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| Refinancing Student Loans |  When graduates refinance student loans, it is so simple that many people tend to overlook some of the main factors that can influence greatly overall cost. By assuring that you've utilized every money-saving opportunity when it comes to college loan refinancing, you can realize huge savings over the course of the 10-20 years you spend repaying your loan. You might be surprised at how many ways there are to easily save money when you refinance student loans.
If you refinance student loans during the grace period your interest rate will be 60% less
The single most essential way to lower the total amount you repay is to refinance student loans during the post-graduation grace period. After graduation, each student has the right to a 6 month grace period before they must start repaying their loans.
During this grace period, the rates to refinance student loans are a full 60% lower than they are once the loan enters into repayment status. If you refinance student loans during the grace period, you will lock in these lower rates for the entire repayment period.
Lender incentives can save big bucks when it's time to refinance student loans
Not all companies that offer college loan refinance products are created equally, and they differ in the interest rate reduction incentives provided. Aside from selecting to refinance student loans during the grace period, lender incentives can be the most efficient way to shave a big chunk of money off of your monthly payment.
 Look for those that provide interest rate reductions versus dollar amount reductions then compare the percentage of the reduction. The most common types of incentives are reductions for on-time payments and auto debit. While many companies propose a 25% rate reduction for payments made by auto debit, ScholarPoint gives 5%. Many lenders also provide a 1% interest rate for making 36 months of consecutive on-time payments. ScholarPoint provides this 1% rate reduction a full year earlier.
Deferment and Forbearance starts over
Student loans allow a post-grad to put loans on hold for a certain amount of time over the course of the student loan repayment period. The borrower does not need to repay the loan during this hold, called a deferment or forbearance, although interest does accumulates and is added to the balance of the loan.
When you refinance student loans the deferment and forbearance benefits aren't lost - in fact, the "clock" starts over again so that these hold periods are refreshed and can be used again in full.
You could pay more by incorporating fixed rate loans into your consolidation
The reason it's smart to begin with student loan refinancing now is that most student loans are written with a variable interest rate. This means that each year when the federal government decides on a new interest rate, the payment on your old student loan will alter if you haven't refinanced.
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