Doctors and other medical professionals typically leave medical school with large amounts of student loan debt. However, most will also go on to be high-income professionals.
Refinancing medical school loans can be a simple way to save money during loan repayment. The key is to shop for the lowest interest rate.
For medical professionals with private student loans, you should consider refinancing those medical school loans as often as you can save money on interest. If you have Federal student loans, refinancing may or may not make sense - depending if you are going to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Here's our guide to how and when (and with who) to refinance medical school loans.
Before You Refinance Medical School Loans
Before you consider refinancing your medical school loans, you need to figure out what type of student loans you have so that you can create a plan. If you don't know where to start, check out this guide on where to find your student loans. You might find that you have a combination of both federal and private student loans.
Depending on your loan type, and your current career (and future career goals), you can make a plan. If you're going to be looking at student loan forgiveness for doctors, you typically don't want to refinance your student loans.
However, if you have private student loans, it can make sense to refinance as often as possible to lower your interest rate.
To recap, before you refinance your student loans from medical school, you should:
- Know what loan types you have - Understand the difference between federal and private student loans.
- Understand your current and future career goals - Know if you're going to be working in public service or private practice, as this can impact your loan forgiveness options.
- Check for loan forgiveness or loan repayment assistance - Some states will offer loan repayment assistance even if you have private loans.
- Know your financial numbers - You should also make sure you have a good idea of your credit score, as well as proof of your income.
Best Medical School Student Loan Refinancing
Here are our top choices to medical school student loan refinancing. These choices may vary slightly from our regular list of student loan refinancing companies because physicians typically have higher incomes and higher loan balances.
Note: The refinancing offers that appear on this site are from companies from which The College Investor receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear - but we currently keep lenders alphabetical). The College Investor does not include all student loan companies or all student loan offers available in the marketplace.
Credible
Credible is our favorite marketplace for comparing student loans. They have almost a dozen different lenders that you can easily shop and compare on their platform. As a result of being a marketplace, you can get great rates and terms because you're seeing the best offers from a variety of lenders.
Right now, they offer the following rates:
- Fixed Rate: 5.24% - 10.99% APR
- Variable Rate: 5.28% - 12.44% APR
And as a College Investor reader, no matter what lender you actually choose - if you refinance on their platform you'll get:
- $1,000 gift card bonus if you refinance at least $100,000 in student loans.
- $300 gift card bonus if you refinance less than $100,000 in student loans.
Read our Credible review here.
ELFI
ELFI has a long track record of helping doctors and others in the medical field refinance their student loans. Plus, they are consistently at the top of "best rate" charts and customer service rankings.
The ELFI loan minimum is $10,000 for refinancers, with the maximum being your outstanding loan balance. This can be a huge win for borrowers with high student loan debt, especially doctors.
ELFI doesn’t have specific credit minimums posted, but they do require borrowers to be creditworthy (or have a creditworthy cosigner). One of the few downsides of ELFI, however, is that it's one of the few lenders on this list that does not offer a cosigner release program.
Right now, they offer the following rates:
- Fixed Rate: 5.48% - 8.94% APR
- Variable Rate: 5.28% - 8.99% APR
ELFI is offering an awesome bonus to our readers:
- $1,100 bonus when you refinance at least $100,000 in student loans.
- $550 bonus when you refinance less than $100,000 but at least $50,000 in student loans.
Laurel Road
Laurel Road is best suited for medical and dental graduates, but they have student loan refinancing options for any borrower.
One of the things we really like about them is that they're one of the few lenders that offer special payment options for medical residents. Currently, you can pay as little $100 per month towards your loans that you've refinance with Laurel Road while you're in residency⁺.
Right now, they offer the following rates:
Plus, if you refinance through Laurel Road, apply through www.laurelroad.com/collegeinvestor for a $200 bonus!
Splash Financial
Splash Financial is a student loan refinancing marketplace that works with a few major lenders including Nelnet Bank, Laurel Road, and PenFed.
We highly recommend Splash to medical residents as they offer $100 payments on your refinanced loans during your residency and for up to 6 months afterward.
They also consistently have some of the lowest rates. Right now, they offer the following rates:
- Fixed Rate: 3.99% - 9.99% APR¹
- Variable Rate: 5.99% - 9.99% APR¹
Splash is currently offering College Investor readers a $500 bonus if you refinance a loan over $50,000⁴.
That's a great bonus and you can apply here to get started.
Read our full Splash review here.
Should You Refinance Medical School Loans?
Remember, student loan refinancing is when you take out a new private student loan to replace your existing loans. Your existing loans could be federal or private (or likely a combination of both).
Because you're replacing your old loans with a new loan, it might not make sense to refinance. For example, if you're working in public service (at a non-profit hospital or health group), it's likely a better option to go for public service loan forgiveness.
However, if you have any private student loans, it's always a good idea to refinance into a lower interest rate if you can save money.
Here's when it could make sense to refinance medical school loans:
- You have private student loans - It always makes sense to refinance private student loans to try to get the lowest rate possible (to save you money).
