Repaying student loans with Earnest: 9 reasons to choose us

By Client Happiness | Published on October 21, 2025

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Student loan refinancing¹ can save you over just a few years by consolidating your debt into one new loan with a potentially lower interest rate². Not only that, but it can also help you simplify your repayment process and pay off your loans faster.

Earnest offers special flexibility and benefits that can make it easier — and less stressful — to refinance. Some of the lowest rates, and perks like discounts for autopay³, can also help you meet your personal finance and savings goals more quickly. Here’s what makes repaying student loans with Earnest different.

Earnest will let you skip a payment when you need to

Earnest’s features help borrowers transitioning from federal student aid and loan programs into a consolidated private loan. We know everyone needs a little extra flexibility sometimes. So if you’re in good standing on your loan agreement with Earnest, you may be eligible to skip a payment⁴ once a year.

Say, for example, your car breaks down and you need a little bit of extra cash to pay for it. You can request to skip your student loan payment that month so you can use the money you would have spent on your loan to pay the unexpected bill.

This feature can help you avoid taking on extra credit card debt or personal loans with high interest payments. Earnest will process the skipped payment as a 1-month forbearance and each payment skipped will count against the total 12-month forbearance allowance over the life of the loan. Your interest rate won’t change and you’ll still have the same payoff date.

You can refinance to remove a cosigner

If you have a cosigned student loan, one way to remove the cosigner is to refinance that loan. Being a cosigner can be stressful, and it’s a big financial burden. It’s not uncommon for borrowers and their cosigners to experience tension in the relationship, with cosigners eager to stop being financially responsible for the loan. With refinancing, you could qualify for a better rate and save even after your cosigner has been removed.

When you refinance with Earnest, we’ll ask a holistic set of questions during the application process, including some that other companies might skip. For example, instead of just running your credit report, we’ll also ask you about your bachelor’s degree program, work history, and more.

Depending on your total student loan debt and income potential, you may be eligible to refinance your loans with Earnest without a cosigner, even if some other lenders would require you to have one. Read up on our eligibility requirements, and feel free to call us with questions about your loan application.

Get flexible loan structure and payment options

Earnest lets borrowers choose between repayment options that work best for their finances. For example, instead of making one monthly payment, you can set up a biweekly auto pay to split up the bill into two equal payments. This can help you save money on interest by paying down your principal balance faster.

Avoid penalties for late fees

Unlike most other lenders, Earnest doesn’t charge late fees if you can’t make a payment on time. Even though it’s important to make payments on time to maintain your credit score (and setting up autopay can help with that), we won’t penalize you for a mistake.

Earnest also doesn’t charge any origination or prepayment fees or require prepayments. That means Earnest’s student loan refinance options may cost less over the full term of your loan.

You can have your rate re-evaluated mid-loan term

Earnest borrowers can choose between fixed-rate and variable interest rate options, which each have their own advantages. With a fixed interest rate, you’ll be locked into a set rate for the life of the loan, so you’ll know it won’t change. This is particularly valuable if you secure a low interest rate. Variable rates are sometimes lower at the outset, which can save you money, and may increase or decrease over time.

Regardless of which you choose initially, Earnest allows borrowers in good standing to request a of their interest rates after making a set number of on-time payments. So, if interest rates or your financial situation change and you’d like to switch to either a fixed or variable rate, you can contact us to learn more about your options.

Earnest offers flexible repayment options

Federal student loan terms include some special protections for borrowers that private lenders don’t typically offer, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness for people in certain careers. You can also apply for deferment and forbearance with a federal loan servicer to stop payments for a time if you experience financial hardship.

However, Earnest also has ways for you to reduce your payments temporarily, extend your loan term to lower your monthly bill, and receive a temporary interest rate reduction. In the event you need a little help, you can give Earnest’s client happiness team a call to explain your situation and discuss your options.

Receive an Auto Pay discount

Regardless of whether your current loans are public or private, Earnest’s competitive interest rates may be lower than what you’re paying. And if you’re willing to set up Auto Pay instead of manually making your payment every month, you can save even more.

Earnest gives borrowers a 0.25% interest rate reduction for setting up and maintaining Auto Pay. This is the best way to make sure you’re always on time and don’t miss any payments, which can help maintain and improve your credit score and credit history.

If you can afford it, you can set your Auto Pay amount higher than your required payment amount, which can help you pay down your loan balance faster. You can use Earnest’s sliding student loan repayment calculator to see how an extra $5 or $10 — or more — per month can impact your repayment plan in a positive way.

Consolidate your public and private student loans with one monthly payment

Juggling multiple student loan payments can make it more challenging and confusing to pay down your debt faster. If you meet eligibility requirements, Earnest can help you refinance your total loan amount up to the whole cost of attendance based on eligibility for your university, across both public and private lenders. And that includes Parent PLUS loans. Earnest will take care of sending final disbursement so you can consolidate your student debt into one monthly payment, all under the same repayment terms.

See how much you could save with Earnest student loan refinancing

At Earnest, we know our borrowers are more than their credit report. They’re people. They’re dynamic. And they have needs that extend beyond what numbers can show.

That’s why we do our best to accommodate all types of financial situations. We’re here to help if you fall on hard times, and we’ll always be here to answer your questions when they arise.

Best of all, refinancing with Earnest may help save you in interest and help you pay off your loans faster, putting you closer to achieving other goals and dreams.

The best way to see how much money you can save by refinancing your student loans with Earnest is to check your interest rate. It only takes minutes and won’t affect your credit score.

Client Happiness

At Earnest, we recognize that few aspects of life are more personal than finance. And on the Client Happiness team, we embrace that. We hear your stories day in and day out, and each piece of feedback and each story we hear reminds us how lucky we are to do what we do, and adds to the larger story of what we want our impact to be. Our stories affect each other and we wouldn’t have it any other way. To us, that is the real future of our company: the story of our clients.