Brazos Student Loan Refinance Review

Our Rating: A- ⓘ (Compare)

Brazos limits its refinancing services to residents of the State of Texas (including certain visa holders) and loans used to attend Texas schools. Borrowers may refinance a minimum of $10,000 with this nonprofit direct lender.

*$250,000 is the limit for bachelor’s degree holders; advanced degree holders may be eligible to refinance up to $400,000.
**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

Brazos Refinance Rates & Fees

The Brazos Higher Education Service Corporation, Inc. (Brazos) offers fixed and variable rates; note that the lowest rates include a 0.25% interest rate reduction for enrolling in automatic payments.

Additional information about Brazos refinance rates:

• Checking your rate with Brazos may affect your credit score. A rate calculator on Brazos’ website helps borrowers estimate their APR for a Brazos refinance loan. During the application process, Brazos will conduct a hard credit pull as opposed to a soft inquiry (learn the difference).
• Brazos does offer a discount for setting up auto-pay: 0.25% interest rate reduction.
• Variable rates are based on the 30-day SOFR (5.15% as of this writing).
• Variable rates are capped at 9.90%.

Brazos refinance rates recent history:

In two years (2022-2024) Brazos increased its lowest and highest available APRs by an average of 127%.

Throughout 2023, Brazos’ lowest fixed rate for new loans increased 16.4% (from 4.21% APR), and its highest fixed rate increased 18.7% (from 6.10% APR); the lowest and highest available variable rates increased 30.6% and 15.4%, respectively.

In 2022, Brazos’ lowest and highest fixed rates increased 95.8% and 52.5%, respectively; its lowest and highest variable rates increased 118.2% and 103.3%.

Additional Fees

Beyond interest rates, there are a number of fees a refinance lender may charge up-front or during the loan servicing period. Below is a list of these fees that Brazos does or does not charge.

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

Brazos offers a 0.25% interest rate reduction when you enroll in autopay. Brazos also has a referral program that assigns you a unique link to give to out to potential borrowers. Any referrals that result in a new loan origination earn the referrer $200. Some restrictions apply.

Brazos Refinance Eligibility Requirements

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

• Citizenship Requirement: U.S. citizenship or permanent residence; work or student visas are accepted with a qualified co-signer.
• Income Requirement: minimum $60,000 (or $30,000 with a qualified co-signer).
• Credit Score Requirement: minimum of 720 (or 690 with a co-signer).
• Graduation Requirement: bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Location Requirement: for Texas residents and alumni only; unavailable to residents of Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, and South Dakota.

Additional restrictions apply for specific individuals and loans.

• Borrowers who have received bachelor’s degrees may be eligible to refinance up to $250,000.
• Graduate and postgraduate degree holders may be eligible to refinance up to $400,000.
• If applicants are not currently employed, they must have “accepted a firm offer of employment with a start date within sixty (60) days”.
• Loans must have been used to attend one of 2,000 approved scholastic institutions.

Brazos Student Loan Repayment Options

Lenders vary significantly 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. Brazos offers some relief options.

Deferment & Forbearance

Under certain conditions, Brazos accepts applications for refinance loan forbearance. In addition, Brazos’ servicer, Firstmark Services, may also allow Brazos borrowers to apply for temporary deferment of payment. See Brazos’ conditions for deferment and forbearance below.

Additional Options

Brazos may offer other opportunities for relief or contract modification.

• General economic hardship forbearance is available in 3-month terms up to 12 months total over the life of the loan.
• Co-signer release is not possible with Brazos.
• Death discharge may be available in the unfortunate circumstance that a borrower passes away under the condition that there is no co-signer.

Brazos Reviews, Complaints & Lawsuits

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

Brazos Online Reviews

Very few Brazos customer reviews are available on public forums. Those available are included here for their value as unedited, uncensored, and unsolicited user experiences. Note that these reviews are unverified, may include inaccuracies, and may provide outdated information (about rates, bonus offers, etc.).

“On March 24, 2020 I received a letter from Alltran Education Services, who stated that Brazos Higher Education Services, noted that I had bill due of $12885.31. I called and spoke with a representative at Alltran Education and reported that this was not my bill, and wanted to know how my personal information was obtained. While talking to this representative, she stated that a dispute would be put on this account. This is not my bill, not familiar with Brazos Higher Education or the collection company Alltran Education. Prior to March 24, 2020, never heard from either of these companies. I am concerned about how my personal information was obtained by both companies.” – User to the Better Business Bureau, 04/26/2020

“… My real problem is with Brazos loan servicing. My undergrad loan was transferred from ACS to Brazos and brazos just seems so unprofessional. The website looks like it was made yesterday and the info is not very clear. I actually miss ACS. I can’t wait to be debt free and not deal with third party companies.” – Dear Debt on The College Investor, 8/21/2013

Brazos 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 its mission, the CFPB allows consumers to log official complaints. These complaints are publicly available on the CFPB official website. Since January 25, 2012, consumers have submitted 19 complaints about both Brazos Higher Education Authority, Inc. and Brazos Loan Servicing to the CFPB; this is equivalent to one (1) complaint every 33 weeks and four (4) days. Complaints about Brazos accumulate at a rate that is 73.8% slower than the average daily complaint rate among reviewed lenders. Among these complaints, zero (0) reference refinancing; most have to do with declarations of bankruptcy and flexibility of payment options. All consumer complaints about Brazos predate 2019.

