Unlike some refinance loan providers, Citizens Bank does not require that any of their applicants complete their degree before they can qualify for a loan. This can be especially helpful to those who began degrees but are either no longer able or no longer desire to complete their program.
Citizens Bank offers a student loan refinancing program that could be a solution for medical school loans.
Based out of Rhode Island, it offers loan options to U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike in all 50 states, as well as those who have graduated or left their program before completing their degree.
Read on to learn more about refinancing your student loans with Citizens Bank.
Citizens Bank student loan refinance details
Citizens Bank features a couple of different refinancing options that can be held in either the parents’ or the student’s name. It offers both fixed and variable APRs without a disclosed credit score.
The loan terms at Citizens can come at 5, 7, 10, 15, or 20-year terms with loan loan amounts ranging from $10,000 up to:
- $300,000 for undergraduate (bachelors) borrowers
- $500,000 for graduate school borrowers
- $750,000 for professional school borrowers.
These loans are free of any application, origination, and prepayment penalty fees, but borrowers can be charged 5% in late fees. Late fees are applied when borrowers miss a payment’s due date by fifteen days or more.
Borrowers must have a minimum income of $24,000 per year, and they can withdraw loans regardless of their citizenship, location, or graduation status. However, borrowers are only eligible for refinancing if they attended a college, university, or other school that is authorized to receive federal aid.
Our trusted partner, Credible, allows you to compare prequalified rates from multiple lenders — including Citizens Bank.
Pros of refinancing your student loans with Citizens Bank
No hard credit checks
Citizens Bank saves potential borrowers a lot of hassle when they apply for a refinancing loan by not requiring any up-front hard credit checks. This means that borrowers are able to determine how qualified they are for a loan and what their potential rates will be without having to have their credit score run through FICO or another credit union. This can help protect the borrower’s credit score from unnecessary damage that may be done to it when traditional lenders check their scores.
Loyalty discounts
For any borrowers who have a Citizens Bank account, there is an additional 0.25% interest rate discount available if they apply and get accepted for a refinance loan. (Note: this is only for borrowers who have a Citizens Bank account before they apply for the loan. If you get the bank account after applying for the loan, the same rates will likely not apply.)
No graduation required
Unlike some refinance loan providers, Citizens Bank does not require that any of their applicants complete their degree before they can qualify for a loan. This can be especially helpful to those who began degrees but are either no longer able or no longer desire to complete their program. These individuals will still have whatever debt they earned from the beginning of their education, but they can have very limited repayment options as many lenders require that applicants have completed degrees before they can qualify.
No citizenship required
Unlike the majority of refinance loan providers, Citizens Bank also doesn’t require that a borrower be a resident before they can qualify for a loan. Any eligible nonresident who meets the established credit score and income requirements is able to receive the refinance loan provided they have a U.S. citizen or permanent resident co-sign the loan with them.
Available in all 50 states
With location accessibility spread across all fifty states, Citizens Bank has the ability to reach more student borrowers than many other refinance loan service providers can. This can be especially handy to any borrowers who move during their loan repayment period and to borrowers who don’t have many good in-state refinance options near themselves.
Cons of refinancing your student loans with Citizens Bank
Estate responsible for loans if borrower dies
Typically, if a loan holder passes away, their debt is waived. However, with Citizens Bank, the borrower’s estate is still responsible for loans that are refinanced by parents if the borrower dies. This can add a lot of stress to a family in an already emotionally-charged, tumultuous time of mourning in their lives.
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