Before I get into my experiences, here’s my situation. I graduated in May 2014 with a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from a large state university. When I got out I had $35k across 7 Stafford loans with interest between 3.15% and 6.55%. I also had a PLUS loan around $18k at 7.65%, a Discover loan of $23k at 8% and a Citizens Bank loan at $22k at 10.25%. Ouch. I managed to get a job in September making about $65k a year and my deferment ended in November 2914.

In June 2015 I tried refinancing with DRB first as they have the straight up lowest rates. They approved me and asked for a bunch of documents and kept changing what they wanted over the next month and every time I uploaded something it took at least a week before I got a response. After a month they ended up denying me even though my documents supported my application so I called to ask why I was denied. The first time I called I got someone (Dave I think?) who’s sounded like he absolutely did not want to be talking with me even though I was calm and patient. He was no help so I hung up and called back. This time I got a woman who at least was much more pleasant to talk to.

To sum up what she told me, DRB basically makes up your financial information when you apply which led to me getting denied. I live with family and therefore pay no rent, but they added a $1000 mortgage payment anyway when they did my debt to income calculation because “that’s their policy” and they refused to remove it. Also when doing my DTI calculation, they said if I was approved for their loan I’d be paying $1500/month which was above their threshold. When I asked how in the world they got that number when all calculations I did were showing ~500/mo on their 20 year plan, they said “well we might not approve you for that so we’re putting you down for the 5 year plan.” I’ve never heard of only being approved for certain terms. Every loan I’ve ever applied for gave me all the available terms. F- for DRB, avoid like the plague.

Next I applied for Citizens Bank around late June/early July, but this time only asking to refinance my Discover and Citizens Bank loan because their rates weren’t as good so I’d end up paying more on my Stafford loans and also they also don’t refinance PLUS loans. The morning after I applied I was called and emailed by a woman (Brittany I think – I’m terrible with names) who guided me through the process and asked me to email all documents directly to her. She took care of everything immediately and within one week I was approved at 4.9% variable and had my old loans paid off. A++ for Citizens Bank.

I had some financials events come up so I waited until early September 2015 and applied at SoFi to refinance my PLUS loan. They approved me at 5% variable (just about the worst rate they offer but still better than 7.65, plus I was getting the loan out of my Dad’s name which I really wanted to do for him). Every time they asked for something it took about 6-7 business days for them to act on it but the few times I called/emailed them they were friendly and helpful. I’d give them an A-. If they could improve the speed of their application process I’d bump them up.