Education Loan Finance Student Loan Refinance Review

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  • Education Loan Finance Student Loan Refinance Review
Author: Joseph Reinke, CFA

In our Education Loan Finance student loan refinance review, we provide an overview of the company, pros, and cons. There best loan tends to be the 15 year fixed rate loan.

Be sure to check out the other companies also by checking out our Best Student Loan Refinance Company review page.

Also, to help you, we developed a step-by-step student loan refinance checklist.  Complete the info below and we’ll send you the checklist via email! You can also visit our Complete Guide To Student Loan Refinancing.

Education Loan Finance Company Overview

Education Loan Finance (a.k.a. ELFI) is a non-profit division of Tennessee based SouthEast bank.  They have been in business for 25 years and have refinanced over $1 billion in student loans.

They are more of a traditional bank which means traditional underwriting ratios. Translation… If you have a good credit score and DTI ratio, it will be easy to qualify. If you don’t, you probably won’t qualify.

Education Loan Finance is great for those with good credit scores and DTI ratios. They consistently have competitive rates and you should definitely check them if you are refinancing.

  • They offer fixed and variable rate loans
  • Loan terms offered: 5, 7, 10, 15, or 20 years (no prepayment penalty)
  • Current fixed interest rate: 5.48% – 8.69%
  • Current variable interest rate: 5.28% – 8.99%
  • Loan Amounts: $10,000 – unlimited
  • Minimum FICO: 680
  • Minimum income to qualify: $35,000
  • Must have a bachelors degree or greater
  • Takes about 1 – 2 weeks to complete the loan from start to finish

Visit ELFI >

Pros Of Using Education Loan Finance

  • They refinance Parent Plus Loans
  • Consistently have good rates
  • Top notch customer service
  • Go all the way down to a 680 credit score
  • Available in all 50 states
  • You can postpone payments for 12 months for financial hardship or medical issues. Each case is reviewed by ELFI, i.e. no guarantee.
  • Loan servicer is Mohela and they are the #1 loan servicer in the country
  • Minimum income to qualify is $35,000 per year which is lower than most companies
  • You can make prepayments with your monthly auto-payment

Visit ELFI >

Cons Of Using Education Loan Finance

  • No Co-signor Release
  • Minimum amount to refinance is $10,000 which is higher than most other companies
  • There is no academic deferment, i.e. if you go back to school you are still going to have to make payments
  • There is no bi-weekly auto-pay option

Visit ELFI >

FitBUX's Free Student Loan Refinance Service

Note: FitBUX partners with 10 student loan refinancing companies. We have an in-depth knowledge of their underwriting guidelines and have been asked by each company not to disclose certain items. We honor their wishes by not giving out specific information such as typical rates for various FICO scores and DTI ratios. If you’d like help based on your situation, I highly recommend using our free student loan refinance service in which we will help you choose the right student loan refinancing company. 

Student loan planners are hard to find.  Our FREE student loan planners have helped thousands of Young Professionals manage and eliminate over $1 billion in student loans. We help you develop your plan for free because planning your financial future should not cost you your financial future.

If you would like free expert help deciding if student loan refinancing is right for you, check out FitBUX’s free student loan refinance service.

Read Other Reviews

Commonbond Student Loan Refinance Review

Earnest Student Loan Refinance Review

Splash Financial Student Loan Refinance Review

Sofi Student Loan Refinance Review

Laurel Road Student Loan Refinance Review

Lendkey Student Loan Refinance Review

Also, if you are pursuing student loan forgiveness via an Income-Based repayment plan, do not refinance!

By Joseph Reinke, CFA, Founder of FitBUX


Joseph Reinke, CFA

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About the Author

Joseph Reinke is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charter Holder and founder of FitBUX which has helped over 14,000 young professionals on their journey to financial freedom. Joseph has been personally investing since he was 12 years old.

In addition, he has experience in student loans, mortgages, wealth management, investment banking, valuation, stock trading, and option trading. He has been on 100s of podcast and has been invited to 100s of universities to discuss financial planning with their soon to be graduates.

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