Advantage Student Loan Refinance Review

Our Rating: B+ ⓘ (Compare)

Advantage is a nonprofit direct lender that offers loan rehabilitation services. Advantage refinance loans are serviced by the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation (KHESLC), which is a subsidiary of Advantage’s parent company, the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA).

*Lowest rates always include the 0.25% interest reduction for enrolling in auto-pay.

Skip to: Rates & Fees | Eligibility Requirements | Repayment Options | Consumer Reviews & Complaints | FAQ

‡Parents may refinance in their own names or tranfer debt to their child.

Advantage Refinance Rates & Fees

Advantage Education Loans offers fixed rates are between 5.70% and 9.99%. Note that the lowest rates include a 0.25% interest rate reduction for enrollment in automatic payments.

Additional information about Advantage refinance rates:

• Checking your rate with Advantage may affect your credit score. While the application process includes a soft credit check, Advantage will order a hard credit pull to determine your final approved rate (learn the difference).
• Advantage does offer a discount for setting up auto-pay: 0.25% interest rate reduction.
• In lieu of a variable rate, Advantage offers a Graduated Repayment Plan. Initial reduced payments increase 10% every two (2) years for the remainder of the loan term.

Advantage refinance rates recent history:

From December 2021 to December 2023, Advantage increased its lowest and highest available refinance loan APRs by an average of 40.4%.

In 2023, Advantage’s lowest fixed rate available for new loans increased 61.0% (from 3.54% APR) while its highest fixed rate increased 30.0% (from 7.07% APR).

In 2022, the lowest and highest fixed rates declined 5.3% and 9.1%, respectively.

Additional Fees

Beyond interest rates, there are a number of fees a refinance lender may charge up-front or during the loan servicing period. Advantage is one of very few lenders that does not appear to charge fees of any kind.

1. Application fee – fee to apply for rates & approval.
2. Loan origination fee – fee to create the new loan.
3. Disbursement fee – fee for distributing funds to lenders to pay off loans that have been refinanced.
4. Prepayment penalty – fee for making extra payments to reduce a refinance loan balance or pay it off early.
5. Late payment fee – fee for making a late payment.
6. Returned payment fee – fee for failed payments due to insufficient funds, also known as a “bounced check”.
7. Collection fee – fee for collection activity on a defaulted debt.

Current Promotions & Offers

Advantage does not offer any special promotions or referral programs. This is typical of nonprofit lenders.

Advantage Refinance Eligibility Requirements

To qualify for refinancing with Advantage, all borrowers must meet the criteria below.

• Citizenship Requirement: U.S. citizenship or permanent residence.
• Income Requirement: undisclosed; required documents for the application include proof of employment and income “if applicable”.
• Credit Score Requirement: none specified.
• Graduation Requirement: none specified.
• Location Requirement: undisclosed.

Additional restrictions apply for specific individuals and loans.

• Borrowers must have no evidence of past fraud.
• Parent borrowers must be the parent or stepparent of the benefiting student.
• All education loans must be in good standing.
• Loans must have entered grace or repayment period.
• Borrowers must have no previous loans that were discharged due to disability.

Advantage Student Loan Repayment Options

Lenders vary greatly on the benefits and options provided to borrowers during the loan servicing period. Additionally, benefits may only be available on a case-by-case basis. Advantage offers some relief options.

Deferment & Forbearance

Advantage offers discretionary forbearance for financial hardship; it is unclear if this deferment may be applied in cases of military duty, disability, natural disaster, or a return to school. See Advantage’s conditions for deferment and forbearance below.

Additional Options

Advantage may offer other opportunities for relief or contract modification.

• Co-signer release may be available after 12 consecutive qualifying payments.
• Death / disability discharge is available in the unfortunate circumstance that a borrower passes away or suffers total permanent disability.
• Borrowers may add loans to their Advantage refinance loan up to 120 days after the original application.

Advantage Reviews, Complaints & Lawsuits

Beyond our own findings, our team also collected the most genuinely insightful customer experiences we could find, including any instances of legal action against the company in which the details became public.

