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I have student loans from graduate school with an interest rate of 6.625%. I see that interest rates are quite low. (Mortgage rates are at 4.6% for a 30 yr fixed.) So I am wondering: Is it possible to refinance these student loans to achieve a lower interest rate?

I spoke with my loan servicing company and they don't seem to have any means to do this. I could consolidate the loans, but I already did that. And they just take the weighted average of the rates of the loans you are consolidating and that becomes your new interest rate. I don't own a home, so I can't get a home equity loan.

Could I get some sort of personal loan with a lower interest rate? What are my options?

I know that student loan interest is deductible. I am assuming that if I refinance through some sort of personal loan I will lose that tax deduction. But that tax deduction basically only serves to reduce the amount of interest by 15%. That's still an interest rate of over 5.63%. If I were able to approach mortgage rates I would still come out ahead.

Note: I realize that quoting specific interest rates runs the risk of implying that the question is time specific. But the concept of the question remains: Is it possible to refinance student debt?

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    You mention: 'I know that student loan interest is deductible' - that's not always strictly true, see the question here: money.stackexchange.com/questions/6614/…
    – CrimsonX
    Commented May 11, 2011 at 18:03
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    Good point. I tend to forget about exceptions that don't apply to me, so I'm glad you brought it up. Fortunately I make less than the income restriction amount, so I can deduct the interest. Cha-ching! I feel sorry for those poor saps making $150k+ that can't deduct their student loan interest.
    – Stainsor
    Commented May 11, 2011 at 18:49
  • ^ "I feel sorry for those poor saps making $150k+ that can't deduct their student loan interest." Haha. No you don't.
    – user20687
    Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 13:50

2 Answers 2

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Mortgages are backed by a house, that's why the interest is lower than personal loans for example. Student loans are unsecured as well. 6.625% for unsecured loans is actually very low.

Since you already consolidated (which not only averages, but also fixes your rate) i don't think you can do much better than 6.625%. Also when i consolidated student loans the consolidation company had 0.5% discount for direct debit and another 0.25% if you pay on time for 2 years. Maybe your company has something like that.

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This article is from a couple of years ago, but it seems like basically the answer is no.

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