How Community Lending Can Help You Save On Your Student Loans

cuStudentLoans is a network of over 150 credit unions throughout the United States that offer competitive student loans and refinancing options to students and graduates. Credit Unions are not-for-profit organizations that return any 'profits' into lower rates.
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As an independent, transparent marketplace for student loan refinancing, Credible will be producing a series of articles profiling lenders in the refinancing space.

cuStudentLoans is a network of over 150 credit unions throughout the United States that offer competitive student loans and refinancing options to students and graduates. Credit Unions are not-for-profit organizations that return any ‘profits’ into lower rates and better products for their members or invest them into the local community. All of the credit unions utilize the LendKey platform to bring community lending to the online environment, and each lender that is a part of LendKey is insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.

CuStudentLoan Refinancing Highlights

  • 15-year, variable refinancing product
  • 12-month co-signer release
  • community lending

Mission

cuStudentLoans and LendKey work together to provide low rate student loan programs through the power of community lending. The goal of community lending is to do business with a credit union or local bank and support the surrounding community. The LendKey platform is a place for borrowers to compare community lending options while still working with a local organization. It allows the borrower to practice social ethics while benefitting from affordable loan programs.

Details

The cuGrad Student Loan Refinancing Program is available to all US residents that attended an eligible school. Graduates can borrow from $7500 up to $125,000 for undergraduates ($175,000 graduate school) to refinance and consolidate existing student loans. Both private and federal loans can be refinanced. In order to make the basic qualifications of a cuStudentLoan refinance, a borrower must have current salary of at least $24,000. Otherwise a cosigner will need to be added to the application.

Rates: (Valid as of May 22, 2105)

cuStudentLoan offers a 15-year, variable product with APRs between 2.92% – 7.83% (includes an AutoPay discount of 0.25%). cuStudentLoans does not have fees attached to their loans.

Benefits

Borrowers can simplify their finances by consolidating both private and federal loans into one student loan. There are a variety of repayment options available, including a choice to make interest only payments for the first four years of repayment or standard level repayment over the entire 15 year term. cuStudentLoan offers a cosigner release after only 12 consecutive on-time principal & interest payments. If the borrower would like additional interest savings, a 0.25% rate reduction can be taken advantage of for automatic payments.

Who Should Explore cuStudentLoans?

Borrowers who would like to bank with a community lender would benefit from using cuStudentLoans. For those who need a cosigner, the 12-month cosigner release offered is a very attractive option as most lenders require at least two years of on-time payments. cuStudentLoans only offers a 15-year, variable product, so only borrowers who want these loan conditions should further explore a loan.

If you are interested in refinancing with cuStudentLoans or exploring other refinancing options from other great lenders, visit Credible to see what options may be available to you.

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