MEFA Student Loan Refinancing

The Massachusetts Educational Finance Authority, known as MEFA, was founded by the Massachusetts legislature over 30 years ago to provide a path to higher education in the State of Massachusetts. Although people without ties to Massachusetts cannot get student loans from MEFA, MEFA can be used for refinancing student loans by students from across the country. Although MEFA student loan refinancing comes with a few limitations, for many borrowers, it can be a great option.

With a MEFA Education Refinancing Loan, you can combine all your existing student debt into one, making it easy to manage.

Refinancing federal and private loans
Easier to manage and pay your monthly loan bills
No origination fee, application fee, or prepayment penalty

Let's have a detailed overview of the MEFA student loan refinancing article.

Table of contents

Refinancing details
Eligibility
Loans that can be refinanced
Limitations
Repayment options
Contact

Some details about MEFA student loans refinancing

Shop for the best private lenders who can refinance your student loans with better repayment terms and interest rates. Below is a list of information you must be aware of before refinancing with MEFA.

Minimum refinance amount: $10,000
Repayment Terms: 7, 10 and 15-year
Fixed interest rates starting at 3.95% APR and variable interest rates starting at 3.96% APR
Convenient online account access and loan payments
Eligible credit scores for refinancing with MEFA is 670

Note: The monthly payment and interest rate on a MEFA variable rate Education refinancing loan may increase or decrease according to the index, the 1-Month London interbank offered rate (LIBOR), or its replacement index or reference rate, fluctuates.

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Eligibility

Once you are aware of the services MEFA can provide and would like to refinance with them, below are a list of eligibility criteria to satisfy to refinance your student loans.

Citizen or permanent resident of the United States
Established credit history; a co-borrower can help strengthen the application
No history of default on an education loan and no delinquencies on education debt in the past 12 months
No history of bankruptcy or foreclosure in the past 60 months
Be the borrower on all loans being refinanced

Few other requirements include a minimum income of $24,000 annually, good news is that you can qualify if you have filed bankruptcy before (provided it was before 5 years)

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Student loans refinanced through MEFA

Student loans that can be refinanced:

Federal or Private Student Loans, including Federal direct undergraduate and graduate loans, PLUS loans, Graduate PLUS loans, and Stafford loans
Loans that are in repayment and current at the time of your refinance application
Loans that are not in a deferment, forbearance, or grace period
Loans that were used to fund the cost of attendance at an eligible, not-for-profit, degree-granting college or university (as defined by MEFA)
Loans that have been repaid on time in each of the previous 12 months

You must have a minimum of 10,000$ as student loan debt to refinance with MEFA. Other student loans received from private student loan lenders can also be refinanced.

Limitations of MEFA

One of the main limitations of MEFA refinancing is that they only have terms of 7,10 or 15 years. And although these terms may be good for some borrowers, for many others, it presents as an issue. For example, if you wanted a loan for 5 years with the lowest interest rate possible, then MEFA is not an option. Similarly, if you are trying to stretch out your repayment terms for a long time at a lower interest rate, like many refinancing companies do, up to 20 years, then MEFA is again not an option for you. Another one of the limitations with MEFA is the lack of co-signer release. This makes it a major commitment for your co-signer as it will show up on their credit report for up to the next 15 years.

How can MEFA student loan refinancing improve?

Here are a few areas that MEFA can improve :

MEFA can help to provide forbearance for people in an economic crisis
It would help provide a cosigner release program
It can provide a repayment term duration beyond 15 years
It can start their service to other parts of the country extending their services to others

Repayment options by MEFA

Below is a list of repayment options provided by MEFA.

Undergraduates are provided with immediate repayment, interest-only repayment, and deferred repayment, whereas graduate borrowers don't get to avail of the immediate repayment option.
When you refinance with MEFA you do not receive interest-only or deferred repayment.
For undergraduate loans, deferment is provided up to 60 months, and for graduate, loan deferment is provided for 36 months.
For undergraduate loans, cosigner release is offered on meeting certain eligibility, but forbearance and loan discharge is not offered even during death.

Contact details

They can be reached via phone by

Phone# (800) 449-6332
7:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m ET, Monday to Friday
Email ID- collegeplanning@mefa.org

MEFA offers a much smaller spectrum of loan refinancing options compared to big lenders like SoFi. That being said, if you are seeking student loan refinancing plans whose terms are for 15 years, then MEFA can be a great option for you and you should definitely check them out. If you do not fancy refinancing with MEFA, then you can also shop refinancing companies to help you with the process. Refinancing can be a powerful weapon in helping you get over your student loan debt. Do your due research and make decisions that are best for your particular financial situation.