The allegations made in these complaints are unverified, are not necessarily representative of all consumers’ experiences with Brazos, 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. Below we’ve included three (3) of the most recent complaints (as of this writing) in which the consumer consented to share their details.

Complaint 2707478
10/21/2017
Tennessee

“Brazos Loan Servicing is reporting multiple accounts as XXXX days past due, all having a XXXX balance, and all in excess of XXXX years old. At no time, have I ever had any written correspondence from Brazos Loan Servicing indicating I had past due loans. I did not even know I had loans with Brazos Loan Serving.”

Complaint 1530808
8/21/2015
New York

“I build up a staggering debt both on private and federal loans pursing a XXXX at an XXXX University school XXXX. Unfortunately many things happened in my life and I could not pursue XXXX resulting in the default of the loans with XXXX and XXXXl loan companies. I can not afford to pay on any of the loans with my part time XXXX as an XXXX. The loans are in default and they are suing me in both civil and supreme court in XXXX New York.”

Complaint 1502174
8/4/2015
Massachusetts

“I had a loan through Brazos Higher Education that went into deferment and was being sent to my old address. I was then contacted by XXXX XXXX in XXXX, MA XXXX and reached out to them to make payments and the gentlemen XXXX XXXX at first did not agree to how much I could afford to pay him, so I then contacted to Brazos who agreed to the {$300.00} a month. I ended up out of work for a month due to surgery and received a letter that XXXX XXXX XXXX has put a lien on my mother ‘s house and trying to garnish our wages. I reached to the law firm asking him I could lower payments because I ca n’t afford the {$300.00} a month at this time and he said no so I contacted XXXX when then I started receiving emails for the Law Firm saying he will only deal with me through court and is not coming to an agreement with me and when I have reached out to him again he wants nothing to with me, will not give me account number or tell me the 3rd party involved. XXXX also says there is nothing they can help with me since they turned it over to the law firm and I all have them emails to show that this has happened and the woman from XXXX ‘s her name is XXXX she is the only one in the office with that name, said she was reaching out to a woman named XXXX who was reaching out to the Law Firm. This is not right as I have a another loan with XXXX paying {$50.00} per month and have never had an issue with them. I believe I am being mistreated severely. I am dealing with a hostile law firm who wo n’t agree to let me pay what I can afford.“

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

Brazos Lawsuits

Brazos has been subject to few legal issues though it has been named in a suit that is currently under appeal.

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 Brazos Group. Dr. Oberg alleges these entities defrauded the ED and submitted falsified claims for special allowances made to student borrowers.^[1] While the initial complaint was resolved in favor of the defendants in December 2017, Dr. Oberg has subsequently filed an appeal, which was ongoing as of July 2019.^[2]

Frequently Asked Questions

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

• Is Brazos good for refinancing student loans?
  Brazos may be a good refinance lender for Texas residents, students, and visa holders with more than $10,000 of outstanding student loan debt and a secure, steady income.

• Does Brazos require a minimum credit score?
  Yes, borrowers must have a minimum credit score of 720 without a co-signer. With a qualified co-signer, the minimum allowable credit score is 690.

• Are Brazos loans federal?
  Brazos loans are not federal. Brazos has no affiliation with the federal government or the U.S. Department of education.

• Does Brazos charge a prepayment penalty?
  Brazos 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 Brazos hurt your credit score?
  For their prequalification process, Brazos performs a soft credit check, which will not hurt your credit score. If you proceed with an application, however, Brazos will perform a hard credit check which may affect your credit score.

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

• Can I refinance a Brazos student loan?
  You can refinance a Brazos student loan or a student loan from another private lender. There is no limit to the number of times a borrower may refinance with Brazos. 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 Brazos?
  Yes, you can refinance some, all, or just one of your qualifying student loans with Brazos. 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 Brazos. 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 Brazos?
  Under certain circumstances, Brazos may allow spouses to consolidate their student loans into a single refinance loan.

• How long does it take to refinance with Brazos?
  While Brazos does not disclose a detailed timeline, borrowers can expect to begin repaying their refinance loan approximately 45 days following disbursement.

• Who services Brazos refinance loans?
  Brazos refinance loans are serviced by Firstmark Services, a division of Nelnet.

• Who finances Brazos refinance loans?
  Brazos Education Lending Corporation originates and finances all Brazos refinance loans.

• Does Brazos offer a grace period?
  There is no grace period for Brazos refinance loans.

• How often do variable rates change?
  Brazos updates variable rates on the first of the month according to the 30-day SOFR.

• Does Brazos have a referral program?
  Refinance loan borrowers are eligible for a $200 reward for each referral that results in a new loan origination.

• What happens if I file bankruptcy?
  Brazos does not accelerate the debt, place debt in default, or deem the debt immediately due when a borrower files bankruptcy.

• Is Brazos part of any major refinance lender marketplaces?
  Yes, Brazos partners with Credible as part of its multilender lender marketplace. Sparrow also lists Brazos as a featured lender.

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. CaseText, United States ex rel. Oberg v. Nelnet, Inc.
3. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
4. StudentLoans.com by Brazos Higher Education
5. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Brazos Higher Education Authority, Inc.