Question about student loan refinancing (SoFi)

[pathdoc]

Hello everyone:

So I was about to sign my loan acceptance agreement with SoFi until I came across the following statement regarding prepayments:

 

Prepayments (from SoFi)

"If you pay the loan off early, you will not have to pay a penalty. You will not be entitled to a refund of part of the finance charge"

 

My loan acceptance packet from SoFi shows my loan amount of $72,000, 5-year variable, 2.38% interest rate.  The "total finance charge" is $4445.  I'm assuming this is the amount of interest I will pay over the 5-year period.  The thing is, I want to pay this thing off as early as possible.  My goal is to pay off everything in the next 1.5 years.  Does this mean that I will still have to pay the full finance charge of $4445 despite this?  I don't understand the bolded statement above.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[The White Coat Investor]

I'm not sure what the statement means exactly. But I've been assured these loans DO NOT have a prepayment penalty of any type, so I don't think that's what this is. I think all they're saying is that if you paid it off in 1.5 years, you'd have to pay 1.5 years worth of interest. I'd pick up the phone and ask them though.