lending is a nonprofit lender that offers student loan refinancing for both student and parent borrowers. Unlike many other lenders, ISL Education Lending also allows borrowers to refinance while they’re still in school.

In this ISL Education Lending review:

• ISL Education Lending interest rates and loan details
• ISL Education Lending Student Loan refinancing review
• How ISL Education Lending compares to other lenders
• How to refinance student loans with ISL Education Lending
• How ISL Education Lending can improve

ISL Education Lending interest rates and loan details

With ISL Education Lending, you can refinance $5,000 to $300,000 of eligible federal or private student loans — though keep in mind that students who are still in school can refinance only up to $200,000.

Be careful when refinancing: While you can refinance federal student loans with ISL Education Lending, doing so will cost you your federal protections, such as access to income-driven repayment plans and student loan forgiveness programs.

You’ll also no longer qualify for the suspension of federal payments and interest accrual under the CARES Act due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are several important points about ISL Education Lending to consider:

ISL Education Lending Student Loan refinancing review

With a variety of loan options, ISL Education Lending could be a good choice for student loan refinancing — especially if you’re looking to refinance while you’re still in school.

ISL Education Lending offers fixed rates on all of its refinanced loans. This means your interest rate and monthly payment will stay the same over the life of the loan.

Additionally, if you refinance with ISL Education Lending, you won’t have to worry about origination or late fees.

Tip: Depending on your credit, you might qualify for a lower interest rate through refinancing. This could potentially help you save money and pay off your loans faster. For example, getting a better rate might help you pay off your student loans in 10 years or even pay off your student loans in just five years.

You can use our student loan refinancing calculator to see how much you can save by refinancing your student loans.

How to qualify

To qualify for refinancing with ISL Education Lending, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
• Have a credit score of 670 or higher
• Not spend more than 40% (or 45% if you have an income of $100,000 or more) of your gross monthly income on monthly credit payments, including mortgages, rent, car loans, credit cards, and other types of credit
• Have no more than two accounts with 30-day delinquencies and no accounts with 60-day delinquencies in the past two years
• Have no charge-offs, repossessions, collection accounts, judgments, foreclosures, bankruptcies, or garnishments by credit providers or tax liens

Keep in mind that you might also need to meet other credit or employment requirements to be eligible for refinancing. Additionally, if you don’t qualify on your own, you could consider applying with a creditworthy cosigner to improve your chances of getting approved.

Check Out: When to Refinance Student Loans

Repayment

ISL Education Lending provides six different repayment terms to choose from: five, seven, 10, 12, 15, or 20 years. This can help you get a monthly payment that suits your budget. Plus, if you sign up for automatic payments, you could qualify for a 0.25% rate discount.

In addition to a standard repayment plan, ISL Education Lending also offers a graduated repayment plan to borrowers who choose a 10-, 15-, or 20-year term (seven-year terms might also be eligible in some cases). This type of plan starts out with low payments that gradually increase over the life of the loan, which could be helpful if you know your income will rise in the future.

Tip: It’s usually a good idea to choose the shortest repayment term you can afford to save as much as you can on interest. However, if you need a lower monthly payment, you might choose to extend your repayment term instead — just keep in mind that you’ll pay more in interest this way.

If you’re wondering how long it’ll take to pay off your student loans, you can use our student loan repayment calculator to find out. Use the slider to see how increasing your payments can change the payoff date.

How ISL Education Lending compares to other lenders

Here’s how ISL Education Lending stacks up against two other lenders:

How to refinance student loans with ISL Education Lending

Completing an application with ISL Education Lending takes about 15 minutes — be sure to have your Social Security number as well as information about your current loans handy when you’re ready to fill it out.

If you’re approved for refinancing and accept the loan offer, ISL Education Lending will repay your existing loans, and you’ll be left with just your new loan to manage.

Refinancing with ISL Education Lending could be a good option for a wide variety of borrowers — such as students who are still in school or parents who paid for their child’s education, or medical professionals.

However, it’s still a good idea to shop around and compare as many student loan refinance companies as you can to find the right loan for you.

Check Out: How to Refinance Student Loans

How ISL Education Lending can improve

While ISL Education Lending might be a good choice for student loan refinancing in some cases, there are still a few ways it could improve, such as:

• Offering lower rates: ISL Education Lending’s rates are sometimes higher than competing lenders, especially since it doesn’t offer variable rates.
• Providing a shorter cosigner release period: While 24 months isn’t particularly long for a cosigner release period, there are other lenders that accept cosigner release applications after just 12 months.
• Offering a higher loan maximum: Although $300,000 is generous for undergraduate loans, it might not be enough to cover loans from professional programs, such as medical or dental school.

Keep Reading: Private Student Loan Consolidation