Student Loan Refinance Lender Marketplaces: 2024 Comparison

Our investigation of student loan refinance lenders repeatedly returned advertisements for marketplace lenders. Since they first appeared in the first decade of the 21^st century, marketplace lenders have become more prevalent in the education finance industry.

When to Use a Multilender Marketplace

The best reason to use a multilender marketplace to apply for student loan refinancing is to save time. If you plan to shop around (and you should when it comes to major financial decisions), using a single application to apply with multiple lenders can potentially save hours of research, navigation, and reentering the same information over and over.

Marketplace lenders or multi-lender marketplaces allow borrowers to compare annual percentage rates and choose their best financial servicer. Some student refinance lender marketplaces, such as Credible, do not directly provide any financial services but instead match borrowers with lenders.

Marketplace Refinance Lenders

The standard multi-lender marketplace business model is to generate revenue through referrals, when student borrowers use their application to apply with direct lenders and lender partners. Banks, credit unions, and other partners pay marketplaces to bring them customers (i.e. borrowers). Lender marketplaces partner with direct lenders, marketplace lenders, and other multi-lender marketplaces.

These marketplaces are typically classified as media or technology companies rather than financial institutions. Financial technology or “Fintech” is an umbrella term commonly used in popular media that includes multi-lender marketplace platforms. Most marketplaces do not refinance or lend money themselves.

Every refinance lender marketplace web site includes a number of requisite legal disclosures; these documents are not always easy to find and often contain information borrowers may consider critical.

Assume these organizations will use any contact information you supply them to contact you via text, email, paper mail, robo-calls, etc.

Credible

Credible Operations, Inc. or Credible Labs, Inc. may be the best-known student refinance lender marketplace. Credible earns its income through referrals when student borrowers use its free application to apply to several lenders at once, allowing borrowers to compare lenders and start the process of refinancing.

Credible operates under 21st Century Fox, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. For more information on Credible, read our full review.

CU Student Choice

Credit Union (CU) Student Choice connects student borrowers to credit unions. While CU Student Choice is not a direct lender, it originates and processes student refinance loans on behalf of more than 230 partnering credit unions. Borrowers who want to transfer debt to a local credit union may use CU Student Choice to find the best refinancing option nearby. Applicants need not be credit union members but will be required to join their selected credit union in order to complete the refinancing process.

CU Student Choice only partners with credit unions; its online application will not return offers from banks or other types of financial institutions. While these credit unions finance and own the loan debt, University Accounting Services provides servicing to student refinance loans originated through CU Student Choice. For more information on CU Student Choice, read our full review.

INvestEd

While lender marketplaces are typically founded as private companies, INvestEd is a state-affiliated, nonprofit organization. INvestEd is the commercial name for Indiana Secondary Market for Education Loans, Inc.

While its student refinance lender marketplaces is powered by Credible, INvestEd facilitates its own loans. All INvestEd refinance loans are serviced by American Education Services (AES) and backed by First Merchant Bank. For more information on INvestEd, read our full review.

Lend-Grow

Founded in February of 2019, Lend-Grow, Inc. is a private, Virginia-based company that bills its marketplace as the best resource for borrowers to find small, local financial institutions.

It is difficult to verify these claims, however, as Lend-Grow does not provide much detail on its website regarding lender partners. For more information on Lend-Grow, read our full review.

LendKey

LendKey Technologies, Inc. matches borrowers with banks and credit unions from the local level to national financial institutions. LendKey offers student loans, refinancing, and home improvement loans.

For more information on LendKey, read our full review.

Purefy

Purefy is a student loan marketplace with federal and private student and parent loan refinancing tools. Purefy originates student refinance loans in its partnership with Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed); Purefy-originated refinance loans allow borrowers to combine debt with a spouse or assume the debt of a parent.

This lender is best for borrowers who plan to refinance their student loans with PenFed but would also like to compare other rates. While Purefy has an inherent bias for PenFed as their loan servicer, it promotes multiple recommended student refinance lenders. For more information on Purefy, read our full review.

Sparrow

With Sparrow, applicants can compare rates under different conditions. For example, they may compare offers with or without a co-signer, with an improved credit score, or with a higher income. More than one lender in Sparrow’s marketplace refinances loans for international students.

Founded in 2020, early customer feedback is mostly positive. Sparrow’s role in refinancing is limited to the application period; Sparrow does not finance or service loans. For more information on Sparrow, read our full review.

Splash Financial

Founded in 2015, Splash Financial, Inc. is an education loan refinancing platform specializing in educational financing for medical and health professionals. Splash is an affiliate of LendULink, LLC.

For more information on Splash Financial, read our full review.

SuperMoney

SuperMoney LLC launched its student loan refinance lender marketplace in November of 2018. Though relatively small, early reviews are mostly positive. The company web site, however, lacks transparency; this is alarming considering the emphasis on corporate transparency both on the company’s web site and in its marketing.

For more information on SuperMoney, read our full review.