Can I Refinance my Student Loan Without a Cosigner?
Refinancing student loans has a number of appealing benefits, including lowering your interest rate and reducing the amount of interest you pay on your education debt. However, it can be difficult to qualify for student loan refinancing without a cosigner if you’re not a U.S. citizen or don’t have a solid, established credit history in the U.S.
Fortunately, there are options for no-collateral student loan refinancing. MPOWER Financing offers no-cosigner, no-collateral student loan refinancing to international graduates who are working full-time in the U.S.
As long as you meet other refinancing criteria, you can refinance a student loan in your own name without having to ask anyone else to sign on to your debt.
What is student loan refinancing?
Student loan refinancing involves exchanging your current loan for a new one with restructured terms. Let’s say you borrowed a student loan from your home country to attend college or graduate school in the U.S. That loan may have high, fluctuating interest rates and costly monthly payments. A student loan refinancing lender can pay off that old loan and issue a new one in its place. That new loan may have a lower, fixed interest rate that won’t change over time.
Plus, you’ll get new repayment terms and an adjusted monthly payment that might work better with your budget.
Can you refinance student loans without a cosigner?
While student loan refinancing can have a number of benefits, it’s not always accessible to international graduates who don’t have U.S. citizenship. Many refinancing providers in the U.S. require international citizens to apply with a U.S.-based cosigner, who will become equally responsible for the debt.
They also look for an established credit history, which may be unrealistic if you’ve only lived in the U.S. for a short time. If you’re a graduate who’s working full-time in the U.S. and supporting yourself, it can be frustrating to run into these roadblocks. If you have the means to pay back your loans on your own, you probably don’t want to burden a cosigner with your student loan debt.
MPOWER offers no-cosigner loans
MPOWER Financing understands that you may not have a cosigner in the U.S. (or may not want to ask anyone else to sign onto your debt). That’s why MPOWER Financing offers student loan refinancing to international graduates, with no-cosigner or collateral required.
Instead of applying with a cosigner, you can qualify by meeting the following refinancing eligibility requirements:
- Live in the U.S.
- Have worked full-time in the U.S. for at least three months following graduation
- Have two or more years of work authorization
- Have a valid H1-B, F-1 or other visa, or be a DACA recipient, U.S. citizen, refugee, or asylum seeker
Not only can you qualify for refinancing on your own, but refinancing student loans through MPOWER also gives you the opportunity to release any cosigner or collateral you have attached to your current loan. If your parents signed on to your home-country loan, for instance, you can release them from the obligation and assume full responsibility for your education loans yourself.
Four benefits of refinancing your student loan
While refinancing doesn’t make sense in every situation, it can have a number of benefits for borrowers. Here are potential pros of refinancing your student loan debt:
- Reduce your interest rate: One of the primary benefits of refinancing is the potential to lower your interest rate. Reducing your rate can also lower your monthly payment and save you money over the life of your loan.
- Switch to a fixed rate: Variable rates can be risky in today’s unpredictable environment. Refinancing can allow you to switch to a fixed rate that won’t change over the life of your loan.
- Release your cosigner or collateral: If you borrowed your original loan with a cosigner, such as a parent, or an asset as collateral, you can release both from your debt and assume the new refinanced loan in your own name.
- Make your loan eligible for employer assistance: Some companies offer student loan assistance benefits to employees, but your home-country loan may not qualify unless you refinance it with a U.S.-based lender first. If your employer offers this benefit, you could get thousands of dollars toward your loans and get out of debt faster.
If you currently owe on student loans with a high variable rate or want to make your loans eligible for employer-provided repayment assistance, it’s worth exploring whether student loan refinancing is right for you.