Advantage Online Reviews

Few Advantage customer reviews are readily available on public forums. We included the material we found here for its value as genuine, uncensored and unsolicited user experiences. Note that these reviews are unverified, may include inaccuracies, and may provide outdated information (about rates, bonus offers, etc.). Some comments include notes from the editor for clarity’s sake.

“Hello! So, I tried a lot of the big, advertised ones [Ed. refinance lenders] (like Sofi, and the options Sofi gives you when you aren’t approved, etc.) – my dad has good credit and makes over six figures, so I assumed it would be super easy. I had/have medical debt in collections that made it much more difficult – we got rejected from a lot right off the bat, because of me, and there were a lot of tears! I ended up going with Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation [Advantage Education Loans]. We got approved for like a 5-something interest rate I think (and the[y] took all $78K of my SallieMae loans) and I get an additional .05% off the interest rate for having the payment set up on auto-pay. Their interface is definitely old-looking, but the folks I spoke with on the phone were very nice and it was a relatively easy process. I had to do a LOT of digging because of those initial rejections. I’m hopeful it’s a company I’m fine to rock with until the bull is paid off.

(I only refinanced private loans, because I, in theory, qualify for PSLF. SallieMae payments were reaching $1200 – payment went to $619 with the refi.)

Tl;dr Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation [Advantage Education Loans] lol. Hope this helps!” – roxy_my_socks on reddit, 1/31/2024

“DO NOT RECOMMEND. If it wasn’t for me calling I wouldn’t have heard anything back, over a months time of calling them at least weekly, everyone I talked to HAD NO knowledge of my loan application. And there was always a new issue that I wasn’t informed about or had already previously fixed…… and it had been confirmed that the issues was fixed by an employer. This company is a waste of time and I do not recommend. It took me way over a month to receive the information that I needed and that was with my loan being “rushed” due to the issues they had made.” – Elizabeth Weaver on Facebook, 9/20/2021

“Hey everyone, I owe about $80k in several private student loans and was able to refinance an average of 7% interest to 5.12% with a co-signer through Advantage Education Loans. I’m kinda weirded out because there aren’t too many reviews about this lender but I found it through credible.

My grace period is ending, I have a $900 payment due with my previous lender in 5 days but the new lender won’t be disbursing funds until 12/14. What happens if I make the payment? Would I get the $900 back either from the first or current lender? Should I call to see if I can postpone my payment and how difficult would it be to delay it for a few days?” – disnalio on reddit, 12/1/2018

Advantage Consumer Complaints

As consumer finance companies, student loan refinancing lenders fall under the jurisdiction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency. As part of their mission, the CFPB allows consumers to log official complaints. These complaints are publicly available on the CFPB official website.

Since November 15, 2013, consumers have filed 147 complaints about Advantage Education Loans’ parent company Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA) to the CFPB; that’s equivalent to one (1) complaint every 26 days, which is 137% higher than the average daily complaint rate among reviewed lenders.

In 2024, the rate of KHEAA complaints is down 14.9% compared to an average year. In 2023, KHEAA received 15 complaints, which is equivalent to:

• 6.35% more complaints than in an average year.
• one (1) complaint for every $3.99 million of operating revenue.
• one (1) complaint for every 15 employees.

Overall, 58 complaints (39.5%) include narratives. Among these 58 complaints, two (2) or 3.45% specifically address refinancing. Those complaints are listed below along with the most recent KHEAA complaint (as of this writing) in which the consumer consented to sharing their details.

The allegations made in these complaints are unverified, are not necessarily representative of all consumers’ experiences with Advantage, and may contain outdated information (about rates, bonus offers, etc.). Note that a lender with a large customer base is likely to also have a higher number of complaints when compared with smaller lenders.

