Refinance Again After First Republic Refinance

[dermres120]

I was wondering if anyone has experience refinancing their student loans after you have already once refinanced with First Republic?

I refinanced into a 4% 15 year term with First Republic about 2 years ago, while a resident, but want to now refinance into something shorter with a lower interest rate. I tried to apply through SoFi and was told that I cannot do it as First Republic recharacterizes the loan as a “Personal Loan” instead of a “Student Loan”. Anyone have a successful experience with any of the other student loan companies?

[billy]

just out of curiosity what does it say on FRBs website under your loans? Mine are under "Student Loan refinance". never thought it may be seen as something different.

[dermres120]

Yes mine also say Student Loan Refinance. But if you pull your actual credit report and look at the loan type it will say something different. Mine says “Note Loan” whereas another loan I have with Sofi says “Education”. I don’t think they made it clear that they were changing the type of loan but I must admit that I didn’t thoroughly read all of the paperwork prior to signing.

[dermres120]

just out of curiosity what does it say on FRBs website under your loans? Mine are under "Student Loan refinance". never thought it may be seen as something different.

The other weird thing is that I still get a 1098-E from them so I’m not sure exactly how they do that.

[Brains428]

Is the refinance with First Republic a 1 time thing?

[billy]

I never bothered looking to re-refinance with FRB bc I got a low rate when I refinanced the first (and only) time with them. Prior to FRB I had my loans at Earnest where they allowed me to reapply every 6 months for a new rate. I wonder if FRB will allow you to re- refinance your loans with them to keep your business. May be worth asking them.

[GetRichQuick]

You can refinance with FRB multiple times, I think. I refinanced with them one year after I had already refinanced to get the benefit of a lower rate for the same term.

[CFEonline]

Laurel road has said they would work with FRB on this, may need a letter from them saying was student loans, may need the 10 day payoff statement from your federal loan servocer from when you first refinanced with them. FRB will adjust your loan terms for a ~$750 fee typically. Please update with your progress I'm in a similar boat, haven't pulled the trigger yet.

[dermres120]

CFEonline GetRichQuick billy Brains428

I did reach out to First Republic and they will let me refinance with them again, however, they charge $1,000 to do the refinance AND the new term is shortened by the amount of time that I have already been paying. For example, if I want to refinance into a 5 year 1.99% term I would have to pay $1,000 and then my current balance would be re-amortized over 3 years because I have already been paying my current loan for 2 years.

I have not looked into Laurel Road but will need to do that. The only other bank I looked into was SoFi but they did not allow me to refinance the FRB loans. Will update if I have success with another bank.

[MD2000]

I was just about to make the same post. I checked with SoFi and Splash and they do not allow First Republic student loans to be refinanced to them which is quite frustrating.

I also think its ridiculous that First Republic will charge you to refinance w them again.

I'll check w Laurel Road as well as suggested above.

[xraygoggles]

When you use FRB to refi, it's counted as a personal loan for legal reasons, which is why they offer such great rates and benefits (refunding your interest payments up to 2% of principal if paid off within 4 years).

You can recast your loan at FRB if you want to lower your monthly payments and get a lower interest rate. But when you do that, the time remaining on your loan payoff is subtracted from the time you had your initial loan. So if you had a 5 year payoff, and want to recast in year 2, you have 3 years left on the new terms.

[MD2000]

Laurel road has said they would work with FRB on this, may need a letter from them saying was student loans, may need the 10 day payoff statement from your federal loan servocer from when you first refinanced with them. FRB will adjust your loan terms for a ~$750 fee typically. Please update with your progress I'm in a similar boat, haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Just a heads up to anyone who reads this later, I checked with Laurel Road and they also are not working with First Republic Bank

[Tim]

The common refrain is “refinance and claim another refund”. Seems as if policies contain some fine print that create fees or boundaries on refinancing a second time.
This could be significant for a borrower that refi’s during residency (limited options) for the $100 payment and plans on redoing it once employed.
Would be useful if footnotes added on the lender matrix. No “prepayment penalties” seems to gloss over it.

[CFEonline]

Anyone found a way to refinance with a new loan servicer from FRB? I'm seeing variable rates in the 1.5% range advertised so it would be nice to switch, and get that 2% of principal back now to roll in.

[MD2000]

I was just approved today for a variable refinance with common bond! They quoted me a rate of 4% variable (despite me having a 800 credit score) but I'm assuming this will drop within a month after I start