5 Reasons Why You Might Not Want to Refinance Your Federal Student Loans

Many private student lenders are making a big push for a piece of the student loan refinancing pie.

Banks and venture capital-backed nonbank financial services companies are hard at work slicing and dicing that trillion-dollar market into bite-size, demographically based refinancing opportunities. Their primary targets? Borrowers who have the best longer-term earnings potential because of the schools they attend, their areas of study or for other reasons.

The lure is in the form of seemingly lower rates and streamlined documentation processes, which, on the surface, presents a good deal of appeal. That is, for borrowers with higher-priced private student loans and perhaps state-sponsored debts as well.

Those who’ve funded their higher educational pursuits with government-backed loans, however, may want to think twice, for the following five reasons.

1. Credit Underwriting

Despite the fact that all education-related loans — public and private alike — are virtually impossible to discharge in bankruptcy (thanks to the successful lobbying efforts on the part of the financial services industry in 2005, atop an anti anti-establishment scheme that dates back to the mid-1970s), today’s private lenders aren’t taking that invulnerability for granted. And they shouldn’t. Not with so many consumer advocates who are calling for the restoration of the bankruptcy code with regard to this form of debt.

So unlike the federal government, which blithely continues to process loan requests as it has before, private-sector lenders are looking more carefully at a prospective borrower’s ability to service the loan he or she is requesting. Things like historical earnings, debt levels, leverage and credit scores. And when these aren’t enough (or too much, as the case may be), they’re asking for family members and others who are financially better situated to co-sign the loan.

Pity the co-signer, though, when that occurs, because they will have a heck of a time getting out from under that responsibility, even after the primary borrower’s economic outlook improves to the point of self-sustainment.

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Mitchell D. Weiss

Mitchell D. Weiss is a financial services industry executive and entrepreneur. He is also an Executive-in-Residence at the University of Hartford, co-founder of the university’s Center for Personal Financial Responsibility and adjunct faculty at Rutgers University. His most recent text, Practical Finance - A Straightforward Guide to Personal and Entrepreneurial Finance, is the basis for the course he teaches at both institutions.

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