If your federal student aid allotment is not enough to cover for the costs of your tuition and other college fees, you can consider availing a private student loan. Private student loans will give you flexible repayment terms and interest rate options with extra benefits. But before you decide on signing anything, it’s important to determine the best private student loans for college and know what exactly you are looking for.
As you start reviewing the various interest rates, you must remember that you can apply for more than one loan to determine which one will give you the best deal. There are ways that you can do so without affecting your credit score.
- Most lenders of private student loans do a soft pull on your credit which allows you to see what you might be approved for without affecting your credit score.
- If you want to do a formal application with more than one lender, you could avoid affecting your credit score by rate shopping within a window of two weeks.
Other than looking for the best offers for the student loans for college, you should also look for the perks that you can take advantage of – for example – a number of lenders offer low rates for college students that have good grades, while others gives you the ability to release your cosigner.
Top Private Student Loans
Our list of the best private student loan lenders will help you determine where to start your search.
- College Ave
College Ave offers Student Loans for undergraduates and graduate students. To avail of their loans, you must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States of America and must be attending a participating degree-granting institution.
Some of the features of the loans offered by College Ave include:
- No origination or application fee
- Reduction in interest rates if you set up automatic payments with College Ave
- No early repayment fees
- Available to graduate and undergraduate students
- Student repayment options are 8, 10, 12, or 15 years
- Student and parent loan options
- Option for students to make interest-only, flat, or full payments while in school or to defer payments
- Loans ranging from $2,000 up to 100 percent of the cost of attendance certified by the school until after graduation
- Option for parents to make interest-only, interest-plus, or full payments while student is in school
- Parent repayment options ranging five to 12 years
- Variable and fixed rates
- Up to $2,500 deposited into the bank account of a parent to pay for the education costs of the student
The potential qualifications for cosigner release is based on:
- Creditworthiness
- If over half of the scheduled repayment period has elapsed
- If the most recent 24 consecutive payments were made on time and did not include any forbearance or workout programs for hardship reasons
- If the borrower has no reported late payments on their credit report during the last 24 months
- If borrower has earned in income more than twice than the outstanding balance on their loan at College Ave for the last two years
- Citizens Bank
Citizens Bank picks up where the federal loans fall short. Undergrads who have already met their federal loan limit, graduate students who have expenses not covered by federal loans, and international students that cannot qualify all benefit from the student loans of Citizens Bank.
Citizens Bank offers loans for undergraduates, graduate-school students, and graduate-school parents. To avail of their loans, you must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States of America, you must be enrolled at least half-time in a degree-granting program at an eligible institution, and you must have good credit or have a qualified co-signer. The potential qualification for cosigner release will be based on creditworthiness and whether there have been 36 consecutive on-time principal and interest monthly payments.
Some of the features of the loans offered by Citizens Bank include:
- No origination or application fee
- No early repayment fees
- 0.25 percentage point interest rate reduction if you already have an account with Citizens Bank
- 0.25 percentage point interest rate reductions if you set up automatic payments from any bank account
- Student and parent loan options
- Loans from $1,000 to $295,000, depending on your degree
- Available to undergraduate and graduate students
- Student repayment options of five, 10, or 15 years
- Parent repayment options of five or 10 years
- Fixed and variable rates
- Option for students to make interest-only or full payments while in school, or to defer payments until after graduation (grace period with no payments until six months after leaving school)
- Option for parent to make interest-only or full payments while student is in college (but no option to to defer payments)
The application with Citizens Bank is relatively easy and can be accomplished entirely online. Plus, you are only required to apply once to get qualified for funding for your entire college degree.
- LendKey
LendKey, formerly known as Fynanz Inc., is a lending platform and online marketplace that enables consumers to apply for and receive Student Loan Refinancing, Home Improvement Loans, and Private Student Loans from their local community banks and credit unions. The cloud-based tools and infrastructure of LendKey enable more than 13,000 community financial institutions to enter online lending and offer loans that have lower rates for various asset classes.