Complaint 4155761
2/21/2021
Connecticut

“My name is XXXX XXXX. This loan is in my name and my daughter XXXX. For starters this loan was to refinance a previous student student loan that was through XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX had while attending college. We started this new loan process in the fall of XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX we were approved for XXXX. That check was mailed out to the previous lender on XX/XX/XXXX. This new lender was KHEAA/KHESLC. The loan agreement, percentage rate was fixed at 4.34 %. We were told that if we did auto transfer the rate would be 3.70 %. Recently I was going through paperwork that we receive from KHESLC and while carefully reading the fine print noticed the loan was now 5.03 %. I contacted KHEAA and spoke with a representative that helped us back in XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and ask him what had happened. He said he remembered me because there had been a mix up in the amount that we were to borrow and agreed with what I was saying about the loan agreement. He then said he would investigate this and get back to me. On Friday XX/XX/XXXX he contacted me and told me that, according to upper management, the interest percentage rate had changed to 5.30 % and that they sent us paperwork that confirmed that and that XXXX and I signed off on it .I was never made aware of any interest change. I have every piece of paperwork from them regarding this loan and told him I had no such paperwork. He said he would email me the material, which he did. After close review on my part these signatures, which are just initials, are not mine. XXXX ‘s signature does not even appear on this paperwork and although it does not say on this paperwork, signatures invalid, for some reason on my computer it is printed signatures invalid. I would have never agreed to 5.30 %. I expressed my frustration with XXXX and he understood where I was coming from but said there was nothing he could do. There is definitely something going on here.”

Complaint 3242483
5/14/2019
Kentucky

“I have a consolidated student load balance that was refinanced in early XXXX with Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation. I had made monthly automatic fixed amount EFT payments over the first year of the loan. In XX/XX/XXXX and again in XX/XX/XXXX I made extra one time payments through the KHESLC online payment system with the intent of accelerating the payback of the loan balance. In XX/XX/XXXX, I received an alert from my credit monitoring service that my student loan balance had increased. I logged into the KHESLC web portal to determine what caused my balance to increase, and was surprised to learn that now EFT payment had been made in XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, or XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted KHESLC on XX/XX/XXXX. I was informed by XXXX that when you make a one time payment online, EFT is temporarily suspended and your due date is pushed out equivalent to the number of monthly payments the one time payment would have covered automatically. The only way to prevent that and continue with the scheduled EFT payments and make a one time payment is to either email or call into a servicing specialist first. I was informed I accepted this practice by signing up for EFT payments 14 months ago, and was also denied my request to have the payment I made back in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX retroactively applied to the monthly statement balances and accrued interest credited. I also requested and was denied an escalation to a manager or supervisor to review. At no time during the online payment process was I made aware the one time payment would pause my monthly scheduled EFT payments, or given the option to choose whether or not I wished to pause or continue those payments. If desired, it would have been very easy for KHESLC to make me aware with a pop up or acknowledgement at the time of payment so I could take appropriate action to ensure my regularly scheduled EFT payments continued. I believe this to be a predatory lending tactic whereby KHESLC is able to increase accrued interest on the loan without the knowledge or intent of the borrower, in an effort to increase their profit. As a result I lost over {$300.00} of what should have been a payment on loan principle to interest. If not outright illegal, this practice is clearly unethical.”

Complaint 7035370
5/26/2023
North Carolina

“kheaa continues to post fraudulent activity on my account… i have no account with them and want it removed asap.. no investigation was done and i got no notifications”

For a full list of complaints made against KHEAA in the CFPB’s Consumer Complaint Database, click here.

Advantage Lawsuits

Advantage Education Loans has been subject to few legal issues. Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation (KHESLC) was recently named in a suit that was resolved in the company’s favor (a judgement that was affirmed after one appeal). Note that while this information is updated regularly, ongoing legal action is subject to change.

U.S. Ex Rel. Jon H. Oberg v. Nelnet, Inc. et al, Case No. 1:07-cv-00960-CMH-JFA

In 2007, former Department of Education (ED) employee Dr. Jon H. Oberg filed a Complaint for Violations of False Act against several public and private student loan financing entities, including KHESLC (U.S. Ex Rel. Jon H. Oberg v. Nelnet, Inc. et al, Case No. 1:07-cv-00960-CMH-JFA).

