Student Loan Refinance Calculator

Example: $40,000 at 7.5% with 8 years left, refinanced to 5% over 7 years

The calculator's defaults. The rate falls 2.5 points and the term shortens from 96 months to 84 — both changes at once, which is what makes the result counterintuitive.

A 2.5-point rate cut that costs $10.00 more a month and saves $5,824.13 overall. Both facts come from the same change: shortening the term by a year raises the payment slightly and removes twelve months of interest charges entirely. Anyone judging this refinance by its monthly payment would decline it and be $5,824.13 worse off.

Example: the same 5% offer, stretched over 15 years instead

Hold everything — $40,000, 7.5% current, 96 months remaining, 5% new rate. Move only the new-term slider from 84 months to 180. The rate improvement is identical; only the term changes.

The same 2.5-point rate cut turns into a $3,623.08 loss purely by adding six years. Below about 144 months the refinance saves money; above it, the longer term eats the rate improvement and keeps going. This is why "lower your payment by $239 a month" and "a better rate" are separate claims that lenders present as one — a longer term will lower a monthly payment at any rate, including a worse one.

What happens if you refinance federal student loans into private?

You permanently convert a federal loan into a private one, and every federal protection goes with it. Federal Student Aid states the trade directly: refinancing federal loans with a private lender means losing income-driven repayment, federal deferment and forbearance, Direct Loan discharge provisions, and forgiveness programs including PSLF. There is no partial version and no way back.

As of July 1, 2026 the stakes changed. The Repayment Assistance Plan — created by P.L. 119-21 — sets payments at 1% to 10% of adjusted gross income, waives unpaid monthly interest when you pay on time, contributes up to $50 a month toward principal, and forgives any balance left after 360 qualifying payments. RAP is also the only income-driven plan available for federal loans borrowed on or after July 1, 2026. Refinancing forfeits all of it.

This calculator prices none of that. A $5,824.13 lifetime saving is real and incomplete: it's what you gain, with no entry for what you gave up. For a borrower on a PSLF track the trade is bad at any rate; for someone already holding private loans, there's nothing federal left to lose. The tool returns the same answer either way — which is the reason to read this paragraph rather than the hero figure.

Can you refinance private student loans back to federal?

No. There is no mechanism — the Department of Education does not buy, assume, or consolidate privately held education debt into the Direct Loan program. A Direct Consolidation Loan can only combine loans that are already federal.

That's what makes this structurally different from a mortgage refinance. A mortgage can be refinanced again later on better terms; a federal-to-private refinance is a one-way door. The federal loan is gone, and with it every rule that attached to it — not suspended, gone. So timing arguments cut only one way: waiting costs you the rate difference, which the second example prices. Refinancing early costs you optionality no future decision can restore.

Does refinancing student loans hurt your credit score?

Mildly and briefly, through two ordinary mechanisms. The application is a hard inquiry, typically worth a few points for a few months. And the refinance closes your old accounts and opens a new one, which resets the age of that debt. Neither is unique to student loans; both fade. Rate shopping is largely protected — major scoring models treat multiple inquiries for the same loan type within a short window as a single inquiry.

The larger risk isn't scoring, it's the handoff. Payments on the old loan remain due until the payoff actually completes, and a missed payment during the transition is a genuine delinquency that costs far more than the inquiry ever will.

What credit score do you need to refinance student loans?

Refinance lenders are underwriting an unsecured loan to someone who has already borrowed heavily, so the bar is real. Published minimums across major lenders generally sit in the high 600s, with a cosigner the usual route below that. Income, employment stability and debt-to-income ratio are weighted alongside the score rather than after it.

The number that matters more is the one for the rate, not the approval. The lowest advertised rates go to the strongest files — a gap of one to two percentage points between a high-600s applicant and one in the 740s is common. So the 5% default isn't a rate you select; it's one you're offered or you aren't. Enter the rate you were actually quoted, not a lender's headline, which is almost always a floor available to a minority of applicants.

Can you refinance student loans more than once?

Yes, and there's no limit. Nothing in law or in a typical loan agreement caps it — the Higher Education Opportunity Act's 2008 amendment to the Truth in Lending Act banned prepayment penalties on education loans, so a refinance lender can't charge you for leaving. Each round is a fresh application against your current credit and income.

The recurring trap is the term. Each refinance typically starts a new full-length term, so a borrower who refinances twice and accepts the offered term each time lowers the payment twice while quietly extending the debt by years — the second example's arithmetic, run repeatedly. Once the loan is private, though, this is nearly free optionality: there's nothing federal left to forfeit. The one-way door is the first refinance, not the third.