Some of the features of the loans offered by LendKey include:
- No origination or application fee
- Reduction in interest rates if you set up automatic payments
- Minimum of $25 per month or interest-only payments during the in-school period and grace period, but students have the option to make full monthly payments during that time if they choose to
- Student repayment option of 10 years after the five years of $25 or minimum interest-only payments during college or grad school (it could be a total of 15 years of repayment, the last 10 repayments must be full principal and interest payments)
- The loans are facilitated by LendKey but are funded by community banks and credit unions
The potential qualifications for cosigner release is based on:
- Creditworthiness
- If there have been 24 consecutive, on-time, and full principal and interest payments
- Discover
Discover is the only lender that gives rewards to applicants who have good grades — most lenders would just require you to maintain a C-average so that you can stay eligible. With Discover, you can receive a cash reward of 1% if you are able to maintain a GPA of 3.0 during the time covered by your loan.
Both the student loans and refinancing of Discover come with unusually flexible options for repayment, like its early repayment assistance program that allows you to hold off on repayments during the first three months of the term of your loan. It also offers in-school deferment and forbearance once you get laid off or experience other unexpected financial problems.
To avail of their loans, you must be a citizen or permanent resident, or an international student in the United States of America, must be enrolled at least half-time in an eligible school, must be seeking a degree, and be at least 16 years old.
Some of the features of the loans offered by Discover include:
- A wide variety of private student loans, such as loans for undergraduates, graduate students, MBA students, health professionals, medical residency relocation, law school, and bar exam costs.
- 0.25 percentage point interest rate reductions if you set up automatic payments
- The rates and the amount you can borrow varies by degree, but you can generally have up to 100% of your educational expenses covered
- Application is easy. It will not take much longer than 15 minutes to complete its private student loan application
- Loan term up to 20 years
- Repayment options for in-school deferment or minimum payments of $25. Discover also offers options for payment assistance, deferment and forbearance.
- Monthly payments are not required until 6 months after graduation or if enrollment drops below half-time. Or make $25 monthly fixed payments while in school and during grace period to decrease overall loan costs.
- SunTrust
SunTrust offers a catch-all student loan that borrowers can use to pay for school or to refinance an existing student loan. Its in-school refinance option allows you to refinance student loans before you graduate excluding federal loans. It is also one of the few lenders that offer loans to international students as long as they apply with a cosigner who is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States of America.
Just like Citizens Bank, SunTrust rewards borrowers for their loyalty. While anyone can receive a 0.25 percent discount for signing up for automatic payments, you will knock off an additional 0.25 percent if you pay from a SunTrust account. After you graduate, SunTrust will lower your loan principal by 1 percent if you send in a copy of your degree or final transcript.
Some of the features of the loans offered by SunTrust include:
- No origination or application fee
- No early repayment fees
- Up to 0.50 percentage point reduction of interest rates if you set up auto pay
- Partial interest, interest-only, and full deferment repayment plans that have a six-month grace period
- Borrowers who were able to meet the credit and income standards can apply for cosigner release after 48 months of on-time payments
- CommonBond
CommonBond allows you to Finance your higher education or refinance existing student loans. It claims to be a lender with a strong social mission that offers terms that fit everyone’s budget. CommonBond offers options for current students, graduates, and their parents. It offers a whole lot of options and potential discounts.
CommonBond stands out because of the dedication that it has shown in giving back. For every loan funded through its platform, a child in need gets their education funded for a whole year. So far, CommonBond has funded the education of more than 2,000 students. They have helped establish more than 420 schools in four underserved countries namely: Guatemala, Ghana, Nicaragua, and Laos.
To avail of their loans, you must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States of America, enrolled at or graduated from an approved Title IV undergraduate, graduate, or MBA program, and must have good to excellent credit or creditworthy cosigner.
Some of the features of the loans offered by CommonBond include:
- Origination fee: 2 percent
- No application fee
- No early repayment fee
- Reduction in interest rates if you set up automatic monthly payments with CommonBond
- Available to undergraduate students, as well as MBA candidates and other graduate students
- Loans for a maximum of 100 percent of the school’s cost of attendance
- Student loan repayment options of five, 10, or 15 years
- Fixed and variable rates
- Four different repayment plans are available for students, all of which have a grace period of six months: fixed monthly payments of $25 during school, deferment until after college or grad school, interest-only payments during school, or full monthly payments for the duration of the loan
- Student borrowers can apply for cosigner release after paying on the loan for two years
- Students that encounter economic problems after graduation can apply for forbearance
What You Should Look for in a Private Student Loan
A lot of factors can make a private student loan stand out. The primary ones that you should concentrate on are fees and interest rates charged.
The amount of money that you take out on your college loan will only be the start. You should give yourself the best opportunity of maintaining a manageable level of debt by keeping your fees and rates as low as possible.