- You are 100% positive that you will not qualify for any loan forgiveness program like PSLF - If you have federal loans but work in private practice and are sure you won't qualify for any loan forgiveness program, it could make sure to refinance.
- You will pay off the loans in 5 years or less (without loan forgiveness) - The best rates on student loans are typically for 5 year or less loan terms. This could be an option to save money. However, don't jeopardize loan forgiveness if you're eligible.
Don’t Forget To Consider Alternative Physician Student Loan Repayment Options
If you have Federal loans but aren't sure if you should refinance them into private loans, you might have other options that could be beneficial as well.
First, you should look at getting on an income-driven repayment plan. The main plan choices for physicians will be between PAYE and REPAYE. You'll need to do some math and see which is best, but generally, REPAYE is great for the interest subsidy, which can be helpful. However, if you also have a high-earning spouse, you must use your combined AGI - which could drive up your payment plan.
If you do have a high earning spouse, you could look at filing your taxes separately and taking advantage of PAYE. While you might pay a little more in taxes, the savings on your student loan payment could be substantial.
And if you don't know where to start with your plan, check out Student Loan Advice by the White Coat Investor. Their expertise with doctors and student loans is top notch as that's all they focus on.
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Methodology
The College Investor is dedicated to helping you make informed decisions around complex financial topics like finding the best student loan refinancing offers. We do this by providing unbiased reviews of the top banks and lenders for our readers, and then we aggregate those choices into this list.
We have picked student loan refinancing lenders based on our opinions of how easy they are to use, their interest rates, any bonuses provided, and a variety of other factors. We believe that our list accurately reflects the best student loan refinancing options in the marketplace for consumers.
Laurel Road
Laurel Road rates as of 02/20/2024. Rates subject to change. Terms and Conditions apply. All products subject to credit approval.
Splash Financial
Splash Financial, Inc. (NMLS #1630038), licensed by the DFPI under California Financing Law, license # 60DBO-102545
Terms and Conditions apply. Splash reserves the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. Products may not be available in all states. Rates and terms are subject to change at any point prior to application submission. The information you provide is an inquiry to determine whether Splash’s lending partners can make you a loan offer. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen or other eligible status and meet lender underwriting requirements. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers and may require an autopay discount of 0.25%. Splash does not guarantee that you will receive any loan offers or that your loan application will be approved. If approved, your actual rate will be within a range of rates and will depend on a variety of factors, including term of loan, creditworthiness, income and other factors. This information is current as of June 5, 2023. You should review the benefits of your federal student loan; it may offer specific benefits that a private refinance/consolidation loan may not offer. If you work in the public sector, are in the military or taking advantage of a federal department of relief program, such as income-based repayment or public service forgiveness, you may not want to refinance, as these benefits do not transfer to private refinance/consolidation loans.
1Autopay Discount. Rates listed include a 0.25% autopay discount.
Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is the cost of credit calculating the interest rate, loan amount, repayment term and the timing of payments. Fixed APR options range from 4.96% (with autopay) to 11.24% (without autopay). Variable APR options range from 4.99% (with autopay) to 11.14% (without autopay). Variable rates are derived by adding a margin to the 30-day average SOFR index, published two business days preceding such calendar month, rounded up to the nearest one hundredth of one percent (0.01% or 0.0001).
2Payment Disclosure. Fixed loans feature repayment terms of 5 to 20 years. For example, the monthly payment for a sample $10,000 with an APR of 5.47% for a 12-year term would be $94.86. Variable loans feature repayment terms of 5 to 20 years. For example, the monthly payment for a sample $10,000 with an APR of 5.90% for a 15-year term would be $83.85.
3Credit Pull Disclosure. To check the rates and terms you qualify for, Splash Financial conducts a soft credit pull that will not affect your credit score. However, if you choose a product and continue your application, the lender will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit pull and may affect your credit.
4Bonus Disclosure. Terms and conditions apply. Offer is subject to lender approval. To receive the offer, you must: (1) be refinancing over either $50,000, $100,000 or $200,000 in student loans depending on the channel partner that is providing the bonus offer (2) register and/or apply through the referral link you were given; (3) complete a loan application with Splash Financial; (4) have and provide a valid US address to receive bonus; (5) and meet Splash Financial’s underwriting criteria. Once conditions are met and the loan has been disbursed, you will receive your welcome bonus via a check to your submitted address within 90-120 calendar days. Bonuses that are not redeemed within 180 calendar days of the date they were made available to the recipient may be subject to forfeit. Bonus amounts of $600 or greater in a single calendar year may be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as miscellaneous income to the recipient on Form 1099-MISC in the year received as required by applicable law. Recipient is responsible for any applicable federal, state or local taxes associated with receiving the bonus offer; consult your tax advisor to determine applicable tax consequences. Splash reserves the right to change or terminate the offer at any time with or without notice. Bonus Offer is for new customers only.
Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.
He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared toward anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.
He has been quoted in major publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, Today, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.
Editor: Claire Tak Reviewed by: Chris Muller