Dr. Oberg alleged these entities defrauded the ED and submitted falsified claims for special allowances made to student borrowers.^[1]

The initial complaint was resolved in favor of the defendants in December 2017. Dr. Oberg subsequently filed an appeal, the result of which affirmed the 2017 judgement.^[2]

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the most common questions consumers have about student loan refinancing with Advantage.

• Is Advantage good for refinancing student loans?
  Advantage may be a good option for borrowers who want to refinance with a Graduated Repayment Plan (GRP). Such plans are rarely available with refinance lenders.

• Does Advantage have a minimum credit score requirement?
  Advantage does not disclose a minimum allowable credit score.

• How does Advantage’s Graduated Repayment Plan work?
  Instead of a variable rate, Advantage offers a graduated repayment option. Monthly payments start at a decreased level and increase by 10% every 2 years, growing as the borrower’s career income grows.

• Are Advantage loans federal?
  No, Advantage refinance loans are private loans, not federal loans.

• Is Advantage part of a state government?
  Advantage Education Loans is a brand owned by the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation, a state-based, non-profit lender. Advantage Refinance Loans are owned, managed, and serviced by KHESLC.

• Do I have to live in Kentucky to refinance with Advantage?
  No, borrowers do not have to live in Kentucky to refinance their student loans with Advantage though there may be special offers available to Kentucky residents and borrowers with loans used to attend one or more Kentucky institutions. Refinancing may be unavailable in the following states: Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington.

• Does Advantage charge a prepayment penalty?
  No, Advantage does not charge a fee for early payments or for paying off a loan in full before its term ends.

• Does checking your rates with Advantage hurt your credit score?
  Checking your rates with Advantage may affect your credit score.

• Is Advantage a bank?
  Advantage is not a bank and is not affiliated with any bank.

• Can I refinance an Advantage loan?
  You can refinance an Advantage student loan or a student loan from another private lender. There is no limit to the number of times a borrower may refinance with Advantage. Note, however, that every new line of credit requires a hard credit check that may affect your FICO score.

• Can I refinance just some of my loans with Advantage?
  Yes, you can refinance some, all, or just one of your qualifying student loans with Advantage. You may choose to refinance your private loans only or refinance private and federal loans together.

• Can I refinance loans that have already been refinanced?
  Yes, you can refinance loans as many times as you want with Advantage. Note that each time you refinance, you will have to submit a new application; every application requires a hard credit check that may affect your credit score.

• Can my spouse and I refinance our loans together with Advantage?
  No, Advantage does not allow spouses to combine debts.

• How long does it take to refinance with Advantage?
  The entire process of refinancing with Advantage may take between 8 and 18 weeks. This includes a 30-day offering period, disbursement, and the onset of repayment. Approved loans take 2-3 business days to process.

• Who services Advantage refinance loans?
  Advantage Refinance Loans are all serviced by The Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation. KHESLC also owns and manages all Advantage Refinance Loans.

• Does Advantage offer a grace period?
  Advantage does not offer a grace period. Monthly payments begin within 60 days after the Advantage Refinance Loan funds have been disbursed.

• Can I get any special rates or discounts with Advantage?
  Advantage offers a 0.25% rate reduction for signing up for autopay.

• What happens if I file for bankruptcy?
  According to Advantage “[i]f you file for bankruptcy, you may still be required to pay back this loan.”

• Does Advantage partner with any marketplace lenders?
  Advantage does not appear to part of any multilender marketplace.

Compare Student Loan Refinance Reviews

Sources

1. Buckley Firm, Case 1:07-cv-00960-CMH-JFA UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, EX REL. JON H. OBERG V. NELNET, INC. et.al. COMPLAINT FOR VIOLATIONS OF FALSE CLAIMS ACT 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729 ET SEQ.)
2. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 18-1028 U.S. Ex Rel. Jon H. Oberg v. Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency
3. Advantage Education Loan, Advantage Refinance Loans
4. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
5. Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority
6. ZoomInfo, Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority